Water Rationing and Biopolitics

an Analysis of the Power to Control Drinking Water in Hydric Distribution in the City of Recife

Abstract

The estate of Pernambuco drags a chronic deficiency in the distribution of drinking-water. Currently the still deficient water distribution presents an empirically remarkable problem of isonomy, which is the incidence of the rationing regime: only economically disadvantaged neighborhoods suffer from the effects of this technique, not receiving constant flow of water from the public system, especially the Zonas Especiais de Interesse Social. Notwithstanding rationing, on an elementary basis, to ensure access to all, by an equal upper limit, to a given finite food resource, the use of rationing in the city of Recife has been permeated by a socioeconomic framework. Thus, when access to drinking water is understood as a human right that provides for the enjoyment of so many others, the unequal distribution assumes vilifying feature. The 
notion of water as the essence of life, in order to confuse life and water in living beings, forces us to conclude that controlling water, the life of certain populations is controlled. From this perspective, one thought of a
biopolitical reason par excellence. Therefore, the objective of this research is to investigate the occurrence of biopolitical operations in water distribution in the city of Recife, through field research in a set of neighborhoods with disabilities in such a service, seeking to understand what role rationing plays in these life management operations. Thus, we have Michel Foucault as a theoretical framework, adopting the deductive
method and making use of a qualitative analysis, concluding that the rationing regime of drinking water distribution in the city of Recife is a biopolitical reason regime.