The Politics of Fresh Water ― Access, Conflict and Identity

This volume discusses the politics of the freshwater crisis, specifically access to water in different regions and historical periods. It demonstrates the impact of efforts to control water systems, through development, technologies, and institutions, on identities and communities.

Itself a paradox of fundamental and fluid characteristics, identity is constructed in part around similarities and differences. Unequal access to water contributes to the construction of collective identities, for example when marginalized people see themselves as the oppressed and excluded. These groups mobilize in support of specific responses to mitigate the difference in access. It is shown that these responses are themselves expressions of collective identity that raise questions about power relationships within the social structure.

The book analyzes responses to the water crisis as efforts to mitigate water insecurity and as expressions of collective identity that legitimate, resist, or seek to transform existing inequalities. The chapters focus on different processes that contribute to freshwater scarcity, including land use decisions, pollution, privatization, damming, climate change, discrimination, water management institutions and technology. Case studies are included from North and South America, Africa, Asia, Europe and New Zealand.

Catherine Ashcraft is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Natural Resources and the Environment at the University of New Hampshire, USA, specializing in international environmental governance, negotiation and dispute resolution, particularly as relates to water. Her PhD research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology focused on adaptive governance of international river basins.

Tamar Mayer is Director of the Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs, and for Hebrew Studies and International and Global Studies, at Middlebury College, Vermont, USA.