Nogales, Sonora, on the US –Mexico border, employs interbasin water and wastewater
transfers to address water scarcity in the context of a rising population, a warming
climate, and cross-border institutional asymmetries. A unique feature of its geography
and border context is Nogales’s export of wastewater both north to the US and, starting
with the August 2012 commissioning of a strategically positioned wastewater
treatment plant, south to the Alisos basin, which is its principal drinking-water source.
Thus, when the new plant is fully operational, it will result in indirect potable reuse of
effluent via recharge of the source-water aquifer. This paper finds that such strategies
contribute to increased water scarcity in Nogales, and to detrimental health, livelihood
and environmental impacts in the source basin, thus raising questions about interbasin
transfers as a principal water management strategy.