water Article Water Governance Decentralisation and River Basin Management Reforms in Hierarchical Systems: Do They Work for Water Treatment Policy in Mexico’s Tlaxcala Atoyac Sub-Basin? Cesar Casiano Flores *, Vera Vikolainen † and Hans Bressers † Department of Governance and Technology for Sustainability (CSTM), University of Twente, Enschede 7500AE, The Netherlands;
[email protected] (V.V.);
[email protected] (H.B.) * Correspondence: c.a.casianofl
[email protected]; Tel.: +31-68-174-6250 † These authors contributed equally to this work. Academic Editors: Sharon B. Megdal, Susanna Eden and Eylon Shamir Received: 22 February 2016; Accepted: 11 May 2016; Published: 19 May 2016 Abstract: In the last decades, policy reforms, new instruments development, and economic resources investment have taken place in water sanitation in Mexico; however, the intended goals have not been accomplished. The percentage of treated wastewater as intended in the last two federal water plans has not been achieved. The creation of River Basin Commissions and the decentralisation process have also faced challenges. In the case of Tlaxcala, the River Basin Commission exists only on paper and the municipalities do not have the resources to fulfil the water treatment responsibilities transferred to them. This lack of results poses the question whether the context was sufficiently considered when the reforms were enacted. In this research, we will study the Tlaxcala Atoyac sub-basin, where water treatment policy reforms have taken place recently with a more context sensitive approach. We will apply the Governance Assessment Tool in order to find out whether the last reforms are indeed apt for the context.