Abstract

The current article examines the social origins of water scarcity in Rio Bueno basin, Chile. The political ecology's theoretical framework is employed to assess water scarcity as an "hybrid" phenomenon of socionatural nature, highlighting the development of a frame of "water scarcity typologies". By employing a combined methodology, we analyzed quantitative and qualitative water related data to reveal the existing water scarcity typologies, who suffers from water scarcity as well as to which factors this scarcity is attributed. Our results demonstrate the existence of different water scarcity typologies, and that water scarcity does not affect all actors involved, thus revealing anthropological factors in its production. We conclude that the origins of water scarcity are multiple, and that water management in Chile has prioritized economic activities of high national interest over the use of water for human consumption.