Network of Water Problems in the Press of Mexico City During the COVID-19 Era

Abstract

The pandemic generated containment and mitigation policies, as well as distancing and confinement strategies that limited the supply of water resources to social sectors. Residential areas- The offer is maintained, but with an increase in rates. Marginalized areas were subsidized and exempted from paying for an increasingly intermittent supply. The anti-COVID-19 policies guided water policies in two ways: The first consisted of disseminating anti-COVID-19 policies in water management agencies. Another second consisted of the autonomy of the institutions and their disassociation or agreement with the anti-COVID-19 policies. In this way, the literature from 2020 to 2023 around anti-COVID-19 policies in their water dimensions, registers problems of scarcity, famine and unsanitary conditions. Scarcity had already been observed in marginalized sectors, famine in residential neighborhoods, but unsanitary conditions were appreciated in migrant communities. In fact, the type of exposure to occupational hazards determined the health status of the migrants. The water problems were recorded in the circulation press to highlight the asymmetries of the anti-COVID-19 policies in the public and private sectors, as well as in the political and social actors. The objective of the study was to reveal the network structure of relationships between nodes and edges related to press releases on water issues. A documentary, cross-sectional and retrospective study was carried out with national circulation newspapers: El País, El Reforma, La Jornada and El Universal, considering the water problems of scarcity, unsanitary conditions and famine. The results show a structure of nodes where the water problems were initiated by La Jornada and ended by El Reforma. Both findings are relevant considering the ideology of the newspaper. La Jornada, a newspaper identified with the political ideology of the left, began the diffusion of water problems in a city administered by a government of the same ideology. El Reforma, a newspaper designated by the executive as a spokesperson for the opposition ideology, culminates the network of notes on water problems. In other words, regardless of the type of political ideology attributed to newspapers, the problems of scarcity, unsanitary conditions and famine are spread. In relation to the state of the art where it is shown that ideology does not influence the establishment of the agenda, the present work corroborates and recommends expanding the study to other entities administered by the opposition such as the cities of Guadalajara and Monterrey.