Description

In this episode, we listen to Manuela Royo Letelier (Modatima). She's talking about her article 'Water struggles in Chile'. You can read more about the topic covered by Manuela in the chapter 6 of Ecology and empowerment : https://f3e.asso.fr/ressource/ecology-and-empowerment/

Hébergé par Ausha. Visitez ausha.co/politique-de-confidentialite pour plus d'informations.

Transcription

• Host

  Ecology and Empowerment, a F3E Network podcast. Chile, where indigenous people are fighting to preserve water.

• Manuela Royo

  Hello, my name is Manuela Royo. I'm a lawyer, a teacher, and a mother as well, which I consider a full-time job. I come from Chile, and my work is entitled Water Struggles in Chile. - The experience of the movement to protect access to water, land and the environment. More datima. I'd like to talk to you a little about the struggle to protect water and particularly about the work and contribution of women in this struggle. When we started our fight to protect access to water, we noticed that there was a close link between women's subordination and the destruction of nature. Several of our comrades have raised ideas such as the fact that our localities have been the ones to defend water resources, but also believe that our bodies are our first localities and that they have been objectified and neglected. We also see that water is a vital necessity for our lives, for the reproduction of life, and that together we must work to achieve this. Through our work, our voice was heard during the Chilean constitutional process, and even though the draft of a new constitution was rejected, four women from the movement took part in the debates. We succeeded in introducing a constitutional status for water, in which we also claimed that it was our duty and our responsibility to fight for the right to water and to establish a land use plan for the collective and community management of water. In addition to this, we have continued to conduct experiments in education, cooperativism and community water management. I think that in Latin America we have been experiencing extractivism and the resistance it provokes for many years. I also believe that climate change deepens inequalities, environmental injustices. On the basis of our experience in plundered regions due to transnational companies and extractivist projects, I think we can contribute to raising awareness of the consequences of this type of model. Inform about the consequences of the privatization and plundering of water and also, starting from this resistance, show that it's possible to build organizations with the aim of increasing empowerment. Our movement currently heads several Chilean regional governments. Our former spokesperson, Roberto Mundaca, is the current governor of the region of Valparaiso, and four women among us were elected during the constituent assembly process. Therefore, without being a political party and simply as a self-determined movement, we are now at the head of Chile's second largest region. This experience goes hand in hand with a political construction that is in progress both within and outside the institutional framework in response to a concrete demand, that of water. I believe it is an interesting example because it characterizes new, more up-to-date ways of doing politics. Even though we fall within the scope of traditional 20th century struggles, these struggles take on new objectives, new aspects that can support international solidarity organizations and the work being carried out by other comrades worldwide.

• Host

  Read more about Manuela Royo and her article Water struggles in Chile in Ecology and empowerment.