The need to acknowledge, study and engage with new water justice movements

Abstract

Rivers around the world are in a detrimental state: dammed for water provision, flood control or energy production; straightened for navigability, polluted by deficiently treated domestic and industrial waste waters or runoff from intensive agriculture; depleted to cater for growing water demands up to the point of seasonal or permanent drying up. At the base of this situation is a view of rivers as resources to be exploited and dominated, put at the service of powerful economic and political interests. Whereas there is increasing awareness about the alarming state of rivers, water governance approaches so far have tended to respond with environmental standards that are permissive and little enforced. The imposition of uniform metrics, values and goals is proliferating worldwide-including through policies that are labelled participatory, integrated or nature-based. These approaches misread or override the complexities of socio-ecological river systems. All in all, they have failed to herald a transition towards just, equitable and healthy socio-ecological relations [1, 2]. This is highly problematic as the status quo with its destructive practices and the associated human and nonhuman suffering remains unchallenged. At the same time, the numerous grassroots initiatives and 'new water justice movements' [3] that exist around the world and that have much potential to foster alternative ways of relating to rivers, are obliviated by mainstream policies and approaches. What we term new water justice movements (NWJMs) is in fact a colourful assembly of grassroots groups and initiatives, as well as regional networks and nongovernmental alliances, that mobilize to protect or revive rivers, and to challenge dominant ways of understanding, ordering and exploiting rivers and riverine inhabitants. Whereas previous water justice initiatives have mainly focused on issues of fair distribution (of environmental 'goods' and 'bads') and representation for human groups, the more recently emerging movements also explicitly include nonhuman concerns and intertwine distribution and representation with related struggles for cultural justice and socio-ecological, intergenerational integrity. NWJMs come in many forms and operate in different geographic, institutional and time scales-while often also bridging across these. Their many activities are similarly highly diverse: ranging from protests, litigation, advocacy, river clean-ups, citizen science, to proposing alternative project designs and co-governance of riverscapes [4-6]. Many NWJMs maintain close contacts with likeminded organisations elsewhere. They form multi-scalar alliances and networks of trans-local solidarity that translate, combine and resignify local demands and concepts globally and vice versa, to devise new approaches and strategies. While various movements and initiatives are explicitly relating to rivers, others bring also other river-connected fields to the fore, such as irrigation, drinking water or wetlands. The common PLOS Water | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pwat. Citation: Hommes L, Vos J, Boelens R (2023) The need to acknowledge, study and engage with new water justice movements. PLOS Water 2(5): e0000128. https://doi.org/10.