Peri-urban territories and rural water community governance in Chile
International Journal of Social Economics
ISSN: 0306-8293
Article publication date: 16 September 2021
Issue publication date: 3 January 2022
Abstract
Purpose
Rural drinking water services in Chile are managed by Rural Drinking Water Associations (RDWAs) with a community governance model. However, urban growth and a neoliberal institutional setting tend to favor market-style governance, both in terms of territorial planning and drinking water supply, placing stress on the community governance model of RDWA. The authors seek to understand these processes and identify the position of RDWA actors facing socio-territorial and environmental transformations experienced in peri-urban sectors of the city of Talca (Chile).
Design/methodology/approach
The authors used georeferenced data, participant and non-participant observation and semi-structured interviews. With these data, the authors analyzed the positions and discourses of water governance actors in relation to socio-territorial transformations in the peri-urban areas of the city, as well as for tensions between community and market governance.
Findings
The authors identified a growth tendency of RDWA users around the city of Talca due to a sharp drinking water demand increase in peri-urban territories. As such, the authors describe and contrast RWDA managers and governmental regulators' discourses regarding environmental and socio-territorial transformations. In these discourses, the authors found three critical topics: (1) land liberalization blurring urban territory borders; (2) Law #20998, a poorly financed reform which raises the specter of RDWA privatization, jeopardizing historic community drinking water management; and (3) the consequences of declining community commitment to RDWAs.
Practical implications
One key implication of these findings is the need to modify RDWA pricing policies to deal with new rural inhabitant lifestyles and drinking water demands and to fulfill water basic needs of rural families, avoiding privatization risks. This change could help not only dealing with growing scarcity during global climate change, but could also provide financial resources to face new technical and administrative requirements of SSR Law.
Originality/value
The originality of the study comes from using a framework of governance tensions applied to water governance in peri-urban areas in a neoliberal institutional setting.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This article was supported by the National Agency for Research and Development, ANID – Chile through the Regular Fondecyt project No 1190020 and Initiation Fondecyt project No 11180256.
Citation
Duarte Vera, A., Vanhulst, J. and Letelier Araya, E.A. (2022), "Peri-urban territories and rural water community governance in Chile", International Journal of Social Economics, Vol. 49 No. 1, pp. 59-72. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSE-09-2020-0633
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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