Power relations and water sustainability in Lake Atitlan

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.36958/sep.v7i2.211

Keywords:

power, water, territories, peoples, magacolector, lake atitlán

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: to see how power relations around water resources affect the way in which the State of Guatemala has protected these resources. METHOD: it is qualitative research that used the phenomenological method to situate the conscious reality of the social subjects around the water problem. RESULTS: it was evidenced that ancestral authorities and civil society organizations oppose resistance to the subjects with economic, political, and cultural power that influence government agencies for the installation of neo-extractivist megaprojects. Because the representation of the relationship of power with the environment and the conscious and independent reality of the social subjects that inhabit their territory (indigenous peoples and civil society organizations) causes them to defend and watch over the territory as well as the water for its conservation, based on the conception of the world that surrounds them and their belief system. CONCLUSION: the lack of regulation for the water resource, reflects the pre-existing antagonism and historical gaps of inequality and inequity around power that have existed in Guatemala. Racism and social exclusion, under the cover of misgovernment, do not allow the ancestral knowledge of Indigenous peoples to be recorded. The lake has a significant economic value for the business sector, as well as for the mestizo and Indigenous population living in the basin, as it is an important tourist center.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biography

Patricia Melgar Orozco, Universidad Francisco Marroquín

Master in Social Policy and Public Management from the University of San Carlos of Guatemala. Graduate in Social Communication Sciences and has a degree in Social Communication Sciences from the Francisco Marroquín University.

References

Álvarez Cantalapiedra, S. (15 de 11 de 2020). Las élites del poder. Público. Obtenido de https://blogs.publico.es/dominiopublico/35210/las-elites-del-poder/

De Sousa, S. B. (2014). Derechos humanos, democracia y desarrollo. Brazil: Colección de justicia. doi:ISBN 978-958-58464-6-3 versión digital DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/jj.16192344

Estalela Adolfo & Ardevol Elisenda. (Septiembre de 2007). Ética de campo: hacia una ética situada para la investigación etnográfica de internet. (I. I. (UOC), Ed.) 8(3 Artículo 2). http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs070328.

Fuster, D. (Enero - Abril de 2019). Investigación cualitativa: Método fenomenológico hermenéutico. Propósitos y Representaciones, 7(1), 14. http://dx.doi.org/10.20511/pyr2019.v7n1.267 DOI: https://doi.org/10.20511/pyr2019.v7n1.267

Kliksberg, B. (2005). Más etica, más desarrollo (4 edición ed.). (J. Scarfi, Ed.) Buenos Aires, Argentina, Argentina: Temas. doi:ISBN 987-9164-97-0

May Timothy. (2021). Friends of the Lake? The Megacolector Conflict and the Revindication of Tz’unun Ya’. Durham University, Department of Geography.

Padilla Vassaux, D. (2019). Política del agua en Guatemala: Una radiografía crítica del Estado. Guatemala: Cara Parens. doi:ISBN 978-9929-54-260-0

Reyes López, H. I. (Agosto de 2017). El recurso agua en Guatemala -retos para su gestión y conservación-. Boletín Economía al día(8), 11. Recuperado el 2023, de www.iies.usacgt.com

Tribunal Latinoamericano del Agua, XII Audiencia Pública TLA -Casos Convenios y Controversias Hídricas en México, Guatemala y Argentina (Tribunal Supremo del Agua 22-26 de Octubre de 2018).

Valdés, M., & Naveda, E. (18 de 12 de 2018). La élite económica de Guatemla, entre las más acaparadoras de América Latina. Plaza Pública. Obtenido de https://www.plazapublica.com.gt/content/la-elite-economica-de-guatemala-entre-las-mas-acaparadoras-de-america-latina

Published

28-11-2024

How to Cite

Melgar Orozco, P. (2024). Power relations and water sustainability in Lake Atitlan. Revista Cientí­fica Del Sistema De Estudios De Postgrado De La Universidad De San Carlos De Guatemala, 7(2), 149–162. https://doi.org/10.36958/sep.v7i2.211

Issue

Section

Scientific articles