Water grabbing in the Cauca basin: the capitalist exploitation of water and dispossession of afro-descendant communities

TY - JOUR

T1 - Water grabbing in the Cauca basin

T2 - the capitalist exploitation of water and dispossession of afro-descendant communities

AU - Velez Torres, Irene

PY - 2012

Y1 - 2012

N2 - This article examines water grabbing in the Alto Cauca in Colombia as a form of accumulation through ethnicised and racialised environmental dispossession in the capitalist system. Characterised by privatisation and historical trends of exclusion, this violent accumulation model has shaped a particular form of environmental racism leading to negative impacts experienced in historically marginalised Afro-descendant local communities. Analyzing two development projects in the upper watershed of the Cauca river – the Agua Blanca Irrigation District Project and a Project for Diverting the River Cauca – the article concludes that many actors are responsible for the negative effects of the regional development model. These include the state, national and foreign private companies, and powerful international economic stakeholders.

AB - This article examines water grabbing in the Alto Cauca in Colombia as a form of accumulation through ethnicised and racialised environmental dispossession in the capitalist system. Characterised by privatisation and historical trends of exclusion, this violent accumulation model has shaped a particular form of environmental racism leading to negative impacts experienced in historically marginalised Afro-descendant local communities. Analyzing two development projects in the upper watershed of the Cauca river – the Agua Blanca Irrigation District Project and a Project for Diverting the River Cauca – the article concludes that many actors are responsible for the negative effects of the regional development model. These include the state, national and foreign private companies, and powerful international economic stakeholders.

M3 - Journal article

SN - 1965-0175

VL - 5

SP - 431

EP - 449

JO - Water Alternatives

JF - Water Alternatives

IS - 2

ER -