Ana García de Fuentes

Barriers to achieving the water and sanitation-related Millennium Development Goals in Cancún, Mexico at the beginning of the twenty-first century

This paper discusses some of the barriers faced by the city of Cancun Mexico to making progress towards Millennium Development Goal targets on extending safe water and basic sanitation. It analyzes the socioeconomic political demographic environmental and land use dimensions that surround problems of access to safe drinking water and improved sanitation services in the city. These services are central to the health and well-being of Cancuns population urban environmental quality and the citys economy all of which are important components of sustainable development. These issues are considered within six zones in Cancun that relate to its different historical stages of development: areas that were urbanized (or fully served) before being settled (the hotel zone and mainland city centre); informal settlements that are fully or almost fully urbanized; and newer low-income squatter settlements on the urban periphery and in the periurban area. The paper shows the dramatic differences in the quality of provision for water and sanitation between different zones and how this depends on four factors: the present extent of infrastructure; the current social and economic development model; various institutional considerations; and the attitudes and behaviour of the social actors involved in the urbanization process. The paper concludes with some proposals on how to address deficiencies in water and sanitation services in Cancun. (authors)This paper discusses some of the barriers faced by the city of Cancún, Mexico, to making progress towards Millennium Development Goal targets on extending safe water and basic sanitation. It analyzes the socioeconomic, political, demographic, environmental and land use dimensions that surround problems of access to safe drinking water and improved sanitation services in the city. These services are central to the health and well-being of Cancúns population, urban environmental quality and the citys economy, all of which are important components of sustainable development. These issues are considered within six zones in Cancún that relate to its different historical stages of development: areas that were urbanized (or fully served) before being settled (the hotel zone and mainland city centre); informal settlements that are fully or almost fully urbanized; and newer low-income squatter settlements on the urban periphery and in the peri-urban area. The paper shows the dramatic differences in the quality of provision for water and sanitation between different zones and how this depends on four factors: the present extent of infrastructure; the current social and economic development model; various institutional considerations; and the attitudes and behaviour of the social actors involved in the urbanization process. The paper concludes with some proposals on how to address deficiencies in water and sanitation services in Cancún.

Efectos locales de políticas globales: Celestún y «su» reserva de la Biosfera (Yucatán, México)

This article analyses, trough a case study, the problematic relation between the global discourse of ecotourism as an alternative for socio-economic development, and the local practices attached to it. The article pays close attention to the undesirable effects of this relation.

Modernismo ambiental frente a tradición: problemas y perspectivas en el caso de la Península de Yucatán (México)

En el campo de las investigaciones sociales recientes se utilizan con frecuencia conceptos, como medio ambiente y desarrollo sostenible, que plantean una de las mas viejas preocupaciones de la Geografia: las relaciones humanas con el medio. La region de Yucatan es un marco de investigacion privilegiado para reflexionar sobre estos terminos, ya que la antinomia tradicion-modernizacion es el centro de un debate donde desarrollo y condiciones ambientales mantienen un secular equilibrio en condiciones muy precarias