Editorial

This issue of UNAM International is dedicated to understanding the problems and opportunities around water through the knowledge that our university develops in collaboration with institutions, people, and organizations around the world.

Water is our main protagonist, not only as a vital element, but also viewed from multi-, inter-, and transdisciplinary approaches. We understand it as a fundamental resource, a common good, and a human right, but we also consider its management, treatment, and reuse potential. The following pages reflect the complexity of water itself and the relationship our societies establish with it.

The articles in this issue lead us through broad research paths: from the comprehensive and inclusive view of Julia Carabias, one of our most important specialists in environmental issues—embarked on a true feat for the protection of water, the forest, and culture in the Lacandon Jungle—to perspectives on the rescue of the bodies of water in the Valley of Mexico, which for centuries we have been determined to drain.

An action line is sketched by the knowledge compiled here: a paradigm shift in water management is urgently needed, not only because we now recognize access to water as a fundamental human right, but also because the research gathered here shows that knowledge about water continues to uncover new reasons to protect one of our most important resources, which is also a common good. We already knew that deforestation causes erosion through runoff. Today, transboundary, transcontinental, and global research indicates that deforestation on one continent can impact rainfall patterns on another: water is a closely interconnected planetary network.

The University Water Program (PUMAGUA) team presents an overview of the state of groundwater worldwide and in Mexico, before delving into the controversial topic of artificial aquifer recharge as an effective strategy for strengthening water security in densely populated areas or where water is scarce. For nearly two decades, PUMAGUA has been working to strengthen UNAM’s sustainable water management at Ciudad Universitaria and has already expanded its reach to several other campus. PUMAGUA’s achievements confirm its relevance as an institutional strategy that integrates measurement, infrastructure, regulations, and environmental awareness.

When we address groundwater, one special case stands out with warning signs: the Maya Aquifer, which is analyzed in two different articles. In the Yucatán Peninsula, water travels underground, unfiltered, through caves and cenotes and is vulnerable to population and agro-industrial growth, as well as to the impact of large-scale projects, such as the Tren Maya railroad. These interventions alter the quantity and the quality of water, a problem exacerbated by climate change. In search for a more appropriate management and better decision-making, UNAM academics at Sisal, Yucatán, present the 2025 Report Card for the Yucatán Peninsula Aquifer, an inter-institutional effort with a rigorous scientific approach that provides academic support to policymakers in this area: a topic—the complex relationship between science and public policy—that arises frequently in these texts.

If water is, as we said, a planetary network, international interactions surrounding its challenges are also one. UNAM’s collaboration with universities and organizations on cutting-edge projects of global interest stands out in this issue. Interviewed by UNAM Internacional, Anamika Barua, a researcher at the Indian Institute of Technology – Guwahati, describes the multinational project Trans-Path-Plan: Water Transformation Pathways Planning, which addresses the possibility of generating sustainable community-based water management models designed with inter- and transdisciplinary methods. Likewise, news from UNAM Chicago tell us of research and development projects that UNAM is promoting with the University of Illinois in two areas: research on climate phenomena and applied technology for water security.

Engineering and technology are central in this issue: from a historical review of water infrastructure projects for distribution and consumption, as well as for industrial uses, energy generation, and cooling of large technological facilities such as data centers that support the digital society, to the controlled application of nature-based models to reduce the environmental impact of wastewater. In this regard, the work of UNAM academics in developing constructed wetlands for wastewater treatment shows a sustainable approach through “nature-based solutions.”

The challenges that the national water sector faces in sanitation, with its infrastructure suffering from deficiencies in both capacity and operational quality, are also analyzed; the need to update water governance through inclusive, equitable, and sustainable policies is emphasized. Within this important topic, UNAM’s wastewater treatment plants are described, along with the uses of the treated waters they produce. 

While we were planning and beginning to compile this issue, the legal framework for water in Mexico changed: in December 2025, the General Waters Law and reforms to the National Waters Law were approved, with these changes centered on the recognition of the human right to water in sufficient quantity and quality for life, and to sanitation. UNAM International presents this new legal framework—that sets the foundations for the fulfillment of this fundamental right—in a clear approach.

Beyond the infrastructure projects and the urgent need for sustainable water management, the articles published in this issue also tell about lessons from traditional societies that have managed water wisely for millennia: from the irrigation canals of the Moche culture and the underground aqueducts in Nasca, in the Peruvian desert, to the development of chinampas and other water management technologies in Mesoamerica. The historical perspective on water also appears in texts that trace the long-standing conflict of the inhabitants of the Valley of Mexico with water, dating back centuries before the Conquest.

In addition to reviews of important recent publications and activities around water, we include an innovative approach, contributions that address the abstract language of conceptual art, in conjunction with documentary photography, in its ability to stimulate discussion that leads to interdisciplinary reflections on the critical condition of unsustainable water management in many parts of the world.

In Spanish, “sustainability” can be translated in two different ways: sostenibilidad and sustentabilidad. In our third issue, doctor Julia Tagüeña explained the subtle difference between the two categories with an untranslatable phrase. Sostenibilidad, for example, means “to support”, as when supporting a previously given argument, while sustentabilidad means “to sustain” a new one. Although on that occasion we opted for the general use of sostenibilidad, in this issue, taking into account the different practices of disciplines and their commitment to scientific rigor, we have chosen to maintain the category that each author prefers. Anyway, this will not be a problem for English-language readers.

Leaded by Tláloc, the Mexica deity of water, according to one of the representations created by Juan O’Gorman for our Central Library—the volcanic stone fountain that we have stylized on this issue’s cover, and which is located at the north entrance to the building—UNAM International invites us to understand and to get hold to actual opportunities to foster, each according to their abilities, a more appropriate management of our common good, with a view on a more sustainable future for current and future generations.

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