La Ecología Política del Agua Virtual y Huella Hídrica. Reflexiones sobre la necesidad de un análisis crítico de los indicadores de flujos virtuales de agua en la economía
Palabras clave:
agua virtual, huella hídrica, economía ecológica, ecología políticaResumen
Desde la perspectiva de la economía ecológica, los indicadores físicos de consumo de agua como son el Agua Virtual (AV) y la Huella Hídrica (HH) pueden ser utilizados para visibilizar los conflictos ecológicos distributivos que provoca el metabolismo social de la economía. En este trabajo mostramos que aunque el AV y la HH visibilizan el "origen material- hídrico" de dicho conflictos, a la vez abstraen el recurso agua de su contexto material y en consecuencia, ignoran como afectan a la gestión de los recursos hídricos las relaciones de poder. Es por ello que argumentamos que los análisis de flujos de AV deben ser complementados con el análisis de los procesos institucionales, políticos y sociales que coexisten y condicionan esos flujos y que aporta el enfoque de la ecología política. En este trabajo ponemos de manifiesto que se ha dedicado mucho esfuerzo al desarrollo de la metodología y a la difusión del concepto, pero muy poco al análisis de las relaciones de poder que condicionan y coexisten con esos flujos. Esto cuestiona el uso de estos indicadores a la hora de dar información relevante para la aplicación de políticas de agua y comercio.
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