What kind of governance for what kind of equity? Towards a theorization of justice in water governance

Abstract

This article critically reviews literatures related to the core concepts of this special issue: water and hydrosocial relations; water governance and spatial scale; and equity, justice and rights. It argues that only by viewing water and society as simultaneously social and natural can we address both ecological governance and environmental justice. It argues that the institutional arrangements we employ for governing water must address issues of democratization, human welfare and ecological conditions. The article illustrates these arguments with reference to the social and environmental effects of mining activity and associated water contamination on the Bolivian Altiplano.

Keywords:

• hydrosocial cycle
• water governance
• environmental justice
• spatial scale
• water rights
• water pollution
• mining
• Bolivia

Acknowledgements

I am grateful for the support of colleagues with the Centro de Ecología y Pueblos Andinos and the Coordinadora para la Defensa del Río Desaguadero y Lagos Uru Uru y Poopó in Oruro, Boliva. This article was inspired in part by my interaction with the Justicia Hídrica (Water Justice) network, based in Wageningen, the Netherlands. Special thanks to Ben Crow, Flora Lu, Constanza Ocampo-Raeder and Sarah Romano for their encouragement, and for inviting me to participate in the workshop on equitable water governance which formed the basis for this special issue.

Notes

1. ‘First-generation rights’ refers to individual liberties to speech, assembly, religion, etc. established in Enlightenment-era documents like the US Constitution and Bill of Rights and Thomas Paine’s Rights of Man. ‘Second-generation rights’ refers to the socio-economic rights to a fair wage, collective bargaining and the like, established in the context of industrial capitalism and the labour struggles it engenders. These were widely established and codified in law during the early twentieth century, particularly in the wake of the Bolshevik Revolution and the Great Depression. ‘Third-generation rights’ to collective identity and recognition have been established through the UN and its agencies such as the International Labour Organization (e.g. ILO (1989) Convention No. 169 on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples), and more recently by state governments. See Attoh (2011) for a fuller discussion.