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Water, Food and Welfare pp 45–58Cite as

Manifestations of Welfare Loss

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Part of the book series: SpringerBriefs in Environment, Security, Development and Peace ((BRIEFSSECUR,volume 23))

Abstract

Water security (WS) evolved toward the protection against floods, droughts, plagues, environmental services protection, health preservation, and conflict negotiation. The part of human and gender security deepening, as well as environmental security proposing a great (HUGE) security. This overcomes the political-military vision where water was used as a weapon. A combination of market failures, inefficient institutions, and lack of governance have aggravated conflicts and provoked violent outbreaks. Specialists have insisted on political mechanisms and negotiations between governments and those affected, which have brought about international treaties and water regimes. Growing citizen complaints about deterioration in quality and water shortage have transformed the demands for water into a basic human right, making a distinction between use value (survival) and exchange value (merchandise), with progressive tariffs for saving. Thus, WS is oriented toward people and peace, where participative governance and pacific negotiation of conflicts drive the recovery and protection of ecosystems as the lead of sociopolitical practice and an indicator of socio-environmental progress, and where science offers methodologies, methods, and proposals for norms and laws that are capable to protect the planet’s future and the survival of humankind.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Water security is closely linked to soil security and food security, where soil fertility allows abundant harvests, stops land degradation, and combats desertification. All this affects people’s welfare, reduces greenhouse gases (GHG), and improves extreme climate conditions, thanks to the vegetable cover and evapotranspiration.

  2. 2.

    Buzan (1997) widened the concept of military security toward environmental, economic and social security (Wæver 1995, 2008). In 1994 UNEP introduced human security as a process of deepening in security and Oswald (2008a, b, 2009a, b) added gender security to integrate equality, sustainability and equity processes in a widened and deepened vision of security. Additionally, Brauch (2008, 2009) proposed a sectorization toward water, alimentary, energetic security and so on (Oswald and Brauch 2009b; Brauch et al. 2008, 2009, 2011). All these types of security analyze the interaction between humans and nature, where the traditional hobbesian view of military and political security is surpassed.

  3. 3.

    Water security is closely linked to soil security (Oswald and Brauch 2009b) and alimentary security (Oswald 2009a), where natural soil fertility permits abundant harvests, stops soil degradation and erosion, and combats desertification. All this affects people’s welfare. Vegetation cover helps in fixing greenhouse gases, reducing extreme climate conditions, leaking meteorological waters into aquifers, and generating revado transpiration which moisturizes the natural environment.

  4. 4.

    Resilience refers to a process capable to anticipate adverse and complex natural and social phenomena, through planning and learning from previous disasters and the capacity to respond in a flexible way in the presence of unknown processes and threats, in order to reduce social vulnerability, protect vulnerable people, and rapidly recover socially after an extreme event.

  5. 5.

    In the municipalities of Mazapil and Villa de Cos, in Zacatecas, the Canadian multinational company Goldcorp extracts water from 30 wells for washing mineral concentrations and 5,400 liters of water are polluted per gold ounce (28.3495 g). This water could be destined for human, animal, or environmental consumption to consolidate regional development. In 2012, there were175 thousand families in the region who supported themselves from agricultural activities, and could not satisfy their basic needs due to the lack of water. Droughts in the region have become more acute with climate change and life conditions have forced many people to migrate facing a survival dilemma.

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  1. Cuernavaca, Mexico

    Úrsula Oswald Spring

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  1. Úrsula Oswald Spring
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Correspondence to Úrsula Oswald Spring .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Economic Research, National Autonomous Univ of Mexico, Mexico, Distrito Federal, Mexico

    Rosario Pérez-Espejo

  2. Unidad Xochimilco, Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana, Mexico, Distrito Federal, Mexico

    Roberto M. Constantino-Toto

  3. Unidad Xochimilco, Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana, Mexico, Distrito Federal, Mexico

    Hilda R. Dávila-Ibáñez

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Spring, Ú.O. (2016). Manifestations of Welfare Loss. In: Pérez-Espejo, R., Constantino-Toto, R., Dávila-Ibáñez, H. (eds) Water, Food and Welfare. SpringerBriefs in Environment, Security, Development and Peace, vol 23. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28824-6_6

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