Hydrosocial territories, agro-export and water scarcity: capitalist territorial transformations and water governance in Peru’s coastal valleys
Year | : | 2019 |
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Author/s | : | Gerardo Damonte, Rutgerd Boelens |
Area/s | : | Natural resources, extractive industries and social conflict |
Damonte, Gerardo y Rutgerd Boelens (2019). Hydrosocial territories, agro-export and water scarcity: capitalist territorial transformations and water governance in Peru’s coastal valleys. Water International, 44(2), 206-223.
In recent decades, an agro-export boom has deeply transformed Peru’s coastal valleys, resulting in dramatic territorial changes and social inequality in the Ica Valley. This article explains how politico-economic and socio-institutional forces have triggered the emergence of a new ‘hydrosocial territory’, transforming the Ica Valley into a virtual-water extraction zone that produces luxury export crops for the North and China. In addition, it shows how these territorial reconfigurations have led to ecological damage, water scarcity and increasing rural–urban inequality sustained by a hegemonic development discourse that supports agribusiness-elite territorial dominance and discourages social unrest.