Escasez extraordinaria y derecho de aguas

Abstract

El derecho de aguas elaborado en el marco del paradigma decimonónico, considera a la sequía como una situación excepcional que exceptúa de la aplicación de las reglas normales. Sin embargo, la evidencia muestra que la sequía tanto ordinaria como extraordinaria no constituye exclusivamente un extremo hidrológico o climático, sino también un fenómeno económico y social que cambia con el tiempo, y lleva a reformular los presupuestos sobre los que principio y excepción se articulan en el derecho de aguas contemporáneo.Palabras clave: Escasez, derecho de aguas, emergencia, excepción, discrecionalidad.Water law from the nineteenth-century paradigm considers drought as an exceptional situation that exempts from the application of normal rules. However, evidence shows that both normal or extreme drought have not only hydrological or climatic causes but also economic and social reasons that change over time. This fact lead to rethink the assumptions on which principle and exception are articulated in contemporary water law.Keywords: Scarcity, water law, emergency, exception, discretionary powers. Se repite con insistencia que el derecho de aguas es el derecho de la escasez. Las situaciones de sequía o escasez son consideradas por los Escasez extraordinaria y derecho de aguas

Ensuring access to water in an emergency context: Towards an overexploitation and contamination of water resources?

“…The first geo-legal device is legally constituted by the Water Scarcity Decree enshrined in Article 314 of Book III of the Water Code. The decree establishes a state of emergency in the water sector (Martin and Pinto, 2015): the result is that legal proceedings of the Water Code are suspended, and the administrative authorities have their powers extended. In the Elqui Valley, the first decree was issued in 1990, and its application has been reiterated on multiple occasions starting in 2014, during the second presidential term of President Michelle Bachelet (2014)(2015)(2016)(2017)(2018).…”

“…In this emergency context, even more so than in a normal one, the official creates the law, since, through her decisions, she dictates water law (Hoekema, 1994). In this way, the official can favour certain users, which raises the problem of the creation of inequalities before the law (Martin and Pinto, 2015).…”