Hannah Pallmeyer, Macalestar College
“’Water is our Right, Protecting it is our Responsibility’: Constructing and Sustaining a Social Movement Against Water Privitization in Nicaragua”
Bio: Hannah Pallmeyer is a senior at Macalester College in St Paul, Minnesota. Originally from Minneapolis, Hannah became interested in Latin America while on a trip to El Salvador in 2000. She studied abroad in Nicaragua last spring through the School for International Training, where she studied social movements against water privatization. Hannah is a double major in Latin American Studies and Political Science.
Abstract: In the past decade, water privatization has threatened the rights and access to potable water for Nicaraguan citizens. Many civil society organizations believe that water privatization will not lead to better service, but instead higher prices, as international companies driven by profit would put their shareholders’ interests above those of the citizens of Nicaragua. This research attempts to explain how the social movement against water privatization formed and how it is organized; through an analysis of the strategies used by the movement and investigation of the challenges that the movement has encountered. The research concludes with an examination of competitive and conflict relations within the Nicaraguan social movement against water privatization. The right to water is a fundamental human right, and one that contributes to human dignity. Without quality and affordable water service, human dignity cannot be achieved. Therefore, this paper attempts to illustrate how a splintered civil society mobilized themselves and worked together for dignity of all people.
