Xalapa

Through the Integral Water Management Strategy, Xalapa aims to protect its forests, manage its water and maintain its urban rivers.

“All the water that our city requires comes from nearby and faraway forests. Xalapa is already taking action to protect this forested area and to recover our city rivers. Nonetheless, global and intersectoral collaboration addressed in this call to action is a great opportunity to replicate and scale these actions, aiming to guarantee the rights to water and to a healthy environment for all humanity.”

—Pedro Hipólito Rodríguez Herrero, Municipal President, Xalapa

Success Story

Xalapa, Mexico has made important progress in the development and implementation of a strategic and planning framework that focuses on watershed conservation, forest restoration and overall sustainable water management. These are comprehensive actions that consider the water’s sources, its access to the public as well as the sanitation process. The approval of an Integral Water Management Strategy for the city allowed for a special tariff on water consumption. Its revenue will exclusively finance soil and forest restoration and conservation, conservation and restoration of urban rivers and actions of green infrastructure and nature-based solutions. One such action is the installment of water harvesting devices in public buildings. Furthermore, with the aid of multiple initiatives (Cities4Forests included), the city is currently exploring financing alternatives to achieve and scale the objectives within its Integral Water Management Strategy.