Claiming Space, Claiming Water: Contested Legal Geographies of Water in South Texas

Jepson, Wendy

doi:10.1080/00045608.2011.641897

Cited by 67 publications

(68 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…For example, national water laws mediate the experience of "local" water use, access, and distribution; these laws thus merit attention even in contexts that appear insulated from national legislation and political governing centers, as is often the case for rural settings. Moreover, and as this article demonstrates, situations of water insecurity are not always defined by the physical amount of water available via natural processes, but are more often the result of a convergence of issues reflecting power dynamics and relations based upon race, ethnicity, gender, class and/or political systems [5,[12][13][14][15][16].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Challenges to Water Security along the “Emerald Coast”: A Political Ecology of Local Water Governance in Nicaragua

LaVanchy

Romano

Taylor

2017

Water

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Despite being a water-rich country, Nicaragua struggles to secure clean water access for many of its residents. In addition to distributional and water quality issues, a prolonged drought affecting all regions of the country has compounded preexisting governance challenges to ensuring rural water needs. This article focuses on a rural community along the southwest Pacific Coast of Tola, Nicaragua, where tourism development and drought converge to produce and exacerbate water insecurity. This article examines this water insecurity in the context of two recent national water laws in Nicaragua (passed in 2007 and 2010 respectively) that sought to provide a more comprehensive legal framework for freshwater water governance. Drawing upon semi-structured interviews and groundwater and meteorological data, we contend that water laws have not effectively mediated the hydrological effects of prolonged drought and tourism development, resulting in pronounced water insecurity for local populations in Tola. We cast the findings of this research as relevant to other water insecure areas in Latin America where industry development and weak policy implementation impact the creation and resolution of local water security-including insecurity compounded by increased climatic variability.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Challenges to Water Security along the “Emerald Coast”: A Political Ecology of Local Water Governance in Nicaragua

LaVanchy

Romano

Taylor

2017

Water

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“…The term governance encompasses not only government and policies, but also the range of actors and political practices that shape environmental decision-making [7,9]. Water governance in particular, refers to the "range of organizations, institutions, laws and discourses that coordinate, regulate, or manage water allocation and use" [7] (p. 619).…”

Section: Water Governancementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Water governance in particular, refers to the "range of organizations, institutions, laws and discourses that coordinate, regulate, or manage water allocation and use" [7] (p. 619). As such, governance includes formal laws, but also more informal arrangements with local stakeholders.…”

Section: Water Governancementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Jepson [7] uses a water governance framework to explain how water laws and political discourses are used to exclude a disenfranchised group of water users in Texas. Welsh and colleagues [14] also use a governance framework to assess how farmers in the Bear River Region in Utah, who have the most legally secure water rights, are somehow also the most vulnerable to severe drought.…”

Section: Water Governancementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Given the extensive socio-economic implications of groundwater depletion, research that evaluates current groundwater governance policies and explores possible consequences of those policies is expansive [1,[3][4][5]. More so, how these consequences contribute to community and agricultural vulnerability, has also lead to increasing research on vulnerability, resilience and the role of water governance and politics on sustainable groundwater use [6][7][8][9].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Groundwater Governance and the Growth of Center Pivot Irrigation in Cimarron County, OK and Union County, NM: Implications for Community Vulnerability to Drought

Wenger

Vadjunec

Fagin

2017

Water

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Cimarron County, Oklahoma and Union County, New Mexico, neighboring counties in the Southern High Plains, are part of a vital agricultural region in the United States. This region experiences extended periods of cyclical drought threatening its ability to produce, creating an incentive for extensive center pivot irrigation (CPI). Center pivots draw from the rapidly depleting High Plains Aquifer System. As a result, the prospect of long-term sustainability for these agricultural communities is questionable. We use Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Systems to quantify growth in land irrigated by CPI between the 1950s and 2014, and key informant interviews to explore local perspectives on the causes and impact of such growth. In Cimarron County, OK, CPI increased by the mid-1980s, and has continually increased since. Results suggest adaptation to drought, a depleting aquifer, high corn prices, and less rigid groundwater regulations contribute to CPI growth. Conversely, CPI in Union County, NM, increased until 2010, and then declined. Results also suggest that drought-related agricultural changes and more aggressive well drilling regulations contribute to this decrease. Nevertheless, in both counties, there is a growing concern over the depleting aquifer, the long-term sustainability of CPI, and the region's economic future.

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Mediating water governance: point‐of‐use water filtration devices for low‐income communities along the US–Mexico border

Vandewalle

Jepson

2015

Geography and Environment

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Small-scale decentralised facilities and household-level water purification technologies (HWTs) have become unconventional modes of delivering potable water. This paper examines how HWTs transformed from a temporary solution to unsanitary drinking water conditions in the global South to a legitimised technological fix for communities that experience chronic household water insecurity in the United States. We examine the discursive and material processes through which HWTs are applied in periurban and rural subdivisions on the Texas-Mexico border, called colonias. HWTs, through the intervention of social entrepreneurs, experts, and the state, mediate water governance by rearticulating the individual solution and foreclosing a collective or political process to improve community water systems for colonia residents.

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Claiming Space, Claiming Water: Contested Legal Geographies of Water in South Texas

Cited by 67 publications

References 54 publications

Challenges to Water Security along the “Emerald Coast”: A Political Ecology of Local Water Governance in Nicaragua

Challenges to Water Security along the “Emerald Coast”: A Political Ecology of Local Water Governance in Nicaragua

Groundwater Governance and the Growth of Center Pivot Irrigation in Cimarron County, OK and Union County, NM: Implications for Community Vulnerability to Drought

Mediating water governance: point‐of‐use water filtration devices for low‐income communities along the US–Mexico border

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