The challenges of water metropolitan governance in Buenos Aires: territorial disputes and environmental justice

MERLINSKY, GABRIELA; FERNÁNDEZ BOUZO, SOLEDAD; MONTERA, CAROLINA Y TOBÍAS, MELINA

París

Congreso; Colloque International ?La ville compétitive : à quel prix ?; 2012

Comité National Français de Géographie Commission Villes et Métropolisation Programme JUGURTA

Water supply and sanitation in Buenos Aires, Argentina have a long history dating back to the 19th century. In 1880 the public (state) enterprise "Obras Sanitarias de la Nación? created the first water supply and sanitation networks, and was the only entity responsible for policy, as well as design, construction and operation for water supply and sewerage facilities and in major cities. As a result, the level of coverage reached higher levels than in other Latin America countries. This centralized model went into crisis in the mid 1980s, when the contributions of the national budget for Obras Sanitarias were reduced. In 1993 the organization was privatized, giving rise to the largest company in the world providing water and sewage: "Aguas Argentinas S.A.". Later, in the early twenty‐first century, macroeconomic crisis and dollar devaluation in the country produced a widespread renegotiation of contracts for public services. As a result, in 2006 the public sector recovered the services management through the creation of the company "Agua y Saneamientos Argentinos S.A.". Today the agency is facing significant challenges: a historical delay in investment, a growing population pushing for access to services, and a major inequity in coverage, where the high income sectors have a guaranteed service, while slum dwellers living in areas of environmental risk, can only be connected when carrying out a very ambitious investment plan. To respond, the company designed a master plan which provides for the extension of water network and sewage system close to 100% of the population, meaning providing service to an additional 1.5 million people with drinking water and 3.5 million with sewage in less than a decade. These difficulties are common to many states seeking to comply with the obligation to respect the human right to water, established by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of the United Nations. This right indicates the right of access to sufficient, safe, acceptable, accessible and affordable water for personal and domestic use for everyone. In recent years claims for the right to water have appeared in the public scene by the hand of various regional groups, which could be interpreted as the "Movement for Environmental Justice," describes by Harvey (1996), the "Environmentalism of the Poor" of Martínez Allier (2005) or the actions of "Insurgent citizenship" analyzed by Holston (2009). This is the case of "Foro Hídrico de Lomas de Zamora," a group of citizens that has been demanding since 2000 the implementation of water infrastructure in the southern Metropolitan Region of Buenos Aires, one of the most neglected areas where about 20% of the population has no piped water and more than 70% have no sewage systems. Given this scenario, we propose two research goals: 1) to analyze whether the new institutional arrangements ensure the right to water for more than 10 million people in the region and promote greater equity in access and quality of service of most vulnerable groups; 2) to investigate the incidence that local groups? actions have in the implementation of these rights. In order to accomplish these objectives, we present a qualitative analysis of in‐depth interviews with public officials, professionals, technicians, researchers from academia, and social organizations representatives.