Water is the world’s most important
natural resource. Some would say it is our most
important commodity whose allocation should be governed by pricing
mechanisms and market transactions. Yet water is unlike any other
resource in its mobility, its form and its
centrality to the maintenance of human life and human communities.
Water’s physical, conceptual and social plasticity precludes easy
categorizations, creates uncertainty regarding
its handling and poses critical questions regarding use and management.
During the past three decades, international economic institutions such
as the World Bank and the
International Monetary Fund have sought to confront such questions by
forcing privatization policies on developing nations in accordance with
their neoliberal economic philosophies. These policies privatize state
water services — generally transferring the rights to large
multinational corporations (MNC’s) — and ultimately transform water
from a public good into a private, economic asset with corresponding
private property rights. Lower and middle-class groups have often
suffered as a result of these policies and have risen up in opposition
to the MNC’s and their governments claiming an international right to
water. I analyze three water conflicts in Latin America in order
elucidate the convergence of coinciding systems of water law: an
international legal framework of water as a human right
and domestic systems of water as a property right. Specifically, I
examine water conflicts in Bolivia, Argentina, and Chile within the
context of diverse economic responses to the legal
challenges posed by water’s uniqueness as a resource. I draw
conclusions about analyses of
social conflicts, current conceptions of law and global economic
theory, as well as present implications regarding the state of water
law.
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