Working-class water justice: Salvadoran sindicalistas and the fight for a “just and dignified life”

Claudia Díaz-Combs
SUNY Old Westbury, Old Westbury, Long Island, New York, USA; diazcombsc@oldwestbury.edu

ABSTRACT: El Salvador is one of the rainiest countries in Latin America, but it is also one of the most water stressed. State negligence and lack of effective regulation of industrial, agricultural and domestic discharge has meant that, for decades, effluent has flowed unchecked into El Salvador’s freshwater bodies. Today, around 90% of the country’s surface water is contaminated. Various important Salvadoran social movements have rallied around socio-ecological concerns that include protecting public goods, services, land and water from contamination and from the encroachments of privatisation. Among them, the environmental movement is the most prominent. While not centred on water justice struggles, Salvadoran unions continue to play a major role in campaigns against austerity. This article focuses on the Salvadoran labour movement. It observes the ways in which unions have folded water-related concerns into the broader economic and workplace demands. Water justice is complex, diverse and multifaceted and must be approached from different perspectives. In this article, I argue for a working-class water justice framework that uses strategies such as strikes, work stoppages and collective bargaining to secure demands for improved infrastructure, higher wages, and to protect public services like the water network.

KEYWORDS: Water justice, labour unions, political ecology, infrastructure, El Salvador

Exploring the diverse motivations of volunteer water management committees in rural Malawi

Ian Cunningham
Small is Beautiful Consulting; and Honorary Fellow, Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney; ian.cunningham@smallis.au

Juliet Willetts
Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney; Juliet.willetts@uts.edu.au

Tim Foster
Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney; Tim.foster@uts.edu.au

Keren Winterford
Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney; keren.winterford@uts.edu.au

ABSTRACT: Motivated volunteer water committees are central to the effectiveness of community-based management (CBM) approaches to rural drinking water supply. CBM is the predominant approach to managing rural drinking water supplies, particularly in low-income countries. In CBM, it is assumed that a community’s interest in a sustained water supply will motivate them to take on water supply management responsibilities. However, in practice and in the academic literature, Water Point Committee (WPC) members’ motivations have been oversimplified and are poorly understood. This paper uses Self-Determination Theory (SDT), a theory of motivation, to analyse the types and quality of WPC members’ motivations across six rural locations in Malawi. We found a wider range and quality of motives than has been documented in the literature. WPC members’ autonomous, higher-quality motives included personal benefits from an improved water supply service, the pro-social nature of the committee role, an interest in learning and working with others, and positive changes in self-esteem. Lower-quality motives were experienced as feelings of being pressured and included continued committee participation to avoid shame or to avoid disappointing others. Our study findings show the relevance of SDT in providing a more nuanced understanding of what drives WPC members’ commitment to water management responsibilities. This understanding of, and support for, members’ motivations is critical for sustaining community-based rural water supply services.

KEYWORDS: Motivations, rural water supply, volunteers, community-based, Self-Determination Theory, behaviour change, Malawi

Mekong River dry season changes due to hydropower dams and extractive processes: Making sense of contradictory community observations in Thailand, Laos and Cambodia

Ian G. Baird
Department of Geography, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA; ibaird@wisc.edu

Michael A. S. Thorne
British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge, UK; mast3@cam.ac.uk

Sirasak Gaja-Svasti
Ubon Ratchathani University, Warin Chamrap, Ubon Ratchathani, Thailand; gajasvasti@gmail.com

ABSTRACT: The Mekong is amongst the most important rivers in the world with regard to biodiversity and livelihood. Over the last few decades, however, the river has experienced dramatic hydrological changes, mainly due to the construction of large hydropower dams on the mainstream Mekong and its tributaries. Other potentially crucial factors include sand mining, erosion, embankment construction, and water extraction. In March and early April of 2024, we organised focus group interviews to discuss the changes that have occurred during the dry season with local people living in different communities along the mainstream Mekong River: 32 villages in eight provinces in northern and northeastern Thailand, 9 villages in Champassak Province, southern Laos, and 3 villages in Stung Treng Province, northeastern Cambodia. In this paper, we present some of the results of this research, particularly focusing on water level and turbidity changes, as local people along the Mekong River have varied understandings regarding whether there is more or less water in the Mekong River during the dry season. We argue that riverbed incision resulting largely from hydropower dam development and sand mining have, in particular, led many people living along the Mekong between northeastern Thailand and central Laos to incorrectly believe that there is less water in the Mekong River during the dry season compared to the past, while dry season water releases from upriver hydropower dams have led those in northern Thailand, lower northeastern Thailand, southern Laos, and northeastern Cambodia to assess that there is now more water in the Mekong River.

