Disputed water

Competing knowledge and power asymmetries in the Yali Alto basin, Chile

Datos Bibliográficos

ID8945308
AutoresTomás J Usón (Heidelberg University, autor de correspondencia), Cristian Henríquez Ruiz (0000-0001-6845-1973, Centre For Sustainable Urban Development), Cristián Henríquez, Juliane Dame (0000-0002-3969-6581, Heidelberg University)
Año2017
Volumen85
Páginas247-258
Fecha de publicación2017-08-08
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaGeoforum (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0016-7185 • E-ISSN: 1872-9398
EditorialElsevier BV (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1016/j.geoforum.2017.07.029
OpenAlexW2743135601
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas13
Referencias citadas57

Hydrological information – which plays a crucial role in resolving conflicts over water allocation and distribution – is commonly seen as apolitical. However, this type of information is seldom objective and free of biases. Instead, it is used to position arguments and interests in accordance with the prevailing political agendas. Information is structured by complex and conflicting networks of public and private stakeholder interests, further reconstituted in different periods of time and place. Based on a study of the upper Yali basin in the municipality of San Pedro de Melipilla, Chile, we show how knowledge about water is produced, circulated and applied in the context of water scarcity and emerging conflicts over access to groundwater. Building on the notion of the hydrosocial cycle, the qualitative study shows how the production of hydrological reports and its application in political decision-making have reinforced asymmetrical relationships between the stakeholders locked in water conflicts. The lack of capacity of local farmers and community organizations to translate experiences into codified hydrological knowledge further exacerbates these asymmetries. Agro-industrial companies operating in the basin use hydrological assessments to locate and shift the water scarcity problems to the users, whereas locals blame them for accumulating disproportionately large concentrations of water extraction rights. Results contribute to the existing literature on environmental knowledge, arguing that discourses on water scarcity are not objective but shaped by socio-political contingencies. Overemphasising on data and techno-science based information to support certain decisions may be misleading without first unveiling the knowledge production processes operating across power-laden landscapes

Blame · Business · Context (archaeology · Economics · Environmental resource management · Geography · Market economy · Political science · Politics · Public relations · Scarcity · Stakeholder · Water resources · Water scarcity · Geographies of human-animal interactions · Law · Water Governance and Infrastructure · Water resources management and optimization