The water grab that powers predatory development
By Alejandro Camargo
Latin America stands out as one of the regions where the
deterioration of water resources is more dramatic than in other parts of
the world. According to a recent study, this critical environmental
situation is directly connected to an increase in population pressure on
a global scale. The experience of the people who face the deterioration
of water resources in their everyday life, however, cannot be measured
solely by population growth. For thousands of families whose livelihoods
depend on aquatic resources, the deterioration of wetlands and rivers
constitutes a form of water grabbing associated with the expansion of
large-scale predatory economies such as mining and large-scale
agriculture. Fundamentally, water grabbing reflects the ways in which
different views and meanings of water collide.
Water grabbing is the process in which powerful actors (often, but
not always international) take control of bodies of water by diverting,
draining, contaminating, or enclosing wetlands, rivers, and even the
ocean. Contemporary development often depends on water grabbing for
projects such as highway construction, large-scale dam building,
monocultures, and mining.
In Argentina, for instance, the enclosure of wetlands to the
expansion of agri-business has caused the deterioration of aquatic
ecosystems and rural livelihoods. On 13 October 2012, the Families of
Small Producers of Gallo Sapukay, in Mercedes, sent a letter to
President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner denouncing the Saanto Ignacio
S.A. firm, which bought and fenced large swaths of wetlands where they
used to work and live. Furthermore, the Families made public the fact
that employees of the firm had threatened them, and that it was illegal
to build an embankment that would have disastrous effects in the
hydrological processes of the wetland complex.
The Families insisted upon their right to work and live in the
disputed area, and expressed fears of experiencing a similar situation
to one that occurred in the nearby area of Yahaveré, where the firm
Forestal Andina - which later became Hacienda San Eugenio S.A. and was
involved in other environmental conflicts such as the illegal use of
lands pertaining to a natural reserve - fenced a large area of wetlands
and built an embankment to introduce large-scale cattle ranching in the
area.
In Chile, the expansion of large-scale extractive industries that has
led to the deterioration and eventual disappearance of vast swaths of
wetlands has been one of the main drivers of water grabbing. That has
been the case of the Aymara community of Cancosa in Northern Chile,
which has long suffered the devastating effects of the operations of BHP
Billiton on their wetlands. BHP Billiton is a multinational company
predominantly involved in copper mining. In Cancosa, this company has
extracted copper for more than two decades and, in so doing, it has
destroyed many wetlands and wells. By destroying wetlands, BHP Billiton
triggered a process of dispossession in the Aymara community of Cancosa:
more than 90% of the Aymara families were forced to leave their
community because of the deterioration of water resources. As a response
to this form of dispossession, the Aymara people filed two lawsuits in
2006 and 2007 against BHP Billiton demanding redress of the
environmental and social damages it produced.
Eventhough little has been achieved thus far in the environmental
cases against of BHP Billiton, the mobilization of the Aymara people
account for a growing wave of resistance against water grabbing
throughout Latin America.
Unlike the Aymara case, however, other groups have mobilized (even
pre-emptively) before extractive industries take hold. In 2012, People
from Corral de Piedra, Costa Rica, lodged acomplaint against Holcim -
one of the world's largest cement companies. According to this
complaint, Holcim had purchased a swath of land including a very
important wetland. People from Corral de Piedra opposed the arrival of
Holcim, concluding that it would pose an imminent threat to the aquatic
ecosystems and the environmental sustainability of the area.
Yet the struggle against the insidious connection between the
deterioration of water resources and development is not only a struggle
against private companies, but also against the state, which has also
been an important actor in the production of different forms of water
grabbing. This is particularly clear, for example, in the
intensification of water grabbing in Northern Peru, where a number of
Peruvian activists and organizations have called attention to the
disastrous effects of mining operations on The Virrilá Estuary, the San
Pedro mangroves, and the Ramón and Ñapique lagoons in the lower Piura
river basin.
The Piura river basin is the habitat of numerous species and fishing
communities, but it is also becoming the home of international mining
companies. Local authorities and people have suggested the creation of a
community conservation area of about 54,000 hectares as a way to protect
aquatic ecosystems and artisanal fishing from the effects of mining. Yet
almost 82% of the proposed area overlaps with seventeen mining
concessions granted by the Peruvian state.
The problem of water grabbing in Latin America, however, cannot be
explained exclusively as a problem of the permissiveness of the state,
or as the consequence of the expansion of market-oriented economies.
- Third World Network Features
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