Relationship Between Community Water Management, Conceptions, and Struggles for Justice in Southwest Colombia

Community-based organizations (CBOs) that provide drinking water for human consumption ensure access to water in rural areas and urban peripheries. However, the Colombian governmental institutional system sensu lato underestimates the role of these organizations, their water ontologies, and their community character. Those CBOs have grouped themselves to claim justice as recognition for their ways of management and more equitable access to water as a common good, human right, and vital element. This article is aimed at making explicit the conceptions of justice underlying CBOs and their associations in the public arena. Thus, 156 CBOs grouped into 2 associations in Valle del Cauca region were investigated: AQUACOL (Association of CBOs providing drinking water and sanitation services) and FECOSER (Federation of rural community-based drinking water suppliers). The research was participatory and included both quantitative and qualitative methods. The findings show that many CBOs, in addition to offering access to water and an adequate supply service, also seek to protect/conserve ecosystems related to water supply. Thus, we found the coexistence of struggles for social and environmental justices in the political field, which also shows the heterogeneity of different conceptions of justice in the CBOs. However, their associations, AQUACOL and FECOSER, claim for social justice issues with emphasis on the recognition of their work. AQUACOL focuses on its role as water service provider for human consumption, whereas FECOSER includes a broader vision of water, so this organization also claims for environmental justice issues. Meanwhile, AQUACOL is moving from claims of social justice to those of environmental justice encouraged by the conflicts that emerge in the territory. Finally, in the territory and organizations observed, the dimension of justice is dynamic and different conceptions of it coexist from the individual level, across to CBOs, and their associations. The relationship between community water management and social justice is also evident, but given the conflicts of interests in the territory, there is a differential extension toward claims of environmental justice from the two CBOs associations studied.