Sewer of Progress: Industrial Pollution of the Santiago River in Jalisco, Mexico

• In Event: Water rights and water quality

Abstract

With a starting point in the case of the industrial pollution of the Santiago River, this paper examines power relations in the formulation and application of environmental standards and policies in Mexico, from a political ecology and environmental justice perspective. In the case of the Santiago River, as with many other water bodies in the country, severe pollution problems persist despite the demands of affected communities and the emergence of socio-environmental conflicts. In Mexico, environmental legislation and bureaucracy have been strengthened in the neoliberal era, however, the degradation of the countries’ waters, including the Santiago River, has continued. While companies in the industrial corridor along the Santiago adopt sustainability discourses and the Mexican government sets itself the goal of inclusive green growth, this paper explores how the mechanisms governing the formulation and application of environmental regulations ensure the predominance of private interests. The paper is focused on two main aspects. First, on the analysis of government regulation of industrial activity in the research area and, more broadly, the control of industrial effluents nationally. Second, on the environmental performance of a selection of transnational corporations from the chemical and food and beverages sectors with factories along the river. It is argued that the non-application of environmental regulations constitutes a form of institutionalized corruption, which is not due solely to a lack of resources but to prevailing power relations.

Author

• Cindy C McCulligh, CIESAS, Unidad Occidente