Author: S. Megens,
This blog draws on my reflections and ongoing research on the 2023 drought in Latin America. It questions the conventional view that floods and droughts are merely opposite expressions of the same hydrological processes. Droughts, by contrast, emerge as slow-onset phenomena influenced by a web of structural and non-structural factors, among them inequality, environmental degradation, and fragile governance systems. These unattended “slow variables” generate socio-political dynamics that remain understudied yet profoundly shape the human experience of water scarcity. The “Modern Cerberus” heat episode of 2023 revealed not only environmental stress but also the deeper systemic fragilities and obscured power relations that sustain them. Interpreting droughts on their own terms, particularly through the perspectives of Amazonian women and Indigenous communities in frontier regions, stresses the need for more just, anticipatory, and context-aware approaches to water governance.
