Intermittence, social practices and domestic water management in Acapulco: a hydrosocial analysis in the context of urban scarcity

Abstract

Urban water access rarely depends on physical availability alone. It tends to emerge from a more entangled set of conditions—technical, institutional, and social—that shape not only distribution, but everyday experience. In Acapulco, where water supply is irregular, access is less a stable service and more an ongoing negotiation with uncertainty.

This study examines the hydrosocial conditions that structure domestic water access in a specific urban area (AGEB 2736), drawing on a mixed-methods approach that combines 168 household surveys, qualitative annotations, and an institutional interview. Findings suggest that continuous supply is uncommon; instead, households navigate frequent and sometimes prolonged interruptions. At the same time, infrastructural deficiencies—low pressure, leaks, delayed repairs—accumulate, producing a layered experience of scarcity. On average, households report several coexisting problems, which leads them to rely on storage, reuse, and informal arrangements with neighbors.

These strategies, however, do not resolve the underlying issues. Rather, they redistribute the burden of water management to the domestic sphere. This process is further shaped by widespread mistrust toward local water authorities, which complicates the adoption of alternatives such as rainwater harvesting systems. Taken together, the results suggest that intermittency operates not merely as a technical failure, but as a structuring condition that reorganizes daily life and constrains the emergence of more stable forms of water self-management.