Interviews and proceedings from Hydro-Hegemony 6: transboundary water justice

Summary of the Sixth International Workshop on Hydro-Hegemony

The Sixth International Workshop on Hydro-Hegemony took place 12-13 January 2013, at UEA London. Over 100 researchers, practitioners and activists explored its theme: Transboundary Water Justice. With discussions enduring 10 hours each day – and then well into the night – we think a small step has been made towards investigating the merit of ‘justice‘ to serve transboundary water interaction, in both theory and practice.

While no agreement was reached (or expected), the healthy vigorous and respectful debate that was generated certainly pushed the limits of our collective knowledge. A number of novel ideas were explored – like ‘water sovereignty‘ (D’Souza) and ‘do I have the right to eat other people’s [virtual] water‘ (Greco) – while the favouring of efficiency over equitability in most political economies tested. While not everyone agreed what ‘justice‘ is or even that there is room for it in transboundary water interaction practice or analysis, there was consensus that transboundary water injustices are easy enough to spot – and all were motivated to act to address this.