MISSION: Southwest Research and Information Center is a multi-cultural organization working to promote the health of people and communities, protect natural resources, ensure citizen participation, and secure environmental and social justice now and for future generations

Border InfraStructure Problems: New Sustainable Development Indicators Offer Promise

The population of the U.S.-Mexico border region is predicted to increase to 29 million people in the next generation — three times the 10.8 million people residing there now. This growth, due to increased migration and international trade expansion under NAFTA, has enormous implications: growing shortages of housing, schools, hospitals, and roads; massive land development, which results in the loss of agricultural lands, open space, and natural areas for the border's unique wildlife; continuing illegal hazardous waste disposal and pollution emitted from industrial sources; a lack of basic sanitation infrastructure resulting in high incidences of infectious and other diseases. Perhaps the most serious and inevitable consequence to this semi-desert, high-growth area is a water crisis, as supply is depleted and contamination from industrial and residential wastes increases the threats to human health and environment.

The border economy currently creates more than 1 million jobs and generates more than $200 billion in revenue annually for both Mexico and the U.S. But because most money leaves the border area and is not spent or invested in the communities, the touted economic expansion has not benefitted wages or the standard of living, public health, environmental protection, or the quality of life in border communities. Sustainable development — that which equally incorporates economic, environmental, and social goals — is essential to the future of the region. A system of indicators that can measure the potential for longterm sustainability of economic and other development is integral to achieving those goals.

Internationally, the development and use of indicators to measure sustainable development is in its infancy. The practice is based on the recognition that environmental laws, regulations, inspections, and enforcement, while important, are not sufficient to reduce or eliminate pollution or to preserve natural resources. Sustainable indicators can help measure economic, environmental, and social progress, show direction, help determine effectiveness of actions, and be used in decision making to ensure sustainable goals are being concretely achieved.

In 1996 the United Nations-sponsored Commission for Sustainable Development — an outgrowth of the 1990 Rio Conference on the Environment — came up with 130 sustainable development indicators in a collaborative process carried out by 36 international agencies. These economic, environmental, and social indicators are organized into three basic areas: pressure, state, and response indicators. Pressure indicators measure the pressures on the environment or on communities caused by human activities. State indicators measure the actual local baseline conditions of the environment, natural resources, and social conditions. Response indicators are measures taken to address the pressure and state indicators.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and its Mexican equivalent, SEMARNAP, established a series of projects to foster sustainable development in both countries. SEMARNAP has hosted a series of sustainable development workshops for Mexican cities and states along the border to further refine and use sustainable indicators in local decision making.

Created as part of the NAFTA Environmental Side Agreement, the Border Environmental Cooperation Commission (BECC) is the first binational government agency to have developed sustainable development criteria and requirements for certification of border sanitation infrastructure projects, to offer technical assistance for the sustainable development of these projects, and to institute a voluntary program to recognize projects that go beyond its criteria. As part of its Border XXI Program (the first formal attempt at establishing sustainable indicators for the U.S.-Mexico border), BECC has developed a sustainability guidance document, which contains more than 100 indicators of environmental, economic, and social sustainability applicable to BECC priority projects, and a roadmap with public involvement for effective evaluation and integration of pressure, state, and response indicators to determine the most sustainable project alternative for the community. (Using its sustainable development and other project criteria, since 1994 BECC has certified 31 projects (19 U.S., 14 Mexican), at an estimated cost of $700 million, serving 7 million of the 11 million border residents, and provided $13 million in technical assistance.)

To illustrate: for pressure indicators, a community can look at the amount of water consumed in residential and commercial sectors, the amount of untreated wastewater reaching water bodies, population growth and water consumption patterns, and so on. For state indicators, communities can look at water quality of transboundary surface waters, the percent of population being served potable water, the prevalence of public health diseases, the discharge of industrial wastes into water bodies, and so forth. For response indicators, communities can look at the number of enforcement actions for violations of water quality, the percentage of wastewater treated, the number of state-of-the-art landfills, the percent of recycling of industrial waste streams, and the percent of pollution prevention practices.

Communities can then use BECC's sustainable development indicators with any additional indicators they deem appropriate for the community to evaluate longterm sustainability of projects. Once all the baseline (pressure and state), response and sustainable indicators are listed, they are assigned priority and ranking by the community through a series of local meetings.

Sustainable development is the only realistic direction in a world with growing populations, dwindling natural resources, and economic disparity. To achieve sustainable development concretely, the use of sustainable indicators is critical. Without them, success cannot be measured, evaluated, and achieved.

— Lynda Taylor

Lynda Taylor directs SRIC's Border Environment program and is a member of the BECC representing the U.S. private sector.

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