Water governance as a question of justice Politics, rights, and representation

Drawing on wider environmental justice approaches, we use this chapter to propose a conceptualization of contemporary water problems as problems of justice – problems of distribution, recognition, and political participation. We contend that doing this first of all entails the active re-politicization of water questions: teasing out and making explicit those distributional assumptions and implications of water governance solutions that tend to remain hidden in mainstream approaches because of processes of technification, naturalization or universalization. A water justice focus further needs to be anchored in a sound understanding of the specific characteristics of water as a resource, as well as of the specific social relations and norms that shape its access and control. An interdisciplinary and relational approach that sees water as simultaneously natural (material) and social is important here, one that is anchored in a contextualized understanding of water rights. We illustrate these conceptual and theoretical suggestions with evidence from India.