A water and sanitation operating agency (WASA) can be public or granted to a private one, whose main objective is the service provision for drinking water supply, sewerage, treatment and disposal of wastewater. According to the National Inventory of Municipal Potabilization and Wastewater Treatment Plants in Operation published in 2015 by CONAGUA, at the end of the same year, the country had a total of 874 water treatment plants and 2,477 facilities for sewage water treatment plants.
In terms of climate change and energy intensity within the urban water cycle in Mexico, it is estimated that 5% of total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions come from this sector, as well as 5% of total electricity consumption nationwide *.
In addition to the GHG mitigation potential that exists in the water and sanitation sector, it is essential to look at the high vulnerability to the impacts that climate change can cause to WASA, as is the case of atypical rains that increase the water flow for treatment, floods and droughts that compromise the supply of drinking water to populations. These are only some of the factors that should be considered when seeking and implementing measures to achieve a comprehensive water management.
The Water and Wastewater Companies for Climate Mitigation (WaCCliM) program together with its direct counterpart, the National Water Commission (CONAGUA), seek to implement transversal climate change mitigation and adaptation measures with the WASA. Some of the measures being implemented with the OAs are the development of climate risk analysis and GHG reduction measures. Similarly, WaCCliM seeks to promote the digitalization of water processes, obtaining real-time information that supports decision-making and risk minimization.
The main challenges this program is facing to achieve mainstreaming of climate change adaptation and mitigation measures are the financial situation of the WASA to reach the necessary investment in infrastructure, a dynamic political environment, short administration periods in relation to times of implementation of the proposed measures and the professionalization of the sector.
During the implementation of the program, it seeks to convert the aforementioned challenges into opportunities that help to meet the proposed objectives.
To closely monitor the progress of the program, please refer to the IKI Alliance MX website.
Sources:
* Internal calculations