Water Grabs Power Predatory Development

Water Grabs Power Predatory Development

Alejandro Camargo
December 8, 2014

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 NASA 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.

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 Oct. 13, 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 situation similar to what 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, 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 percent of the Aymara families were forced to leave their community because of the deterioration of water resources.

More:
http://www.worldpress.org/Americas/4035.cfm