What is the potential of water? Limits and possibilities of the political practices for the access and defense of water as a right (Argentina)

Abstract

This work aims to give visibility to the web of political relationships between the public spaces occupied by the citizens and the State seeking to guarantee the human right to water. We focus first on citizens’ struggles over water in situations of environmental pollution as privileged spaces of interaction in which citizens both rely on and challenge the existing institutions in their search to make rights count. The article is based on two case studies carried out in the provinces of Cordoba and Rio Negro, Argentina, and explores how the institutional structures of provincial states can either make possible or restrict both the practices of public agents in the regulation and control of water pollution and the exercise of citizenship rights. We visualize significant differences in relation to institutional guarantees, organizational development, proceedings, resources, and practices related to water management in the two provinces. The article concludes with a reflection on the limits and possibilities facing the State and citizen’s public spheres in the search for a democratic politics that guarantees the right to water and goes beyond technocratic perspectives and prescriptions.