Openness and the Politics of Potable Water

Abstract

Improving access to potable water has become an increasingly urgent concern for developing nations in the current era of globalization. According to standard wisdom, if developing countries undertake certain domestic reforms, such as investing in infrastructure and engineering, then safe and clean drinking water will improve. This analysis uncovers, however, that in addition to such domestic efforts, one of the greatest factors affecting water uncertainty is, in fact, internationally induced: trade. Surprisingly, both scholars and practitioners have neglected the potential impacts of expanding trade on access to potable water. This analysis is the first large-N cross-national study of water that focuses on the interplay of trade and politics—both international and domestic—as the primary driving forces behind improvements in (or constraints to) water access. The author hypothesizes that growing export pressures are constraining drinkable water in poor countries, but a particular domestic condition can mitigate this effect: the existence of lower levels of income inequality. As the socioeconomic actors disadvantaged by openness, particularly in more equal countries, seek reparations for the growing threats to potable water, the adverse affects of trade on water may be averted. Empirical evidence from 77 developing countries and case studies of Vietnam and India provide support for this hypothesis.