Cuerpos, agua y emociones: cotidianidades de mujeres en el territorio intervenido por la represa hidroeléctrica El Quimbo, Huila, Colombia

Abstract

About 8,500 hectares where flooded after “El Quimbo”, an hydroelectric megaproject (owned by the Spanish multinational Emgesa), which is located south from the municipality of Gigante, Huila. Rioloro and Nueva Veracruz, were the most affected places, due to the terrible planning and implementation of this project which was inaugurated in 2011. Forced displacements, the disappearance of traditional sources of employment and environmental changes, profoundly affected the social dynamics, geography and daily life of the local people. The present investigation will make an analysis of this problem from a multi-scalar and gender perspective. Through the political ecology of water and feminist political ecology presents the social, political and economic context, as well as the uses and control of water and the position of women in the environmental conflict caused by El Quimbo. The gender perspective, at one hand, delves into the bodies and daily lives of women in territories intervened by hydrodynamic dams. On the other hand, it raises a reading of the territories from the emotions. The links between bodies and territory, and space and emotions are categories of central analysis that this fieldwork made visible. The methodology used was ethnographic, semi-structured and in-depth interviews and documentary research.