Conflictos del agua y del territorio en Laguna del Cisne (Canelones, Uruguay):: proyectos hidrosociales en disputa

Abstract

In Uruguay, as in other Latin American countries, institutions, norms and water policies are formed and transformed in similar historical contexts of internal and external pressures. These pressures are often contradictory and directed at different objectives, towards greater decentralization, social participation, and integration between sectors (water, sanitation, land use, etc.). In the Uruguayan case, where water governance models have been in transition since the early 2000s, we sought to analyze the process of problematizing the water issue and water crises, focusing on the dispute between different materialized and non-materialized hydrosocial projects, as well as the strategies used by different groups of actors to maintain hierarchical relationships and, consequently, power over water and territory. Based on the case study of Laguna del Cisne (Canelones, Uruguay), we analyze the process of social construction of two water crises associated with the notion of water scarcity (in quality and quantity) and its relationship with hydrosocial projects that diverge from each other, as well as as its implications for water, territory and hydrosocial relationships. From this, it is possible to understand how, in contexts of crisis, the decision-making process is centralized in State institutions at the national level, through strategically articulated scales, to meet the interests of certain groups of actors, despite the existence of basin committees.