The Social Management of a Common Good: The Potable Water Committees in Nicaragua

Abstract

The article is based on research conducted as part of the thesis project for a master’s degree in urban studies (2007-2009) at the College of Mexico. It presents a comparative analysis of the social management of water made by the Potable Water Committees in Nicaragua. These are organizations that supply potable water to 23% of the population in the country, especially to communities in rural areas and the urban periphery.

These social management committees are studied from the perspective of common goods based on Elinor Ostrom’s approach, where the collective action of the settlers, along with the construction of common standards for development strategies in relation to other actors, is what allows them to carry out its work.

Two significant cases are studied: the ‘El Edén Water Committee”, located in the buffer zone of the ‘El Chocoyero- El Brujo’ Reserve at a peri-urban context of the capital; and the ‘Chompipe Water Committee’ in a rural context, organized in a water network at the municipal level. The study analyzes if the management is carried out in a collective manner, and how this is influenced by the geographical context in which the committees are located. Two stages of fieldwork were carried out in Nicaragua, in which interviews were conducted with governmental and nongovernmental actors at a national level
and in selected locations.

Keywords: Water; Social Organization; Common Good; Nicaragua

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5377/encuentro.v43i88.415

Encuentro 2011/ Año XLIII, N° 88, 8-26