Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

International organisations make use of national statistics to monitor water access: in Mexico, the Joint Monitoring Program (JMP) of WHO/UNICEF uses data from the National Household Income and Expenditure Survey (ENIGH). According to this national database (2016), 93% of the population had access to piped water, 34.5% of households bought bottled water, and only 1.6% of the population relied on water tank truck. As the international indicators mainly use the information on piped water to qualify an improved water access, 98% of the Mexican population is considered to have an improved water access in that way – a statistic that can conceal the actual situation. As the state of the Mexican public water system shows large deficiencies (such as unreliability, inconvenience, unaffordability, or insufficient quantity or quality), households developed coping strategies and buy other sources of water. Using original qualitative (extensive fieldwork) and quantitative data (1000 household surveys), this study identifies the strategies put in place by individuals to access water: they actually use a combination of different sources of water that they use simultaneously. This article calls for a redefinition of data collection in the national survey to obtain data that reflect reality, a necessity to formulate adequate policies.