Mexico Water Authority To Invest MXN15 Billion In Projects In 2009

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Mexico's National Water Commission has a 15 billion peso budget ($1.14 billion) next year for drinking water, drainage and sewage treatment projects as part of the government's plan to meet 2012 goals.

The budget's "crown jewel" is a sewage treatment plant for the Mexico City metropolitan area that could be the world's largest, said Jose Luis Luege, director of Conagua, as the commission is called.

The plant at Atotonilco will have the capacity to treat 23 cubic meters of water per second and will be tendered "very soon," Leuge said.

In addition to Atotonilco and another large sewage treatment plant in the western city of Guadalajara, Conagua plans next year to tender a number of drainage pumps and tunnels, as well as several major aqueducts to bring potable water to urban areas.

The 2009 federal budget for drinking water, drainage and sewage treatment is about the same as the MXN15.8 billion authorized for this year. The government is investing about twice as much this year and next, on average, as in previous years, Conagua said.

Luege said the water commission also plans to spend MXN8 billion for agricultural water projects such as dams and irrigation systems, and has budgeted another MXN2 billion for flood protection in at-risk areas such as the tropical southeast.

Heavy rains a year ago left the better part of the state of Tabasco under water, including about a million homes, and some blamed an unfinished levee project for much of the damage.

By 2012 the government hopes to be treating 60% of the sewage water it collects, up from 40.2% at the end of this year. It aims to provide drinking water to 95% of the population, up from 90.8% at present, and install sewer drainage systems in 88% of the country, up from 86% at the end of 2006.