Title: The ontological politics of waters in northern Thailand: a hydrosocial analysis of the Ing river basin
Author: Mr.Thianchai Surimas
Year: 2023
Keywords: N.A
Theme: Environmental Politics and Policy
Advisor(s): Carl Nigel Middelton
The full thesis available here.
Abstract: Through a hydrosocial perspective, this research illustrates how political contestation between different networks of actors in the Ing River Basin produces different versions of water, which reflect divergent interests, different meanings and water ontologies that underpin the tensions and conflicts. This research employs ethnography to study networks of actors involved in water controversies and tensions over the hydraulic infrastructure project in the Ing River Basin. The network of project proponents, including a state-led hydraulic institution, experts, farmers, and other actors, see water as a source of economic activities due to its close association with modern irrigation schemes for rice-intensive and agricultural livelihoods. The project planners see water as a natural resource and reduce water to its materiality and physical dimensions. Water is tied with the idea of development that values large-scale infrastructure, and top-down bureaucratic management embodied scientific knowledge in controlling water, mainly for economic purposes. Meanwhile, project opponents, including civil society organizations, environmental NGOs, academic activists, and some community members, understand water as a living river and environmental water. Living river and environmental water are produced through the coproduction of knowledge research, ecological and environmental campaigns, ceremonial and traditional practices, sacred rivers, and alternative livelihoods, all of which position water outside of modernist ontology. Living river and environmental water are socially, environmentally, spiritually, religious and culturally embedded with water. So, water is more complex than and more than a resource for exploitation. The project proponent and project opponent networks need to enrol and maintain their relationship with the village, which bolsters the community's position in negotiation in the conflicts and contestations. Therefore, villagers' livelihoods and needs were a middle ground for both networks in contestation. However, local villagers' livelihoods need irrigation water and environmental water, so this middle-ground area needs to stabilize modern and nonmodern water. This paper argues that water-related conflicts and tension in the Ing River Basin are rooted in such ontological differences. The approaches can be used to understand and frame a better water policy