Water and its economies: On three models of water resources management

Abstract

Water is not only chemistry or physics. It is also culture and ideology, so, apart from being an urgent biological need, it can be transmuted, not by alchemy in “holy water” or “blue gold”. The importance of water is therefore not only fulfilling a vital organ function, but it is its ability to adopt a symbolic added value that transcends the purely biological. Based on this premise and from the theoretical perspective of political economy, water is capable of being transformed into “social capital”, “political capital” or “economic capital”, depending if their anthropological values are translated into key of “solidarity” by “authority” or “return”. It symbolically transmutes “solidarity” when the liquid element becomes a socially guaranteed right for all users without distinction within a given community. It translates into authority, when it becomes a source of political power from which the access of its enjoyment is regulated to a greater or smaller number of beneficiaries. It is interpreted based upon profitability, when it shines in a business opportunity depending on the economic gain from its use.

Keywords: water management, reciprocity, redistribution, market, social capital, political capital, economic capital, water transfers, bott led water.