Del agua y sus economías: Sobre tres modelos de gestión de los recursos hídricos

Water is not only chemistry or physics. It is also culture and ideology, so, apart from be- ing an urgent biological need, it can be transmuted, not by alchemy in "holy water" or "blue gold". The importance of water is therefore not only fulfi lling a vital organ function, but it is its ability to adopt a symbolic added value that transcends the purely biological. Based on this premise and from the the- oretical perspective of political economy, water is capable of being transformed into "social capital", "political capital" or "economic capital", depend- ing if their anthropological values are translated into key of "solidarity" by "authority" or "return". It symbolically transmutes "solidarity" when the liquid element becomes a socially guaranteed right for all users without distinction within a given community. It translates into authority, when it be- comes a source of political power from which the access of its enjoyment is regulated to a greater or smaller number of benefi ciaries. It is interpreted based upon profi tability, when it shines in a busi- ness opportunity depending on the economic gain from its use.