
Water is currently a structuring axis of hydro-social relations and the conflicts that arise over its control and use in Colombia. The first phase of this project explored conflicts related to concession processes for hydroelectric projects in the rivers La Paloma, Santo Domingo and Dormilón in municipalities of Argelia, San Francisco and San Luis in the Oriente Antioqueño region. Preliminary results showed associated problems such as mass tourism, real-estate pressure and mining, which add further threats emanating from the privatisation of water and which also depend on energy production. These new forms of river use and privatisation have been introduced in an insidious manner, without recognition of the damage they are causing to the communities and social actors involved. These forms of intervention, promoted by public policy, project an image of an “empty space” or one that is adaptable to new uses in the regions concerned, which intensifies the degree of vulnerability of the populations who live their, as it does not recognise their pre-existence and their territorial dynamics. More information about Phase I of the research project is available here.
In the second phase of this project, we intend to delve deeper into these combined threats, to explore the scope of self-protection in the face of a conflict of growing water privatisation. We also aim to explore the contributions of these self-protection strategies to reflections on just transitions, in a context of debate over energy alternatives and the revision of polluting, undemocratic development models.

Research team
- Beatriz Arias López, Universidad de Antioquia (principal investigator)
- Hernán Dario Pineda Gómez, Universidad de Antioquia
- Mateo Valderrama, Asociación Campesina de Antioquia – ACA
- Juan David Arias, Grupo De investigación Territorio, Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana
- Jessica Restrepo, Grupo De investigación Territorio Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana
- Denisse Roca, solidary consultant, CLACSO group on Political Ecologies of the South Abya-Yala

