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Dupuits, Emilie --- "Urban water management: from the human rights framework to political challenges in Latin America" [2018] ELECD 1238; in Tignino, Mara; Bréthaut, Christian (eds), "Research Handbook on Freshwater Law and International Relations" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2018) 96

Book Title: Research Handbook on Freshwater Law and International Relations

Editor(s): Tignino, Mara; Bréthaut, Christian

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN: 9781785360640

Section: Chapter 4

Section Title: Urban water management: from the human rights framework to political challenges in Latin America

Author(s): Dupuits, Emilie

Number of pages: 20

Abstract/Description:

Urban water management is one of the main priorities in global development agendas in the context of growing cities and climate change. However, the technical representation often attributed to urban waters hides the existing political interests and social inequalities behind. Moreover, the human right to water framework adopted at the global scale is unclear regarding the legitimacy of private companies in its provision, the transfer of resources to States for its implementation, and the role of grassroots actors in decision-making processes. In this chapter, we aim to examine the way public, private and community actors interact with each other and mobilise the human right to water in order to respond to urban water management challenges. The Latin American region, and more specifically Ecuador, is taken as an illustration of the political conflicts arising around the implementation of the human right to water in the context of (neo)extractivist policies and anti-privatisation movements. However, the region is also the place of water management alternatives, from community management to public-community partnerships connecting urban and rural areas.