Water Sovereignty: Social impact of the phenomenon of “water stress” in Colombia

Abstract

Introduction: In Colombia, where each person would have the right to access 50.000 m3 of water per year, a 50% of population does not have access to potable water, 10 millions of Colombians do not own an aqueduct system and at least 800 municipal headers are about to disappear. In this article are presented the political factors that take over the water resources in state sovereignty terms; which could canalize the appearance of water stress phenomenon in the country, which is reality to Mexico and Peru. Materials and method: Reection from the literature review was realized through recompilation of 30 documents in Universidad Nacional of Colombia database. 22 articles were selected. Results: Water stress is the progressive deterioration of water resources of a country in terms of quality and quantity. This phenomenon begins to appear in Colombia as a social problem due to excessive use of water by the agricultural / livestock industries, and oil, gas and mining multinational companies, in which the state does not applies any control. Conclusions: The competent resource governance and protection are been forced by international politics shown especially in developing countries, which neglect their vulnerable communities. Being sovereignty an elemental characteristic of each state, it is governmental duty to regulate water resources as fundamental source of well-being and maintenance of its population.

Keywords

• Recursos hídricos
• agua potable
• calidad del agua
• contaminación del agua
• derecho de aguas.