Community water debts in Colombia: Financialisation from below?

Abstract

Drawing on the recent experience of community water finance in Colombia, this paper contributes to a diversification of the literature on the financialisation of water and the commons governance by focusing on the perspective of grassroots organisations. It highlights the inclusion and exclusion mechanisms of water access in the rural Colombian context. As water communities continue to seek autonomy from state agencies and private providers and to affirm their own management model, the paper examines the ambivalent effects of finance and the use of the credit as a political instrument. In a context of public policies that pressurise communities to adopt water management and financing strategies based on profitability and efficiency, the paper considers how access to credit from local financial institutions contributes to this quest for autonomy. It highlights how the effects of these new financial practices are starting to bring about social change within communities, such as the redefinition of leaders’ roles, or the transformation of relations with the state. The paper concludes by demonstrating how, in adopting entrepreneurial forms of management, the community water organisations assume the risks associated with the market-based model and thus expose themselves to significant change.