THE ADVANCE OF WATER FRONTIER IN URUGUAY: AGRIBUSINESS, IRRIGATION AND WATER GRABBING

Abstract

In Uruguay, we are witnessing a new impulse for the expansion of agribusiness from the financialization of agricultural irrigation. An Irrigation Law (2017) enables the generation of reservoirs for water damming, with the participation of financial capital. The development of these mechanisms will produce a process of water grabbing, antagonistic to the initiatives in the country that have promoted the consideration of access to drinking water and sanitation as a human right since 2004. In this work we address the process of commodification of water in Uruguayan agriculture since the 20th century, the stages of expansion of the water frontier with the incorporation of water into the logic of agribusiness and the resistance they have generated.