Dell´Angelo, Jamel. (2017) The Global Water Grabbing Syndrome

Large-scaleacquisitionsofagriculturallandindevelopingcountrieshavebeenrapidlyincreasinginthelast10years,contributingtoamajoragrariantransitionfromsubsistenceorsmallscalefarmingtolarge-scalecom-mercialagriculturebyagribusinesstransnationalcorporations.Likelydrivenbyrecentfoodcrises,newbioenergypolicies,andfinancialspeculations,thisphenomenonhasbeenofteninvestigatedfromtheeconomicdevelop-ment,humanright,landtenureandfoodsecurityperspectives,whileitshydrologicimplicationshaveremainedunderstudied.Ithasbeensuggestedthatamajordriveroflarge-scalelandacquisitions(LSLAs)isthequestforwaterresourcesthatcanbeused(locally)tosustainagriculturalproductionintheacquiredland.Theappropri-ationofwaterresourcesassociatedwithLSLAshasoftenbeentermed‘watergrabbing’,thoughtodateaformaldefinitionofsuchanormativeandinherentlypejorativetermismissing.Theintrinsicassumptionisthattheac-quisitionofwaterundergoesthesamedynamicsofunbalancedpowerrelationshipsthatunderliemanyLSLAs.Hereweinvokehydrologicaltheoriesof“green”and“blue”waterflowstostresstheextenttowhichwaterap-propriationsareinherentlycoupledtolandacquisitionsandspecificallyfocusonbluewater.Wethenproposeaformaldefinitionofbluewatergrabbingbasedbothonbiophysicalconditions(waterscarcity)andethicalimpli-cations(humanrighttofood).Bluewatergrabsareappropriationsofirrigation(i.e.,blue)waterinregionsaffect-edbyundernourishmentandwhereagriculturalproductionisconstrainedbybluewateravailability.WeusethisframeworktoprovideaglobalassessmentofthelikelihoodthatLSLAsentailbluewatergrabbing.