Water grabbing through infrastructures and institutions in Turkey

Abstract

The contestation and appropriation of water are global issues. Capturing control of water sources determines how and by whom water will be used. This paper examines how water grabbing occurs through both water infrastructures and institutions. Building on the concepts of 'infrastructural violence' and 'accumulation by dispossession', I investigate the mechanisms employed by bottled-water companies to grab water and hide the scale of grabbing, resulting in the dispossession of local farmers from the water sources they have used for centuries. Drawing on ethnographic research in Ağlasun, a rural town in southwest Turkey, my findings reveal two main insights. First, water grabbing occurs through clientelism, bending of the rules, and ambiguities in water governance legislation. Second, water grabbing is facilitated by infrastructural changes, such as the fencing off of water sources and the forced imposition of water-saving agricultural technologies. Understanding the various institutional and infrastructural processes through which water grabbing occurs helps clarify the conditions necessary for more just and equitable water governance. The paper concludes by highlighting the crucial role of locally embedded institutions and collective action in securing access to water.

Keywords

• water grabbing
• accumulation by dispossession
• infrastructural violence
• irrigation governance
• turkey