KEYWORDS: Hydrology, sediment, local knowledge, water level, Mekong River, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia

User acceptance of digital groundwater technologies: A data governance perspective

Tanya Baycheva-Merger
Chair of Forest and Environmental Policy, University of Freiburg, Germany, tanya.baycheva@ifp.uni-freiburg.de

Jakob Kramer
Chair of Forest and Environmental Policy, University of Freiburg, Germany, jakob.kramer@ifp.uni-freiburg.de

Kerstin Stahl
Hydrological Chairs, University of Freiburg, Germany, kerstin.stahl@hydrology.uni-freiburg.de

Sylvia Kruse
Chair of Forest and Environmental Policy, University of Freiburg, Germany, sylvia.kruse@ifp.uni-freiburg.de

ABSTRACT: This study explores the user acceptance of Internet of Things (IoT) real-time monitoring systems for groundwater management from the perspective of data governance. While user acceptance is widely acknowledged as key to the adoption of digital technologies, existing research often overlooks how data governance structures shape users’ willingness to adopt and use such systems. Following a case study approach and drawing on qualitative, semi-structured interviews with representatives of public and private organisations in the region of Freiburg, Germany, the study examines how issues of openness, accountability, and power influence user acceptance. The findings reveal that, while openness in data sharing can foster transparency, trust, and collaboration, unresolved concerns related to data privacy, security, quality, and ownership function as barriers to adoption. Smaller organisations in particular face challenges in accessing or benefiting from real-time data, raising questions about equity and inclusion in digital water governance. The study contributes to the emerging debate on digitalisation and data governance in the water sector, showing that user acceptance depends not only on perceived usefulness but also on the institutional, legal, and political context in which digital technologies are embedded. A more critical, inclusive, and context-sensitive approach to digital water governance is therefore needed.

KEYWORDS: Digitalisation, groundwater management, user acceptance, data governance, Germany

Water infrastructures and local power in peripheral urbanisation: New insights from urban political ecology in São Paulo

Tade Rücker
Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Geographisches Institut, Kiel, Germany; ruecker@geographie.uni-kiel.de

Rainer Wehrhahn
Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Geographisches Institut, Kiel, Germany; wehrhahn@geographie.uni-kiel.de

ABSTRACT: This paper explores how access to water in peripheral urban settlements is shaped by micro-scale power relations, material infrastructures, and collective organisation. Engaging with debates on infrastructure and peripheral urbanisation in the Global South, the paper conceptualises access to water infrastructures through the lens of Access Theory. The study examines two recent land occupations in São Paulo, Brazil, which differ significantly in their organisational structures. The comparison reveals that seemingly similar contexts of peripheral urbanisation generate profoundly divergent hydrosocial metabolisms through residents’ differentiated approaches to self-built infrastructure development. It contributes to situated Urban Political Ecology debates by demonstrating how peripheral urbanisation produces heterogeneous socionatural configurations rather than uniform patterns of exclusion. This points to the need for nuanced approaches to 'informal settlements' and highlights residents as active producers of urban infrastructure and distinct territorial subjectivities.

KEYWORDS: Peripheral urbanisation, infrastructure, Urban Political Ecology, water, São Paulo, Brazil

Unravelling sociomaterial complexities in river connectivity restoration: Understanding fishways as heterogeneous networks

Panos Panagiotopoulos
Aquaculture biology and Fisheries ecology Group, Wageningen University & Research, Wageningen, the Netherlands; panos.panagiotopoulos@wur.nl

Anthonie D. Buijse
Aquaculture biology and Fisheries ecology Group, Wageningen University & Research, Wageningen, the Netherlands; and Department of Freshwater Ecology and Water Quality, Deltares, Wageningen, the Netherlands; tom.buijse@deltares.nl

Luc Roozendaal
Environmental Policy Group, Wageningen University and Research, Wageningen, the Netherlands; lucroozendaal@hotmail.com

