Water is not a service: A new ontology for the wet world

This article challenges the modern perception of water as a resource separate from land by introducing the concept of 'waterlands'. The author argues that water is not merely an administrative service but a fundamental relational medium that shapes social and political systems. The article examines the hydrosocial cycle, pointing to the failures of technocratic planning, such as the drainage of wetlands and the concreting of riverbeds. The role of peat bogs and chalk rivers as key carbon stores and climate regulators is highlighted. Through a critique of 'pictorial ecology,' the article calls for the internalization of environmental damage and a paradigm shift in water resource management, recognizing the inextricability of land and water in terrestrial processes.