Hydrosocial river modernization: The enclosure of amphibious cultures in Canal del Dique, Colombia

The transformation of rivers has been part and parcel of human history and its development. While often portrayed as ‘the’ way towards development through modernization, these transformations often entail river commons’ enclosures and the loss of related environments and cultures. In this article we explore how in the subregion of Canal del Dique in Northern Colombia, the river has changed through the construction of infrastructure, mainly in the form of canals and dikes that control the rhythmic changes of the water levels in the vast floodplains of the Magdalena River. Through these infrastructural interventions the pattern of an annual flood-drought succession has been curtailed, transforming riverine territories and related ecosystems, societies, lives and cultures. Building on an adapted notion of the Riverhood framework, we analyse how these infrastructural interventions bring with them the enclosure and transformation of amphibious cultures that live and depend on the rhythmic cycles of floods and droughts in the floodplains. The latter, we argue, occurs through the subjectification of hydrosocial riverine environments through modernist notions that shape territorial projects aimed at transforming rivers and their societies. Though grassroots responses have tried to halt these transformations, they have by-and-large failed to stop the advancement of a modern tamed and controlled socio-ecological river upon which a large part of society has become dependent.