Resumen

PINEDA PABLOS, Nicolás. La política urbana de agua potable en México: del centralismo y los subsidios a la municipalización, la autosuficiencia y la privatización. Región y sociedad [online]. 2002, vol.14, n.24, pp.41-69. ISSN 2448-4849.

This article presents the institutional and legal evolution of urban water supply services in Mexico during the second half of the twentieth century. It sets out a brief scheme for public policy analysis and, in its main part, proposes three main stages urban water policy has been through. These stages are based on the institutional arrangement that has characterized water supply in each period. The first is a centralist stage of federal water boards that prevailed from 1948 to 1983, later comes the stage of municipalization started in 1983 when the service was assigned to local governments, and, in third place, the article reviews the promotion of autonomous and business-like operating units undertaken by the National Water Commission in 1989. In the last part, the article reviews the troubles posed by private sector participation in urban water services and the mishap it faced because of the economic 1995 crisis.

Palabras llave : water supply; public policy; local government; municipality; privatization.