Worlding via water: desalination, cluster development and the ‘stickiness’ of commodities

Usher, M. D.

doi:10.4337/9781788113816.00012

Cited by 3 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 55 publications

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“…Desalination, as serving wider political agendas (e.g., by its coupling with economic development and socio-natural pressures) has recently been attracting research interest by critical scholars in geography and allied disciplines [2,[10][11][12]14]. Such analyses served to highlight that desalination is proposed as a 'fix' for solving contestations that are threatening water governance (environmental and spatial-political) over different scalar relations (regional/national and transnational) [2,[10][11][12]14]. By tracing these hydro-social relations, some scholars have also observed that political interactions over water have been reinforced by mutual collaborations through financial agreements, but also by leaving behind contestations and dependency on water transfers [9,10,14].…”

Section: Socio-legal Terrain In the Advance Of Desalinationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Such analyses served to highlight that desalination is proposed as a 'fix' for solving contestations that are threatening water governance (environmental and spatial-political) over different scalar relations (regional/national and transnational) [2,[10][11][12]14]. By tracing these hydro-social relations, some scholars have also observed that political interactions over water have been reinforced by mutual collaborations through financial agreements, but also by leaving behind contestations and dependency on water transfers [9,10,14]. However, changes in power distribution are observed as shaping water governance and the privatization of oceans [9,10,14].…”

Section: Socio-legal Terrain In the Advance Of Desalinationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…By tracing these hydro-social relations, some scholars have also observed that political interactions over water have been reinforced by mutual collaborations through financial agreements, but also by leaving behind contestations and dependency on water transfers [9,10,14]. However, changes in power distribution are observed as shaping water governance and the privatization of oceans [9,10,14].…”

Section: Socio-legal Terrain In the Advance Of Desalinationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Nevertheless, for critical geographers what remains in question is the management and use of desalination plants and the water produced. This practice has been open to contracts or licenses and, more recently, to forms of Public-Private Partnership e.g., in California and Singapore [10,11].…”

Section: Water Legal Framework In Chilementioning

confidence: 99%

“…those waters, were originally for Antofagasta and now, since they are desalinating, Aguas Antofagasta wants to sell them" [82] (p. 376). This suggests that what is at stake is the practice of the economic 'coupling' (keeping Usher's term) [10]-the mining sector sharing the infrastructure built for sanitary services-with its further effects in determining not only water tariffs, but also water access and, more broadly, water flows.…”

Section: Desalination and Water Rightsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Legal Geographies of Water Claims: Seawater Desalination in Mining Regions in Chile

Campero

Harris

2019

Water

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The use of desalination has been increasing in recent years. Although this is not a new technology, its use often proceeds within ill-defined and ambiguous legal, institutional, economic and political frameworks. This article addresses these considerations for the case of Chile, and offers an evaluation of legal ambiguities regarding differences between desalinated water and other freshwater sources and associated consequences. This discussion reviews court records and legal documents of two companies operating desalination plants, both of which have simultaneous rights granted for underground water exploitation: the water supply company in the Antofagasta Region and Candelaria mining company in the Atacama Region. The analysis shows that issues of ambiguity and gaps in the legal system have been exploited in ways that allow these entities to continue the use and consumption of mountain water. They do so by producing desalinated water, and by entering into water transfer and diversion contracts with the mining sector. These findings highlight the importance of undefined socio-legal terrain in terms of shifting hydro-geographies of mining territories, contributing conceptually to critical geographies of desalination, delineating the importance of legal geographies important for water governance, as well as empirically documenting the significance of this case to consider shifts for the mining sector and water technologies and uses in contemporary Chile.

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Section: Socio-legal Terrain In the Advance Of Desalinationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Socio-legal Terrain In the Advance Of Desalinationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Socio-legal Terrain In the Advance Of Desalinationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Water Legal Framework In Chilementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Desalination and Water Rightsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Legal Geographies of Water Claims: Seawater Desalination in Mining Regions in Chile

Campero

Harris

2019

Water

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Territory, hydraulics, biopolitics: internal colonization through urban catchment management in Singapore

Usher

2022

Territory, Politics, Governance

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Broaching the brook: Daylighting, community and the ‘stickiness’ of water

Usher

Huck

Clay

et al. 2020

Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space

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Over the last century, under the modern hydraulic model, waterways across the world have been heavily canalized and culverted, driven into underground pipes, drains and sewers. This hydraulic approach has hardwired an isolated water network into the urban fabric, fragmenting erstwhile patterns and dynamics of life, both human and nonhuman. Ecologically, it has been hugely damaging, reducing water quality and biotic diversity, but also socially, disconnecting citizens from the waterways that service and characterize the city. Consequently, since the 1990s, waterway restoration has become widespread as a design solution to degraded rivers and streams, reinstating compromised hydrological, geomorphological and ecological processes. Deculverting or ‘daylighting’, the focus of this paper, is a radical form of restoration, opening up subterranean, culverted waterways often forgotten by communities above ground. Yet, as this paper emphasizes, waterway restoration has tended to privilege ecological over social objectives, while public engagement in project conceptualization has been limited, conducted ‘downstream’ subsequent to planning and design stages. Restoration schemes have therefore tended to reflect the concerns of professionals rather than communities, overlooking their potential for social renewal and change. Drawing on workshop data collected through participatory mapping exercises, this paper explores the case for daylighting a culverted brook in Urmston, Greater Manchester, focusing in particular on the preferences, concerns and knowledge of local residents. The paper compares professional and community perspectives on the preferred scheme design and potential benefits of daylighting, drawing out differences and tensions between them, temporarily ‘unblackboxing’ the brook. It is ventured that daylighting can unleash the social ‘stickiness’ of water, its proclivity to draw and bind together, to revitalize the park, enhancing connection to wildness, attachment to place and sense of community. This is particularly crucial in the face of decreased local authority funding and related crises in park management.

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Worlding via water: desalination, cluster development and the ‘stickiness’ of commodities

Abstract: Usher, M. (Accepted/In press). Worlding via water: Desalination, cluster development and the 'stickiness' of commodities. In J. Williams, & E. Swyngedouw (Eds.), Tapping the oceans: Seawater desalination and the political ecology of water (pp. 121-148). Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd.

Cited by 3 publications

References 55 publications

The Legal Geographies of Water Claims: Seawater Desalination in Mining Regions in Chile

The Legal Geographies of Water Claims: Seawater Desalination in Mining Regions in Chile

Territory, hydraulics, biopolitics: internal colonization through urban catchment management in Singapore

Broaching the brook: Daylighting, community and the ‘stickiness’ of water

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