Understanding water security as an agenda of critical environmental justice (CEJ)

Abstract

AbstractThe limitations of existing institutional and social structures and their discrete approaches to water management call for a holistic, trans‐disciplinary, and multi‐stakeholder approach to addressing water security concerns with a focus on water equity and justice. The need for forging partnerships and strengthening positive and meaningful cooperation among water, sanitation, and broader development communities operating across different levels and scales has been gaining greater currency in global water debates. In this scenario, emerging critical environmental justice (CEJ) scholarship has a focus on recognizing and analyzing the contextual/historical dimensions that are often mutually reinforcing, inseparable, and multiple oppressive structures that intersect to perpetuate marginalization at the cost of privileging powerful actors. Integration of the environmental justice concerns into the development plans, and plans would pave the way for improved interactions and synergies among water‐based institutions and communities affected by them. It is urgent to deepen the discourses and deliberations on CEJ directed towards addressing systemic inequalities and injustices prevalent in water security by putting “people before profit.”