Seven years after the implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement,
which officials promised would ease breakneck growth along the 2000-mile
U.S.-Mexico border, pressure on border infrastructure is unprecedented.
More than two million people live without running water. At least three
million are without proper wastewater treatment. With more than 3,000 maquiladora
assembly plants dotting the border, and more projected, toxic waste remains
a potentially grave problem. So far the institutions created by NAFTA to
address these problems have been unable to do so, even as the need grows:
within 25 yers, the border population o f16 milion is expected to double.
In the fall of 2000, nine reporters from the Graduate School of Journalism
at UC-Berkeley set out on a three-month project to document the tremendous
challenges to life on the border. |
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Matamoros |