U.S. Water News Online
MEXICO CITY -- The heavily populated state ringing Mexico City has asked for $2.5 billion in compensation for water delivered to the country's capital, sparking a confrontation involving government entities led by three rival political parties.
Mexico State Gov. Arturo Montiel said there is no political motive behind a complaint his state filed with the Supreme Court.
"It's not a question of politics," said the governor, a powerful member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, which controlled Mexico's presidency from 1929 until 2000. "It's simply a legitimate claim against a federal entity. We're not demanding anything that doesn't belong to us."
The state hopes to collect a water debt stretching back to 1970 from Mexico City, now governed by the leftist Democratic Revolution Party, or from the federal government, headed by President Vicente Fox of the right-center National Action Party, or from both entities.
The long-running confrontation over water from the Rio Lerma basin has reached the Supreme Court at the height of an intense rainy season in Mexico City, where flooding shut down highways and subway lines recently and closed the city's international airport.
Despite summer monsoons, Mexico City still has to pump much of its drinking water from outside the city.
Montiel said taking the case to the Supreme Court was the last resort after negotiations and other appeals failed.
Questioned about the startling amount of the claim, Montiel said, "Just imagine the amount of drinkable water that's going daily to the federal" government.
Montiel said Mexico state's population of more than 14 million people is running short on natural and financial resources.
Mexico state residents outnumber the roughly 8.5 million people who live within Mexico City's official city limits. But 20 million people call the capital's metro area home, a testament to the level of urban development spilling over into Mexico state.
"I'm simply asking the government of the republic to treat the state of Mexico more equitably," Montiel said.
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