General context
With the entry into force of the General Water Law (LGA) and the reforms to the National Water Law (LAN) on December 12, 2025, a new legal framework is established in water matters with relevant impacts on concessions, allocations, provision of water services and the development of productive projects. This new scheme derives from the 2013 constitutional mandate, which ordered the issuance of a general law to guarantee the human right to access to water and sanitation, redefining competencies, obligations and mechanisms for water resource management.
The LGA was issued as a regulatory law of Article 4 of the Constitution to regulate the human right to water, while the LAN remains in force as a regulatory law of Article 27 of the Constitution to regulate the administration of national waters, but extensively reformed to align it with the LGA. The coexistence of both laws implies that any decision on national waters (concessions, reallocations, sanctions) must respect the principles and contents of the human right to water provided for in the LGA.
Key points of the new Framework
- Absolute priority for human and domestic consumption: the LGA obliges the administration of national waters to give priority to the human right to water and sanitation; the reformed LAN expressly incorporates that any concession, assignment, permit or extension must respect these principles and allows the reduction or cancellation of concessioned volumes when there is a risk to this right.
- Consolidation of a dual regime: the LGA establishes principles, distribution of competencies between the Federation, states and municipalities, recognition of community systems, municipal services and operating agencies; the LAN regulates the operational details of concessions, allocations, reallocations, closed and reserve zones, the National Public Water Registry(REPNA) and the sanctioning regime.
- New approach to planning and water security: the LGA creates the National Water Strategy and links the National Water Program and basin programs (regulated in the LAN) with long-term goals, climate change, equitable water distribution and ecosystem protection; the LAN incorporates the concept of water security and reinforces mandatory phased planning.
- Registration and traceability of rights: the REPNA replaces and expands the previous registry, concentrating information on titles, modifications, restriction zones, user lists, agrarian nuclei and community systems, which raises the standard of formality and publicity of water rights.
- Tightening of the liability regime: new concepts such as water liability, water security and overexploitation are introduced, together with new infractions and offenses related to the improper transfer of rights, unauthorized changes of use, transfer of water for profit purposes beyond what is permitted, and damage to watercourses and ecosystems.
Practical implications
- Ongoing concessions and projects: new projects requiring volumes of national waters will face stricter scrutiny with respect to availability, priority for human use and environmental conditions, which may result in greater technical requirements, conditions or denial of titles in water-stressed areas.
- Review of existing titles: concession and allocation titles become more subject to review, temporary limitations or volume adjustments when the authority certifies a risk to the human right to water, overexploitation of aquifers or the need for reallocation to guarantee public services. It is legally relevant to identify clauses, terms of validity, authorized uses and volumes effectively exploited.
- Corporate operations and transfers: property transfers, mergers, spin-offs, successions and internal reorganizations involving assets with water rights are subject to specific reallocation or regularization procedures before the authority, with risks of total or partial loss of volumes if not properly managed.
- Enforcement and penalties: the catalog of punishable conducts has been expanded to include uses other than those authorized, exploitation in excess of concession volumes, failure to measure, non-compliant discharges, and irregular water transfer schemes. The potential impact includes significant fines, closures, revocation of titles and even criminal liability in certain cases.
- Reputation and community management: the LGA’s emphasis on social participation, community systems and vulnerable groups reinforces the relevance of the social license to operate. Water conflicts that used to remain in the administrative sphere can now be escalated with human rights and healthy environment arguments.
Recommended actions
- Perform a diagnosis of the water rights portfolio (titles, extensions, transmissions, measurement, compliance with conditions), prioritizing assets located in basins or aquifers with water stress or social conflict.
- Review corporate structures and contracts involving the supply, assignment or shared use of water, to identify where it will be necessary to update instruments or manage reallocation or regularization procedures before the authority.
- Strengthen environmental measurement, reporting and compliance systems (discharges, treatment, reuse), documenting good practices of water responsibility that can serve both as a mitigating factor for sanctioning risk and as an element of defense.
- Integrate the water factor into investment planning and project due diligence, considering that the regulatory feasibility of water access has become a central element of legal and operational risk.
Vega, Guerrero & Asociados has a team specialized in environmental matters that can assist in the transition to the new water regulatory framework. If you have any questions, please contact us.
