U.S. Water News Online
TIJUANA, Mexico -- Border towns between Mexico and the United States are undergoing unprecedented population growth, putting a strain on local water supply and wastewater treatment facilities.
The major reason for the migration of thousands of people from southern Mexico into these border communities is themaquiladoras -- foreign-owned manufacturing plants which flourish in the free-trade zone along the Mexican border. According to recent environmental assessments, Tijuana had a 61 percent increase in population between 1980 and 1990, and the number of maquiladoras here has increased 24 percent since 1995.
These rates of growth have placed unprecedented strain on border communities, which have not been able to keep pace with the accompanying demands these industries and employees put on infrastructure. The problem, say environmental observers, is most acute in water delivery and wastewater treatment systems.
A Samsung electronics plant in Tijuana, for instance, is estimated to use up to 1 million gallons of water a day for its manufacturing process -- nearly 5 percent of the city's total water consumption. Juan Alvarez, a researcher at the Universidad Autonoma de Baja California, reports that industrial water consumption in Tijuana has increased from an estimated 106,350 gallons per day in 1987 to 4.1 million gallons per day in 1994. He attributed this change to the tremendous increase of maquiladoras and associated employee households.
Alvarez calculates that, at 1994 projected growth rates, Tijuana may experience a water deficit by 1997. And the problem of water quality looms just as large. Fifteen percent of Tijuanas households are not connected to the city's water delivery system; many more are without sewerage hookups.
Wastewater disposal systems here are often designed to treat only residential wastes, so the added burden from the maquiladoras is becoming a health hazard -- especially since industries here are typically metal plating and electronic manufacturing operations which use toxics and heavy metals such as arsenic and lead.
In Tijuana, which lacks any industrial pretreatment program, factories discharge these wastes into the overburdened sewage systems where they mix with residential wastes. These aguas negras (black waters) are discharged directly onto a beach south of Tijuana after receiving low levels of treatment that do little to remove industrial toxics, according to health officials.
When these black waters overflow the collection system altogether, they wind up in the Tijuana River watershed and ultimately on California's beaches. Farmers are also siphoning off the wastewater from the open conveyance canal before it gets to the treatment plant for use on their crops.
Experts warn that the role maquiladoras play in environmental damage -- particularly in water-related problems -- is being overlooked. Instead, U.S. officials are focusing on symptoms, i. e., illegal immigrants and pollution at the border. Many contend the migration of Mexican citizens northward, as well as related environmental problems, will continue so long as maquiladora growth patterns go unchecked.
Environmentalists contend that steps can be taken to remedy the problem. These include enforcing existing Mexican environmental laws regarding discharge of industrial wastes, encouraging foreign owners of maquiladoras to invest in the infrastructure in southern Mexico, and developing funding programs to improve the infrastructure along the border.
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