Water Justice

Water justice is becoming an ever-more pressing issue in times of increasing water-based inequalities and discrimination. Megacities, mining, forestry, industry and agribusiness claim an increasingly large share of available surface and groundwater reserves. Water grabbing and pollution generate poverty and endanger ecosystems' sustainability. Beyond large, visible injustices, the book also unfolds the many 'hidden' water world injustices, subtly masked as 'rational', 'equitable' and 'democratic'. It features critical conceptual approaches, including analysis of environmental, social, cultural and legal issues surrounding the distribution and management of water. Illustrated with case studies of historic and contemporary water injustices and contestations around the world, the book lays new ground for challenging current water governance forms and unequal power structures. It also provides inspiration for building alternative water realities. With contributions from renowned scholars, this is an indispensable book for students, researchers and policymakers interested in water governance, environmental policy and law, and political geography.

1. Introduction: the multiple challenges and layers of water justice struggles Rutgerd Boelens, Jeroen Vos and Tom Perreault; Part I. Re-Politicizing Water Allocation: 2. Water governance as a question of justice: politics, rights and representation Dik Roth, Margreet Zwarteveen, K. C. Joy and Seema Kulkarni; 3. Water grabbing: practices of contestation and appropriation of water resources in the context of expanding global capital Gert Jan Veldwisch, Jennifer Franco and Lyla Mehta; 4. De-politicized policy analysis: how the prevailing frameworks of analysis slight equity in water governance Andrea K. Gerlak and Helen Ingram; 5. Urban water and sanitation injustice: an analytical framework Ben Crow; Part II. Hydrosocial De-Patterning and Re-Composition: 6. '… And not a single injustice remains': hydro-territorial colonization and techno-political transformations in Spain Erik Swyngedouw and Rutgerd Boelens; 7. Making space for the Cauca River in Colombia: inequalities and environmental citizenship Renata Moreno-Quintero and Theresa Selfa; 8. Reconfiguration of hydrosocial territories and water justice struggles Lena Hommes, Rutgerd Boelens, Bibiana Duarte-Abadía, Juan Pablo Hidalgo and Jaime Hoogesteger; 9. Large-scale dam development and counter movements: water justice struggles around Guatemala's Chixoy Dam Barbara Rose Johnston; Part III. Exclusion and Struggles for Co-Decision: 10. Indigenous people and water governance in Canada: regulatory injustice and prospects for reform Karen Bakker, Rosie Simms, Nadia Joe and Leila Harris; 11. Sanitation justice? The multiple dimensions of urban sanitation inequalities Maria Rusca, Cecilia Alda-Vidal and Michelle Kooy; 12. Uniting diversity to build Europe's water movement Right2Water Jerry van den Berge, Rutgerd Boelens and Jeroen Vos; 13. Everyday water injustice and the politics of accommodation Frances Cleaver; 14. Sharing our water: inclusive development and glocal water justice in the Anthropocene Joyeeta Gupta; Part IV. Governmentality, Discourses and Struggles over Imaginaries and Water Knowledge: 15. Neoliberal water governmentalities, virtual water trade, and contestations Jeroen Vos and Rutgerd Boelens; 16. Critical ecosystem infrastructure: governing the forest-water nexus in the Kenyan Highlands Connor Joseph Cavanagh; 17. The meaning of mining, the memory of water: collective experience as environmental justice Tom Perreault; 18. New spaces for water justice? Groundwater extraction and changing gendered subjectivities in Morocco's Saïss region Lisa Bossenbroek and Margreet Zwarteveen; 19. Conclusions: struggles for justice in a changing water world Tom Perreault, Rutgerd Boelens and Jeroen Vos; Index.

Rutgerd Boelens is Professor of Water Governance and Social Justice with the Department of Environmental Sciences at Wageningen University and Professor of Political Ecology of Water in Latin America with CEDLA (Centre for Latin American Research and Documentation) and the University of Amsterdam. He is also visiting professor at the Catholic University of Peru and coordinates the international Justicia Hídrica/Water Justice alliance. His work focuses on water rights, water grabbing, hydrosocial territories, legal pluralism, cultural politics, governmentality and social mobilisation.
Tom Perreault is Professor of Geography at Syracuse University, New York. His research examines the intersections of political ecology, resource governance, agrarians transformation, and indigenous and campesino social mobilisation in the central Andes and western Amazon. His research has been funded by Fulbright, the Inter-American Foundation, the United Nations and the US National Science Foundation.
Jeroen Vos is Assistant Professor of Water Governance at the Department of Water Resources Management at Wageningen University, The Netherlands where he teaches on agricultural water governance and political ecology of water. As a water policy advisor he has also worked in Peru and Bolivia with different international development organisations. His current research interests are the dynamics and discourses of water use and governance by agribusinesses in Latin America.