*3.1. Diversity*

We identified multiple operating institutions or legal systems that overlapped or aligned at the local level. Plural institutions are part of the national-state legal system, as they are derived from the "supreme law" of the National Constitution, which agree with those of the Oaxaca State Constitution.

Article 27 establishes that water ownership pertains to the nation and that the nation has the right to transmit its property to individuals [52]. By declaring itself as the legitimate owner, the federal executive branch possesses all the regulating property rights of the water supply system for domestic use. However, it also establishes that:


The preceding statements are reaffirmed and specified in three laws derived from Article 27: The LAN of 1992 [53], the Agrarian Law of 1992 [54], and Ley General del Equilibrio Ecologico y Proteccion al Ambiente (General Law of Ecological Balance and Protection of the Environment; LGEEPA; acronym in Spanish) of 1998 [55]. The LAN is the sole law that establishes a multi-level structure for water governance. At the national level, the National Water Commission (CONAGUA; acronym in Spanish) is the autonomous and decentralized body of the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment (SEMARNAT; acronym in Spanish). CONAGUA is responsible for the administration, regulation, and consultation of water managemen<sup>t</sup> in Mexico [53,56]. The LAN establishes the Watershed Council to manage Hydrological–Administrative Regions (RHAs; acronym in Spanish) at the state level.

The RHAs include groups of basins and municipal territories to facilitate the administration and integration of socioeconomic data [57]. The Watershed Council is meant to provide support and advice among CONAGUA; municipal, state, and national governments; user representatives; and civil society organizations [53]. At the local level, CONAGUA recognizes and grants access, use, and managemen<sup>t</sup> rights to the state, municipality, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and the private sector. Nonetheless, as the state and municipalities are considered subdivisions of the Nation-State, they do not have the right to exclude any individuals due to the recent reform to constitutional Article 4, which establishes the human right to water. In cases involving private companies and NGOs, the right of exclusion is upheld. In addition, the Agrarian Law and the LGEEPA reaffirm the rights of agrarian communities (e.g., ejidos and Bienes Comunales; article 52 of the Agrarian Law) to own water for common use for both agricultural and domestic purposes [54]. The LGEEPA also recognizes indigenous communities, which are not necessarily considered within agrarian communities. Article 15 (section XIII) of the LGEEPA establishes that the Nation-State must guarantee the rights of indigenous peoples regarding the sustainable use and exploitation of natural resources, which implicitly includes water for domestic use [55]. Although these laws are linked to Article 27, they seem to address other non-municipal social contexts, unlike the LAN. However, in the case of municipalities that are also indigenous or that have agrarian communities, these laws overlap.

Article 115 explicitly designates municipalities as responsible for the managemen<sup>t</sup> of the water supply system for domestic use at the local level, establishing how this responsibility should be carried out in coordination with CONAGUA and the Watershed Council with regard to the planning, execution, administration, and managemen<sup>t</sup> of national water resources [58]. This article matches those established with the LAN.

On the other hand, Article 40 of the National Constitution establishes that every Mexican state can create its constitution [52], including establishing other laws designed to regulate and manage water for domestic use. In Oaxaca, the State Law of Potable Water and Sewerage [59] establishes new stakeholders at local levels. The State Water Commission is responsible for developing the water supply system for domestic use at the state level. Article 17 recognizes municipalities and citizen water committees as stakeholders at the local level if no municipal operations agency is present. The water committee can promote the construction, conservation, maintenance, rehabilitation, and operation of its water, piped water, and sewer systems [59]. In this case, state water law in municipalities aligns with Article 115 and the LAN. However, with water committees, both national laws overlap with state law.

Article 2 of the National Constitution stipulates that each state is responsible for formulating and promoting its laws regarding the rights of indigenous peoples and communities. In the case of Oaxaca, the law of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and Communities [59] recognizes their social, cultural, religious, political, and self-determination rights. In this sense, the self-determination rights of indigenous community stakeholders that manage water for domestic use are recognized. This state law matches with the LGEEPA and Agrarian Law but overlaps with the LAN and Article 115 of the National Constitution in indigenous municipalities. It should be mentioned that because indigenous communities

have the right to self-determination, in addition to the property rights to access, use, and manage water, the right to exclusion may also be included (e.g., if indigenous institutions consider suspending the water service as a sanction for any fault).

In addition, we identified two informal stakeholders not established by the existing national and state institutions through the surveys conducted in the 13 communities selected for this study (Table 2): the municipal agen<sup>t</sup> (in 53% of the studied communities) and the assembly of water users (in 76.9% of the studied communities).

**Table 2.** Stakeholders identified by the survey administered in the 13 rural communities. The questions correspond to the first (operability) and second (institutional arrangement) orders of the Interactive Governance Framework (IGF) [14]. NP = no paymen<sup>t</sup> for water services, MA = municipal agent, WC = water committee, MC = municipal council, WUA = water users assembly.


The information obtained from these formal national and state institutions with local impacts was complemented with information obtained in the field regarding informal stakeholders. This information was used to identify the multi-level structure of the institutions and stakeholders immersed in water governance in Oaxaca and Mexico (Figure 4).
