Fondo Agua Capital - Ciudad de México

Agua Capital’s programme of work encompasses four key topics: Aquifer water balance; Wastewater as a resource; Integrated Water Resource Management and Prevention of water-related risks. Agua Capital names 14 projects on its website through which these topics are addressed. Many of these projects integrate NBS and Green Infrastructure. We list two of the projects as examples below. As the examples demonstrate, there is no one model approach that is applied across Agua Capital’s projects; in each case different stakeholders and modes of finance are mobilised for restorative NBS. Example 1: The Coapa Hydro District project addresses issues of frequent flooding, inadequate drainage and water stress from population growth. The objectives are to produce a scalable and replicable urban-environmental development model that integrates green and grey infrastructures to reduce and control flooding, promote infiltration and recharge of the aquifer, promote greater treatment and reuse, as well as promote greater collection and storage to contribute to the water balance in the area. Actors involved included the FEMSA (foundation), ITESM – CMC (technical college) and ORU Office for Urban Resilience / TAAF (private sector urban planning). Completing the final phase of the project in 2021, the project estimated costs of inaction, designed a circular economy strategy, implemented a participatory protocol, identified financing schemes and further developed selected pilot projects. Example 2: A second Agua Capital project, led directly by the Latin American Water Funds, addresses overexploitation of the aquifer situated on conservation land in the area around Mexico City through coordination of public and private stakeholders. The project focuses on making a business case for NBS and in 2021, it mapped potential intervention areas, conducted an assessment of ecosystem services and the monetarisation thereof, put together a portfolio with ROI analysis and identification of financing sources as well as a communication tool for communicating scenarios to different stakeholders. conservation areas. The project also sought to secure financial commitments from stakeholders conducting activities in the conservation area as well as finding outside sources of complementary finance.