¿Quién tiene la última palabra? Discurso institucional vs. redes sociales en la descentralización de la gestión del sistema de riego en la cuenca del Río Mendoza

The watery resources management is run by the General Irrigation Department in Mendoza. Since 1994 this Department has driven a policy of democratic management for the distribution of the watering resources, through annual assemblies. Though these assemblies don’t congregate enough people, there are informal social networks that assures everybody the irrigation resources needed. However this distribution is not equitable. At least two types of social networks have been found: one of them has a higher level of influence for decision making. The other one is limited to solve watering problems at a very low level –which could jeopardise their access to the resourceand is compounded by less social, economic and cultural capital agents.