Hendrik V. Winter
Aquaculture biology and Fisheries ecology Group, Wageningen University & Research, Wageningen, the Netherlands; and Wageningen Marine Research, Ijmuiden, the Netherlands; erwin.winter@wur.nl

Leopold A.J. Nagelkerke
Aquaculture biology and Fisheries ecology Group, Wageningen University & Research, Wageningen, the Netherlands; leo.nagelkerke@wur.nl

Annet P. Pauwelussen
Environmental Policy Group, Wageningen University and Research, Wageningen, the Netherlands; annet.pauwelussen@wur.nl

ABSTRACT: In the context of river connectivity restoration, fishways play a crucial role in facilitating the migration of fish past barriers, but their form and functionality are often determined by various sociomaterial complexities. This study uses the case of fishway development in the Waterschap Brabantse Delta management area of the Netherlands to explore such complexities. Taking a network approach, we investigated the implementation and management of fishways as a process of assembling heterogeneous networks that involve both human and non-human actors. Using data from interviews, field observations and document analysis, the research revealed fishways to be networks of actors that included fish, engineers and maintenance personnel. We further demonstrate that fishways are embedded as actors, or 'nodes', within broader networks that exert a reciprocal influence on their functioning. By following fishways across different phases of their development trajectory and tracing the participation or withdrawal of actors, we explore changes in the networks and their subsequent impact on fishway design and performance.

KEYWORDS: Fish migration, fishways, river restoration, sociomaterial networks, the Netherlands

How representatives of community-based water organisations navigate gaps in Colombia’s national drinking water co-production strategy

Katharina Lindt
Brandenburgische Technische Universitaet, Cottbus, Germany; katharina.lindt@b-tu.de

Bibiana Royero Benavides
Universidad de Cundinamarca, Fusagasugá, Colombia; pilarbenavides1979@gmail.com

ABSTRACT: Community-based water provision in Colombia’s rural areas represents a form of collective resource supply that has historically developed as a countermovement to state fragility and remains the countryside’s only alternative to organised water supply. The Colombian state has legally recognised these water communities to meet constitutional and international commitments to universal drinking water access. However, integration occurs through a control-oriented approach, and is accompanied by administrative demands that most community-based providers cannot meet, which leaves them in a persistent informal status. Findings show that co-production practices reproduce governance fragilities and undermine the very social values the water communities are assumed to embody, even as state institutions depend on their work. The implemented co-production model not only requires constant informal negotiation but also fosters clientelism, corruption, socially harmful practices, and conflicts that cannot be resolved within existing structures. Based on qualitative case studies of seven community-based water providers, this article examines how volunteer representatives of these water communities navigate these contradictions, applying improvised strategies to individually sustain functionality. Meanwhile, these community-based water providers form wider networks and try to shape the public discourse around water co-production in order to achieve inclusion in the policy design process and improve collective support structures.

KEYWORDS: Community-based water supply, rural water supply, drinking water co-production, Colombia

Framing water through oil: How hydrocarbons shape water governance in Algeria

Selma Benyovszky
Human Geography, School of Archaeology, Geography and Environmental Sciences, University of Reading, UK; s.benyovszky@pgr.reading.ac.uk

ABSTRACT: This study advances social science research on water by providing insights into the interplay between water and energy politics in Algeria, contributing to broader discussions on water governance in fossil-fuel-dependent nations. Using frame analysis, this research examines how water politics is positioned in relation to Algeria’s dependence on fossil fuels. The findings reveal that, despite policy rhetoric emphasising water as a national priority, hydrocarbons remain central to the state’s political strategies. Water issues, such as access and pollution, are often viewed primarily as risks to social stability rather than as ecological challenges. Consequently, water management is dominated by short-term, reactive strategies, often aimed at mitigating social discontent rather than achieving sustainable solutions. This dynamic is evident in municipalities like El Harrach, where promises of improved water quality and access are undermined by the prevailing prioritisation of hydrocarbon interests. By examining energy-water interdependencies not only as technical linkages but as key elements of statecraft and territorial control, the article shows how water governance is shaped also through lived experiences, contested meanings, and power-laden relations embedded in its hydrosocial territory.

KEYWORDS: Water governance, hydrosocial territories, hydrocarbon sector, frame analysis, Algeria