Mexico declares drought in north a matter of 'national security'

Mexico has declared the water shortage in the northern state of Nuevo Leon a matter of "national security" as the region, home to Mexico's industrial capital has been crippled by a worsening drought in recent months.

In a declaration issued on Friday afternoon, the federal government said available water should be prioritised for public use and said existing federal water concessions to private companies could be modified or reduced.

"We're going to be able to guarantee water (in the state of Nuevo Leon) for eight to 10 more years," President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Friday during his regular news conference.

Residents of Monterrey, one of Mexico's wealthiest cities, have faced weeks of water rationing due to a dearth of rain and, according to environmentalists, poor resource management.

Monterrey, whose metropolitan area is home to around five million people, has a shortfall of 3,000 liters of water per second, Lopez Obrador said.

"Even once it has started to rain, it will take time" to solve the problem, he added.

About $770 million will be spent to build a 100-kilometre aqueduct that in 18 months will connect the El Cuchillo reservoir with Monterrey, providing 5,000 liters per second, Lopez Obrador said.

Outrage over limited access

Outrage has grown in recent months across Monterrey, as authorities sharply limited water access to residents, even as commercial bottlers and beer companies continued to extract what amounts to billions of gallons of water annually under federal concessions.

Heineken, which according to Mexico's national water authority CONAGUA holds permits in the area for 3.6 million cubic meters of water, said earlier this month it would hand over the equivalent of 20 percent of the potable water used in its processes to residents.

Photos of canned water donated by Heineken went viral on social media in recent days, sparking criticisms from those who continue to lack water at home.

In June, authorities began curtailing access to running water across the metropolitan area to only a few hours each morning.

The water rationing has sparked sporadic demonstrations, with some residents protesting that they have gone stretches of days, and sometimes even weeks, without receiving running water at all.

Bottler Arca Continental, one of the largest Coca-Cola bottlers in Latin America and which also operates in Nuevo Leon, referred a request for questions to the local business chamber Caintra, which declined to comment.