Water grabbing

Water grabbing involves the diversion of water resources and watersheds by domestic and transnational companies, governments, and individuals, which deprives local communities who depend on the water and ecosystems for their livelihoods. It also can have damaging environmental effects as watersheds are made unsustainable by overuse of limited water.[1] While water grabbing has a long history linked to the enclosure of the commons, its emergence as a term recently is most recently associated with the renewed focus on land grabbing caused by growth in food speculation, large scale agricultural investments for food and biofuels production.

The ability to take over water is usually associated with processes of commodification and privatisation of water that transform water from a public good to a private commodity, with access often controlled by ability to pay. Thus water grabbing can take many forms, from extraction of water for large-scale food and fuel crop monocultures, to the damming of rivers for hydroelectricity, to the privatisation of public water management in cities. It also is evidenced in a growing trade in virtual water.

References

  1. ↑ Franco, Jennifer; Lyla Mehta; Gert Jan Veldwisch (June 2012). March 2012 "Water Grabbing? Focus on the (Re)appropriation of Finite Water Resources, Water Alternatives Journal" Check |url= value (help). Water Alternatives Journal.

Further reading

http://www.water-alternatives.org/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_download&gid=175

See also

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