Limitacion del Problema

The selected case study consists of seven communities of poor, vulnerable people living in the semi-rural region located around the town and municipal area of San José Villanueva, province of La Libertad, El Salvador (see map location in fig.3). The communities selected were: Las Veraneras 1, Las Veraneras 2, Sosa, El Cementerio, Escalón Centro, Espíritu Santo and El Amate (see map location in fig. 15).

The reasons to select these communities stem from the exploratory field trip, interviews and documentation. Social activists and state officials indicated through the exploratory field trip interviews that these communities were ‘special’ in the sense that their water access struggles were evident, persistent and known to the public opinion thanks to their persistent protests for clean water access.

The communities of San José Villanueva selected for the case study presented the common characteristics of having water access problems, but also of working as a collective group or alliance to defend and fight for their right to water. They have made alliances or joined events of resistance with other water activists groups. These range from having strong links with ACUA, a very active local grassroots NGO with strong leadership in the defence of the human right to water at local and national scales, to participating in wider social movement protests such as the ones led by the National Water Forum (NWF), a counter-hegemonic social network of water actors.

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Figure 16: Case Study Map of San Jose Villanueva

Source: Own construction based on maps in (ACUA, 2008)

Overall, the communities selected match all of the selection criteria described previously and reflected in the research question. The reasons to select seven communities in the rural areas of the town of San José Villanueva are many. First, the majority of the communities of San José Villanueva (SJV) are characterised by people living in poverty and deprivation in multiple domains of their lives including a daily struggle to access clean water (ACUA, 2008, San Juan, 2013). Second, these communities live in a milieu experiencing lack of water access and environmental degradation. The deforestation and contamination of the area around its fresh water bodies, river Aquiquisquillo and fresh water springs in San José Villanueva is growing according to studies in the region (ACUA, 2008) and echoed by social activists like ACUA (Gómez, 2011, González, 2011) and ISF (Collado, 2013).

Province of La Libertad San José Villanueva Las Veraneras 1 Las Veraneras 2 Sosa El Cementerio Escalón Centro Espíritu Santo El Amate.

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The water basins located in this case study are also symbolic to El Salvador. They are part of a wider environmental ecosystem of Cordillera del Bálsamo or the Balsam Mountain Range. This range is rich in natural habitat and resources but the territory is highly contested by the different social actors in this region (ACUA, 2008). Predatory practices from urbanisations processes are putting the local water resources at risk of unsustainable levels of depletion. Social activists blame the construction projects of rich corporations in the region. They accuse them of extracting great amounts of water for superfluous reasons: e.g., from water used for swimming pools or washing cars to strong extractions of water to irrigate the massive golf course and gardens of these homes. At the same time, these same social activists have blamed these urban developments for discharging wastewater into the rivers and water catchment areas of the region. The dual impact of high rates of extraction coupled with contamination has resulted in a reduction in both the quantity and quality of water available for the communities of San José Villanueva (ACUA, 2008, Collado, 2013).

In addition, the selected case of communities of San José Villanueva expose illustrative power struggles related to water access in El Salvador. The case study exhibits a clash between hegemonic, counter-hegemonic and marginal collective water actors over water control. The communities of San José Villanueva are all marginal collective water actors, but a sub-set of these have also been part of a wider set of counter-hegemonic water actors in the country. Those in the resistance side of the communities of San José Villanueva have tried to influence key projects and decision-making processes that affect them. For instance, many of the key players embedded in the conflicts for water access also participate in advocacy groups trying to influence the content and nature of new legal and institutional frameworks to change the current model of water governance operating in the country. The most iconic one these communities have engaged in activism is the General Water Law (GWL) process of negotiations.

