Presentation short abstract

I explore how water models construct futures that shape governable subjects in the Magdalena River, applying a “governmentality of the future” lens. Data gaps and “exclusion‑through‑consensus” shape this governmentality, allowing water modellers to downplay the livelihood loss of rooted communities.

Presentation long abstract

While we know that water models are political and re-shaped by their context, they continue to be used in water management as tools to examine the future. As futures become an increasingly contested object of water governance, it is crucial to critically examine how water models contribute to the creation of knowledgeable objects—such as the future—to produce governable subjects. I situate this endeavour in the Zapatosa Wetland of the Lower Magdalena River, where an ecohydraulic modelling project was initiated by the Colombian state and the World Bank. I examine this through a ‘governmentality of the future’ lens, building on the notions of environmental governmentality, hydrocracies and naturalisation of time, along with empirical material collected between 2022 and 2024. I describe how the Colombian state and the World Bank enact the governmentality of the future, opting for greater control over the people through control of the Magdalena River, with disastrous consequences for rooted river futures. I demonstrate that the lack of data has entered the governmentality of the future, as well as a politics of "exclusion-through-consensus". The Colombian state and international banks utilise the governmentality of the future through the disposition of hydrocracies (water modellers) that steer knowledge gaps towards the “incomplete” knowledge of futures. As a result, water modellers digitally downplay threats to riverside communities, such as pollution, water grabbing and loss of livelihood, thereby delegitimising their rooted futures.