Manufacturing Thirst: The Hidden Water Costs of Our Industrial Economy

By Kari Lydersen, Earth Island Journal. Posted October 23, 2008.

The Cananea Consolidated Copper Company -- one of the world's largest open pit copper mines, run by Grupo Mexico -- forms a beautifully surreal landscape. Carefully sculpted red and gold curves of earth hug pools of brilliant turquoise. Before the vast expanse of the mine flies a huge Mexican flag, a symbol of pride in the mine's significant contribution to the country's economy.

Cananea is often referred to as the cradle of the Mexican Revolution, in reference to a workers' uprising there in 1906. It has been a hotbed of militant labor activism ever since; the powerful miners' union has been on strike since July 2007. Among locals, the mine's reputation as a source of social injustices -- including the displacement of residents, the exploitation and endangerment of miners, and political repression -- is well known.

The overuse and contamination of water in the copper extraction is another destructive, though perhaps less obvious, effect of the mine. Copper mining and refining is a water-intensive process, and the mine draws liberally from the nearby Sonora and San Pedro aquifers and rivers, using at least 18 million cubic meters of water per year. Because of the mine, the San Pedro aquifer's depletion has exceeded its recharge annually since 1984, according to Anne Browning-Aiken of the Udall Center in Arizona.

The aquifer is reaching critically low levels and, as a result, the Sonora River's flow has been greatly reduced, a situation particularly disturbing for the downstream city of Hermosillo, which depends on the river for its very existence. Farmers in the arid region, who rely on irrigation to grow their crops, are now competing with the mine for water.

The rampant waste of freshwater for general public use -- lawn watering, the creation of suburban fake lakes, excessive bathing and household washing -- has been well documented, as has the politically charged use of water in US agriculture. But the use and abuse of water in various parts of the global industrial economy is often overlooked. From the mining of raw materials for manufacturing to energy production, to the manufacturing process itself, the US industrial economy uses a significant amount of water every year.

Exact numbers for the amount of water used outside of agriculture or home consumption are difficult to come by. The US Geological Survey (USGS) estimates that industry uses about five percent of all the water in the US, but does not include mining or electricity generation in that figure. A report from Dow Chemical puts the figure much higher, at around 20 percent. And perhaps more importantly, neither number takes into account the volume of water pollution that occurs in the course of industrial processes. At the very least, it's clear that every year, billions of gallons of water are used -- not to grow food or to meet physical human needs -- but to quench our society's thirst for the modern conveniences and technological devices we have come to rely on.

No Water in the Pipes

One place to see the consequences of industry's thirst is in Ciudad Juarez, a major maquiladora (factory) zone located just south of El Paso, TX, where workers labor around the clock to produce goods and components for export around the world. The maquila industry exploded after implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1994, and though it has since leveled off, factories in Mexican border towns like Juarez, Tijuana, and Reynosa still churn out products and parts (mostly for US citizens) that suck up or pollute much of the local water supply in the process.

Juarez is in the middle of a desert, so dry that little vegetation grows and spring winds sweep currents of stinging dust across shantytowns and scrubby fields. The once-proud Rio Bravo/Rio Grande, which flows through Juarez and forms part of the US-Mexico border, has been reduced to a slow, polluted stream. The Hueco Bolson aquifer, which supplies Juarez and El Paso, is at imminent risk of being pumped dry, according to local experts, and already over-pumping has led to the incursion of brackish groundwater that contaminates the fresh supply.

The Hueco Bolson is sucked up by both the maquilas themselves and the households of the city, which mushroomed from a small border town to a sprawling, chaotic metropolis of three million people as workers streamed north for jobs. Public infrastructure was not built to accommodate the massive population influx, leading to the ad hoc development of informal sewage and wastewater disposal -- and massive water contamination. Despite the obvious lack of water, plans are in the works to create a new industrial zone in the parched section of Juarez known as Lomas de Poleo. For the past few years, residents of this area have been terrorized by private security guards hired by the Zaragoza brothers, who own large local beer distributorships and dairies, and plan to develop additional factories.

See more stories tagged with: industry, water, water scarcity, water pollution, water shortage

Kari Lydersen, a regular contributor to AlterNet, also writes for the Washington Post and is an instructor for the Urban Youth International Journalism Program in Chicago.

Liked this story? Get top stories in your inbox each week from Water! Sign up now »