Accessibility, availability, affordability and inequalities in urban and rural water services in Mexico

The purpose of this work was to analyse water access based not only on the indicators proposed by the Joint Monitoring Program (JMP) and the expenditures incurred by households in Mexico, but also by performing an analysis by groups at all income deciles nationally as well as in urban and rural areas. Inequalities in access and the cost of access to this resource between rural and urban households, as well as between low – and high-income households, becomes evident when estimating the indicators proposed by the JMP for WASH of the WHO and UNICEF. These indicators were estimated at the national, urban, and rural levels. Lastly, a test of means (ANOVA) was performed to determine whether there was a statistical difference among household deciles, considering WASH levels and whether they were urban or rural households. The JMP indicators to measure household access to water show a statistically significant difference between urban and rural households, among income decile levels, and among the different years analysed. Thus, there is a need to generate new water policies and/or projects that seek to reduce or eliminate this inequality for the benefit of society as a whole, and especially for the most vulnerable households.