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Water Citizenship: Negotiating Water Rights and Contesting Water Culture in the Peruvian Andes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 September 2022

Karsten Paerregaard
Affiliation:
University of Oslo
Astrid Bredholt Stensrud
Affiliation:
University of Oslo
Astrid Oberborbeck Andersen
Affiliation:
University of Copenhagen
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Abstract

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This article examines the implementation of Peru's new water law and discusses how it produces new forms of water citizenship. Inspired by the global paradigm of “integrated water resources management,” the law aims to include all citizens in the management of the country's water resources by embracing a “new water culture.” We ask what forms of water citizenship emerge from the new water law and how they engage with local water practices and affect existing relations of inequality. We answer these questions ethnographically by comparing previous water legislation and how the new law currently is negotiated and contested in three localities in Peru's southern highlands. We argue that the law creates a new water culture that views water as a substance that is measurable, quantifiable, and taxable, but that it neglects other ways of valuing water. We conclude that water citizenship emerges from the particular ways water authorities and water users define rights to access and use water, on the one hand, and obligations to contribute to the construction and maintenance of water infrastructure and pay for the use of water, on the other.

Resumo

Resumo

Este artículo examina la implementación de la nueva ley de agua del Perú y evalúa cómo produce nuevas formas de ciudanía de agua. El fin de la ley que ha sido influida por la paradigma global del “manejo integral de recursos de agua” es incluir todos los ciudadanos en el manejo de los recursos de agua del país acogiendo una nueva “cultura de agua”. Nuestra pregunta de investigación es ¿qué tipos de ciudanía surge de la nueva ley y cómo engrana esta con las prácticas de agua locales y afecta las relaciones de desigualdad existentes? Respondemos a la pregunta etnográficamente explorando y comparando cómo legislaciones de agua anteriores han sido practicadas y cómo la nueva ley es negociado y impugnado actualmente en tres localidades en la Sierra Sur del Perú. Sugerimos que la ley crea una nueva cultura de agua que considera el agua como una sustancia que es medible, cuantificable y imponible pero que no obstante ignora otras formas de valorar el agua. Concluimos que la ciudanía de agua surge de las maneras particulares que las autoridades de agua y los usuarios de agua definen por un lado los derechos de acceder agua y por otro lado las obligaciones de contribuir a la construcción y el mantenimiento de la infraestructura de agua y el pago por el uso de agua.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © 2016 by the Latin American Studies Association

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