Neoliberal resilience within drinking water re-nationalisation in Uruguay

Abstract

The article discusses the neoliberalisation of nature based on the study of the re-establishment of drinking water and sanitation services in Uruguay during the progressive government of the Frente Amplio. The concept of neoliberal resilience is proposed to understand the reproduction of a neoliberal logic in the management of these services despite the recognition of the human right to water in the Constitution. Using a qualitative and quantitative methodology, we reconstruct the process of privatisation of drinking water services and its social repercussions. Four processes are identified that slow down the return to public and state services: the permanence of concessions with private capital, the weakening of the system of cross-subsidies, the demobilisation of the opposition and the insertion of a neoliberal economic development model.