Contrasting water securities: the Mexican state facing downstream stakeholders in the Suchiate transboundary river basin

Abstract

Based on extensive interviews, fieldwork and archival research conducted in southern Mexico, this article explores and analyzes contrasting water-security perspectives of diverse stakeholders in flood-prone portions of the transboundary Suchiate River basin. Complexities of transboundary water issues along an international river that is also a border produce power relationships between the Mexican state and inhabitants, plus historical tensions with riparian neighbour Guatemala, and diverse meanings among local stakeholders. The Mexican state conceptualizes water security as a conventional national-security issue, whereas the basin’s rural inhabitants consider it a matter of human security, albeit in diverse ways that provoke internal conflicts.

Keywords:

• Water security
• Suchiate River basin
• transboundary waters
• human security
• floods

Acknowledgement

This paper was first presented at the Workshop "Multidisciplinary ethnographies of power in cross-border sustainable development and environmental security cases", 6-7 October 2016.