Questioning the effectiveness of planned conflict resolution strategies in water disputes between rural communities and mining companies in Peru

Abstract

Disputes between mining companies and surrounding communities over the access to, control of and distribution of water form an important part of the socio-environmental conflicts that large mining operations in Peru are producing. In order to mitigate environmental impacts, solve conflicts and deal with opposition to mining operations, governmental actors and mining companies make use of a combination of legal and technical strategies. This article questions the effectiveness of these strategies, focusing in particular on the longer-term sustainability of water resources, water-based ecosystems and livelihoods. Based on research carried out in the surroundings of the Yanacocha gold mine in Cajamarca, the article shows that although legal and technical conflict resolution strategies are effective in temporarily diffusing tensions, they do not address the underlying political causes of conflicts. Instead of these seemingly objective, neutral and quick solutions, the analysis suggests that solving environmental conflicts around large-scale mining operations requires explicitly admitting and dealing with the fact that these conflicts are always inherently political, situated, complex and power-laden. ARTICLE HISTORY

The Social and Political Life of Latin American Infrastructures

“…Perhaps the most emblematic of all has been the conflict with the Yanacocha Mining Company, which has a history of intense conflicts running back as far as the early 2000s. In 2011, the conflict re-intensified when the company announced plans to extend mining activities and construct a large open-pit copper-gold mine (Li, 2015;Triscritti, 2013;Sosa and Zwarteveen, 2016). This new project would be located in the headwaters of three provinces reliant on agriculture and would involve draining three lagoons and their replacement by artificial reservoirs.…”

“…The legitimacy of concepts such as law and science are derived from their association with objectivity and neutrality. Their apparent strength is that they are designed to be a non-political tool in conflict resolution (Sosa and Zwarteveen, 2016). The villagers expected, as citizens of Peru, that the legal framework which had insisted that their claim could not be considered fully valid due to the lack of a formal permit for water use in this instance would work in their favour.…”

Organizational Irresponsibilities or Absence of Territorial Governance? Reflections on Environmental Management in the Minas-Rio Project

“…Water resources management can be defined as "the practices of coordination and decision making involving different agents engaged in contested forms of water distribution" (ZWARTEVEEN, 2015, p.18). This perspective implies that the resolution of conflicts over water can never be reduced to an exclusively technocratic exercise, but always precedes the need to consider issues of power and political arrangements (SOSA, ZWARTEVEEN, 2016).…”

Strengthening the Human Right to Sanitation as an Instrument for Inclusive Development

“…This is because the challenges of human rights realisation and human development are not confined to the legal framework (Arts, 2014;McGranahan, 2013;Obani & Gupta, 2014b;Sosa & Zwarteveen, 2016). However, there is no comprehensive scholarly analysis of whether and how the HRS addresses the drivers of poor sanitation (see 3.4).…”