As climate fallout worsens, technocratic modes of water control are increasing, driven in large part by increased expenditures into “water intelligence” including cloud computing, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning (ML). Across localities water innovation programs disrupt, exclude, and erase Indigenous knowledges and local governing structures that have long protected waterways, ecosystems, and life. The commodification and digitization of water is neither inevitable nor permanent–many of these systems were created through violent historical processes and they do not need to exist in the future. 

For interest, contact: Theodora Dryer tjd@waterjustice-tech.org 

We’ve all had a long experience of seeing others plagiarize or improperly cite our work. Most of us are coming from marginalized identities within the formations of knowledge production, as femmes, queers, people of color and indigenous folks, immigrants, women, parents, folks with disabilities, folks who grew up in poverty, and folks who are deeply imbricated with solidarity networks, frontline communities, and who are committed to abolition, liberation, and ecological rationality. We are often more impacted by the theft of our work than those who are differently privileged than us. We encourage you to be in a responsible relationship with us and cite the editors, reports, and stories on this site properly. 

However, we also are resisting settler formations of property that claim knowledge is individual property, especially knowledge that critiques systems that harm us and furthers the work of resistance and liberation. We support each other’s growth and the struggles we are all connected to. We encourage you to explore each of these contributors’ other work, to connect with the communities and struggles represented in these stories, and to take action to protect water and defend the sacred.

We want these words and our work to travel and to be of use for those in the struggle. We do not want to create for the sake of inflating the budgets of the non-profit industrial complex nor the salaries of high profile intellectuals. We do this work because it matters to our communities and the folks we organize in solidarity with. We hope that you take it and build on it. We hope it informs your struggle and helps you resist and create change in the places and relationships you are in.