Hydrosocial relations

“Water may be a mirror into which rural society gazes or through which power operates, but it is rarely a medium of rigid social structures. Because water moves, it erases as well as makes social boundaries; it changes landscape, provides the basis of new claims and threatens established orders” (Mosse 2008, 944).

“In its simplest form, the hydrosocial cycle represents the process by which alteration or manipulation of water flows and quality affect social relations and structure, which in turn affect further alteration or manipulation of water” (Linton and Budds 2014, 175).

“Social and hydrological relationships are hardly distinguishable in a world where water flows are not innocent, natural occurrences, but shaped by economic inequalities, government priorities, and power differentials” (Krause 2017, 405).