| Resumo: | With a methodological strategy based on institutional ethnography, this paper examines the practices of state actors and agencies in groundwater management in a semi-arid region of intense agricultural production. The analysis focuses on the practices and absences of state actors in the (non)regulation of groundwater access, and how these practices lead to the configuration of power relations that exacerbate socio-ecological inequities. These practices, both legal and illegal, lead to processes of water rights grabbing by regional companies, while exacerbating the vulnerability of small producers. The article examines areas of regulatory ambiguity in the water rights market and their implications for socio-environmental justice.
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