Presentation short abstract

The Barcelona Metropolitan Area’s “warer social meter” regulation prioritizes the right to water over property rights, providing temporary water access to squatters without legal tenure. Using survey and implementation data, we examine the water-energy-housing nexus and its justice implications.

Presentation long abstract

Political ecology has begun to examine water and energy together, but their link with housing precarity is still overlooked. This paper addresses that gap through the case of the Barcelona Metropolitan Area’s “social meter” regulation, which prioritizes the right to water over property rights by granting temporary access to households squatting dwellings without legal tenure. This governance innovation, emerging in a Mediterranean context marked by housing crises and affordability struggles, challenges dominant approaches to utility provision and raises critical questions about justice and social reproduction.

First, we use the European Living Conditions Survey to highlight the co-occurrence of water and energy poverty, showing how these utilities are interconnected in everyday practices. Second, we examine implementation data on social meters in the metropolitan area, tracing their evolution and territorial distribution. These findings reveal how water access policies intersect with housing crises, creating new forms of vulnerability and struggle.

By situating these dynamics within broader debates on basic utilities, the paper argues for a broader understanding of the water-energy-housing nexus. This perspective shows how legal frameworks and infrastructure in the form of water meters shape access to water and energy, while exposing the uneven geographies of rights and governance. What new insights emerge when political ecology brings water, energy and housing together in struggles over affordability and environmental justice?