Locally and nationally, these seven communities of San José Villanueva have been engaged in protests and frontal displays of resistance against three very iconic hegemonic water actors’ related projects. The projects exemplify the schism of social

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inequality occurring in San José Villanueva and illustrate why the creation of rules and institutional frameworks like the GWL represents an important tool for water justice for these communities. The projects are:

 The rich residential neighbourhood of La Hacienda: This project of luxury homes built since the 1990s by Grupo Roble across 86 acres of tropical forestland9 (Casas Roble, 2014) right at the heart of the selected communities of San José Villanueva are symbolic of the rich/poor divide in El Salvador. These homes came to be iconic because of their luxurious ‘American style’ houses of up to 155 m2 of space built in an area of significant natural beauty. However, the luxury of these homes comes in sharp contrast with the standard of living in the surrounding communities. Their water access in theory should be the same as communities around them, but in practice, that is not the case. While the communities of San José Villanueva struggle daily to access clean water, the families in La Hacienda living beside them have a potable water plant that extracts water from the shared local river Aquiquisquillo.

 The large golf course and rich residential urbanisation projects of ‘El Encanto

Villas & Golf Course’ —planned to be fully operating in 2015— (El Encanto, 2014): El Encanto Villas & Golf Course is a large construction project located in an area of 1,032 acres of land10 located beside the communities of San José Villanueva. It incorporates 610 lots for the construction of luxury villas around a golf course with 18 holes and a Country Club (El Encanto Villas & Golf, 2015).

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The project is advertised as 50 “manzanas” of land, a traditional measurement used in Central American countries. One ‘manzana’ is the equivalent of 1.72 acres or 6,961 m2

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Although not completely finished at the time of this research, this project is already famous for the various impacts it is having in the region’s environment and water resources. Because it is designed to cater rich Central American and international economic elites due to its elevated prices (membership prices range from $15,000 to $30,000) (El Encanto Villas & Golf, 2015), the surrounding communities and social activists saw this project right from the very start as an expensive club of the rich and a massive water thirsty and environmentally project damaging for the communities. The project “reinforced by a camera surveillance system, mobile communications and personal security” (El Encanto Villas & Golf, 2015) when finished would be the biggest and most luxurious golf course & villas in Central America, located within walking distance of the communities of San José Villanueva. The grandeur wealth of this project could not be sharper with the current reality lived by the communities of SJV. Both La Hacienda and El Encanto construction projects have in common that they resulted in the acquisition and destruction of large tracts of forest, in important and sensitive hydrological zones upon which these seven poor communities depend.

 The public-private partnership FIHIDRO: This initiative is the first public- partnership agreement to come to fruition in El Salvador in the water sector in all its history. FIHIDRO is a public-private fund set up as a collaboration with the public water service provider ANDA to extend its water provision services across the province of La Libertad. The FIHIDRO fund, designed, injected and led by private corporations has as its main goal securing water resources for the participant corporations’ growing investments in the province of La Libertad such as El Encanto and La Hacienda. In other words, the corporate leaders investing in the FIHIDRO scheme have pressing needs to secure water for their investments. An illustrative example is that of Rafael Castellanos, who is at the same time President of the FIHIDRO public-private partnership scheme and the executive chairman (CEO) of ‘El Encanto’ Golf course and Villas project.

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Empirically, the selection of the communities of San José Villanueva as the in-depth case study is well justified. The communities of San José Villanueva are ideal for this research as it highlights several issues.

First, a problem of water access injustice: The research studies a community of people living in a context where water is scarce for some and plentiful for others. The contrast in water access with their wealthy neighbours serves as good start to explore how the existing power relations have shaped these communities water access outcomes.

Second, a space for power conflicts in the making: Thanks to the selected case study, the research can focus on ongoing tensions, collision and conflict over how water ought to be allocated and governed, showcasing the ongoing power dynamics displayed by social actors when they want to achieve their different interests.

Finally, an opportune time for analysis: The selected case study has already water access conflicts developing and unfolding simultaneously in power relations across different scales and at the time of the research, so it provides the perfect setting in which to explore the dynamics of power relations as they happen.

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