Bringing water values into play in the Atacama desert water crisis

Abstract

The current water crisis in the Atacama Desert is explained by extractivist models based on the overexploitation of this resource. Extensive mega-mining is devastating water reserves and causing inequities in access for local indigenous communities. In the present work, through ethnographic research in the community of Mamiña, we show how the water values of different local actors come into conflict. Through a positioned analysis model, we observe two types of water-related values, some determined by worldviews and others created by socio-environmental relationships throughout history. Along these two axes, we observe the emergence of new pragmatic values that make an adequate collective response to the water crisis challenging to implement. We argue that this paradox can be better understood through an approach focused on the sociocultural analysis of water values, deriving from the context of their emergence, as well as their complementarities and dynamics.