River basin management: experience and challenges in Mexico and Russia

Abstract

The process of instrumentation of the concept of river basin management in Mexico was incorporated in the last decade of the past century within the frame of the Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM). Nevertheless, had mainly to that it is required to surpass different restrictions in the Mexican public policies, not yet it has been reached significant advances. At world-wide level there are successful experiences in the river basin management in France and certain failures in their implementation like one of this in Russia before year 2006. The study of these experiences allows the analysis and the reflection about the learned lessons as well as of the challenges in its instrumentation in order to consider them in the implementation and pursuit in the application of the IWRP by river basins this concept in other countries, particularly in Mexico. In this work, it is tried to make a comparative analysis of the lines of river basin management in Mexico and Russia, countries located in the different continents and environmental conditions, but with certain analogous in the geographic and social-political characteristics, that in recent dates have initiated a new stage in the formalization of the focused IWRM by river basins with a similar advance in the development of this process. Of this form, some answers to the following questions consider: Which are the limitations in the development of this process? That one would be doing to fortify and/or to improve so that the river basin management will really effective? In the other part, the changes made in both countries in the legal-institutional framework of the water during the last decade are described; the main restrictions in their instrumentation are analyzed; and finally some challenges in the river basin management are planned.