Cuernavaca, the Commercial City where Water Redefines the Urban Environment

Abstract

Cuernavaca stands as an emblematic case of a neoliberal city, where the proliferation of services and tertiarization have generated a socio-ecological crisis, evidenced by the water crisis. The exploitation and unequal distribution of water resources, backed by a federal and state legal framework that evolved from Cardenismo to the 1992 National Water Law, has stripped it of its sociocultural value and turned it into a commodity. This transformation results in a stratified supply: while one social sector monopolizes water to store it in swimming pools, the majority endures rationing and cutbacks. Political and administrative corruption and disputes among state-owned enterprises such as Comisión Federal de Electricidad exacerbate the scarcity, disproportionately affecting vulnerable sectors and sparking citizen protests. The text proposes the hydrosocial concept to analyze this dispute, focusing on the repercussions of economic restructuring and land-use changes in neighborhoods such as Flores Magón. This strategically located area has become a hub for capital extraction thru shopping malls and mixed-use developments, intensifying water stratification for its residents and highlighting the consequences of this neoliberal model applied to the city.