Work

The political construction and fixing of water overabundance: rural–urban flood-risk politics in coastal Ecuador

Year: 2019

Type: article

Abstract: Ecuador’s mega-dam project aims to control Chone city’s flooding hazards, but it submerges peasants’ territories – legitimized by ‘modern city/majority benefit’ versus ‘rural backward/sacrifice-able minority’ discourse. Presented as disordered, unruly and needing domestication, peasants must follow urban imaginaries and safeguard modern-urban progress. Policy-makers’ water overabundance discourse presents ‘flood risk’ as a natural and techno-managerial problem, hiding how unequal power balances establish ‘high-value’ (urban/elite) areas as protection zones and rural areas as sacrifice zones. Excessive water is stored in rural areas, neglecting peasants’ livelihoods and governance forms. The paper’s political ecology approach displays the ‘water overabundance’ discourse as a techno-political, naturalized construct that profoundly impacts rural–urban hydro-territoriality.

Source: Water International

DOI: 10.1080/02508060.2019.1573560

Authors: Juan Pablo Hidalgo-Bastidas, Rutgerd Boelens

Institutions: Central University of Ecuador, University of Amsterdam, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Wageningen University & Research

Language: English

Topic: Water Governance and Infrastructure

Subfield: Political Science and International Relations

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Clean water and sanitation, Sustainable cities and communities, Reduced inequalities, Peace, justice, and strong institutions

Open Access status: hybrid

Funder: Secretaría de Educación Superior, Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación