| Montreal, 12/01/2004 – On 19 December 2003, pursuant to Article 14(2) of the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation (NAAEC), the Secretariat of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) requested a response from Mexico to submission SEM-03-003/Lago de Chapala II, submitted to the Secretariat by nine Mexican nongovernmental organizations on 23 May 2003. The Submitters assert that Mexico is failing to effectively enforce its environmental law with respect to the Lerma-Chapala-Santiago-Pacífico basin. According to the Submitters, this has resulted in serious environmental deterioration and uneven water distribution in the basin, as well as the risk that Lake Chapala and its migratory bird habitat will eventually disappear.
The Submitters allege that Mexico is failing to effectively enforce several provisions of the General Law of Ecological Balance and Environmental Protection (Ley General del Equilibrio Ecológico y la Protección al Ambiente—LGEEPA) and the National Water Law (Ley de Aguas Nacionales) and their regulations. These provisions assign certain water management responsibilities to the federal executive branch and allow the public to participate in the development and execution of the country's environmental policy and in the enforcement of environmental laws. The Submitters assert that civil society has participated in a number of consultations regarding the condition of the basin, with no known results, and that there is an absence of government action for them to challenge before administrative tribunals. They refer to the Arcediano dam project on the Santiago River, claiming it is inconsistent with current policy, and state that authorities did not follow through on complaints from residents of Juanacatlán with respect to alleged human health impacts caused by pollution of that river. They assert that the National Water Commission (Comisión Nacional del Agua—CNA) is failing to exercise its duties to decide on the use and distribution of water in the Basin by delegating this task to the Basin Council (Consejo de Cuenca), which, they allege, has no legal authority to make such decisions.
According to Article 14(3) of the NAAEC, Mexico has up to 60 days to submit its response. Thereafter, the CEC Secretariat will review the submission in light of the Party's response, to determine whether it warrants the development of a factual record.
The citizen submissions mechanism of the CEC enables the public to play a whistle-blower role on matters of environmental law enforcement. Under Article 14 of the NAAEC, any person or nongovernmental organization may submit a claim alleging that a NAFTA partner has failed to effectively enforce its environmental law. Following a review of the submission, the CEC may investigate the matter and pursue a factual record of its findings.
Please visit the Citizen Submission on Enforcement Matters page for more information.
|
