Downstream from the Locks: The Technopolitics of Water in Panama’s Urban Borderlands

This dissertation explores the intertwined histories of urban governance, water management, and United States imperialism in Panama from the colonial period through the mid-20th century. Focusing on the socio-technical and ecological transformations wrought by the Panama Canal and its associated infrastructures, it examines how water emerged as a central element in shaping urban life and geopolitics in the isthmus. By employing the concept of the hydrosocial cycle, this study frames water not merely as a natural resource but as a contested medium of power, negotiation, and resistance.

The research situates Panama’s urban water infrastructures—aqueducts, sewer systems, and fire-fighting networks—within broader imperial and environmental contexts. It reveals how US-led sanitary campaigns and technological interventions reconfigured the urban fabric, consolidating Washington's dominance while engendering dependency and resistance among Panamanian communities. These systems, designed to meet the dual demands of urban governance and interoceanic transit, became arenas of socio-political contestation, symbolizing both modernity and inequality.

This work advances historiographies of the Panama Canal, urban history, and environmental governance by challenging triumphalist narratives of U.S. modernization. By blending environmental, urban, and imperial histories, this dissertation provides a nuanced understanding of water’s role in shaping the lived experiences of power, infrastructure, and identity in Panama. It invites to reconsider the isthmus’s past and present through the fluid and contested medium of water, offering critical insights into the broader dynamics of empire and urbanization.