The Power Relation Contestations Behind the Escalation of Water Conflicts in the Post Decentralization Era

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-174-6_39How to use a DOI?

Keywords

water conflicts; power relations; decentralization; contestation

Abstract

This study aims to reveal the contestation of power relations between various actors behind water conflicts in Indonesia after the decentralization era. The research was conducted on three cases of water conflicts that had occurred in Batu City (East Java), Klaten (Central Java) and Sleman (Yogyakarta). This research uses a qualitative approach with a narrative research design. The subjects of the study were actors involved in contesting power relations in water conflicts. Research data were collected through participatory observations, in-depth interviews with the social actors involved, and literature studies of various research reports, journal articles, theses and dissertations, and online mass media news. Data analysis is carried out cyclically through the stages of data condensation, data display and conclusions. The results showed that the political authority of regional head actors in the era of decentralization was used to establish power relations with corporate actors in controlling water resources through maladministration practices in issuing licensing documents in industrial infrastructure development. Fear of water scarcity caused by industrial infrastructure development fueled resistance by grassroots actors fighting to save their water resources, escalating water conflicts. The findings of this study contribute to research on the political ecology of water conflicts that spread after the decentralization era that threatens the sustainability of water rights in grassroots groups and sustainable development policies in Indonesia.

Copyright

© 2023 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Waskito Waskito
AU  - Deny Wahyu Apriadi
AU  - Nanda Harda Pratama Meiji
PY  - 2024
DA  - 2024/01/08
TI  - The Power Relation Contestations Behind the Escalation of Water Conflicts in the Post Decentralization Era
BT  - Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Democracy and Social Transformation (ICON-DEMOST 2023)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 225
EP  - 229
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-174-6_39
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-174-6_39
ID  - Waskito2024
ER  -