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Map of Khayelitsha, Cape Town, South Africa.
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In this paper we argue that in South Africa the state is understood and narrated in multiple ways, notably differentiated by interactions with service provision infrastructure and the ongoing housing formalisation process. We trace various contested narratives of the state and of citizenship that emerge from interactions with urban water service in...
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... with ethnographic approaches to states, also trace the state not as a pre-existing coherent entity, but rather as varied and consolidated through specific narratives and experiences of citizen subjects (Gupta, 1995;Harris, 2009Harris, , 2012). The discussion that follows navigates these linked understandings of citizenship and the state, elicited through narratives of residents Site C, Khayelitsha - an underserved community located on the outskirts of Cape Town (see Figure 1). The focus on everyday experiences and narratives enables consideration of the state and citizenship not as abstract entities, but rather as emergent, relational, processual, and as embedded in historical, political, and contextual processes. ...
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the challenges of spaces for daily act...
Citations
... Infrastructures such as water pipes serve to establish connections between people, which then evolve into relationships of power through the provision of essential resources (Swyngedouw, 1997). In such ways, infrastructures define water access and control not only in material, but also in legal and institutional, terms (Hommes et al., 2022;Rodina and Harris, 2016;Wittfogel, 1957). This points to the central role of infrastructures in shaping political relationships of authority, within as well as outside of the state. ...
This paper aims to expand our understanding of the diverse relationships in water provision in cities such as Nairobi, where urban water is provided through heterogeneous actors and through piped and non-piped systems. The paper contributes to the study of authority and urban infrastructure by examining how interactions between urban water systems, their providers, and the people who depend on them shape forms of authority emerging around urban water. The paper draws on insights from an ethnographic study conducted in an informal settlement named Kibera and in Langata, another residential area of Nairobi, Kenya. It examines the forms of authority that are created around water service providers and whether the concept of "hydraulic social contracts" adds to our understanding of relations of authority in service provision. The fluid materiality of water, fragile material infrastructures, and their social embeddedness tie into fluid relations of authority where water service providers embody seemingly contradictory roles defined by exploitation and solidarity. The paper concludes that hydraulic social contracts are particularly precarious and that relations of authority based on water are difficult to fix into static conceptualisations.
... Nevertheless, the development of infrastructural studies led to the emergence of a more political and social representation of infrastructure transformations (Akrich, 1992;Graham & Marvin, 2001;Winner, 1980). Along those lines, political ecologists have developed a "political ecology of the State" (Tarr, 1984;Guy et al., 2001;Nüsser, 2003;Molle & al., 2009;Bénit-Gbaffou & Oldfield, 2011;Meehan, 2014;Rodina & Harris, 2016;Harris, 2017;Loftus, 2020). This scholarship has shown how large-scale hydraulic projects developed by the State align with a technocentric logic (Harris, 2012;Menga & Swyngedouw, 2018;Rusca et al., 2019;Swyngedouw, 1999) aimed at legitimising and consolidating State power (Crow-Miller et al., 2017;Perreault, 2005). ...
This paper retraces the history of flood risk infrastructure projects (1850-1980) in the Grésivaudan Valley, located immediately upstream of Grenoble (France). It analyses the persistent gap between the modernist paradigm embedded in flood protection projects and the concrete hydraulic infrastructure built along the river and at confluences, questioning their unexpected effects. In this article, we demonstrate that in spite of their apparent fixity, flood protection infrastructures are constantly reshaped within hydrosocial territories. To support this argument, we analyse socio-material fracturing arising from the implementation of flood infrastructure projects. Four autonomisation processes that produce these socio-material fractures are studied: a) a competition between imaginaries at stake; b) a situation of legal pluralism denied by the State; c) an agency of sediments; and d) a conflict between the everyday practices of beneficiaries and planned practices. By reconstructing these processes, we open the black box of the hydrosocial construction and materialisation of hydraulic infrastructure, and contribute to the development of the concept of socio-material fractures.
... Depending on what feedback is received and valued, experimentation with such alternatives in turn can generate learnings that further alters the relationships among governing actors, issues and policy venues (see, e.g., Eakin et al., 2023). For example, the development of public physical infrastructure and provisioning of public services can imply changes in social and political roles, responsibilities and thus relationships, affecting the established legitimacy of actors in service provisioning efforts (Rodina & Harris, 2016). Failures in infrastructure and provisioning thus have repercussions for statecitizen relations (Eakin et al., 2023;. ...
The threat of service failures because of climate shocks can provoke a re‐negotiation of roles and responsibilities among private and public actors, and a shift towards more polycentric arrangements. This research builds on frameworks for documenting the emergence and evolution of polycentric governance arrangements through an analysis of the enrollment of private corporate actors in water provisioning services in response to the “Day Zero” 2017–2018 drought in Cape Town, South Africa. Through an analysis of interview data, we document the motivations of the corporate and municipal actors to coordinate their efforts to address acute water shortages through a novel governance venue and mechanism: Water Service Intermediaries. We document their experience with collaboration in the governance arrangements that evolved. The case illustrates both the potential, but also the limitations of shifts toward polycentricity in the context of critical resource provisioning. Our actor‐centric approach documents the transaction and material costs associated with new regulatory burdens as the actors negotiated their respective responsibilities and roles. Actors face coordination challenges associated with their dependence on shared physical infrastructure, tensions associated with duties of care towards specific constituencies, and the friction entailed in reconciling their new nodal responsibilities and core missions. While the experiment in this form of polycentric water provisioning was curtailed at the end of the drought, the evidence of feedback and learning among private and public actors indicates a shift in mindsets concerning joint responsibilities for urban resilience, and the potential for future collaboration in polycentric governance around novel issues.
... Access to services infrastructure for informal settlements is one way for impoverished communities to engage the state to claim their right to live in the city. Specifically, water, sanitation, electricity or flood mitigation infrastructures for many informal urban residents are sites of engagement with an often distant or unresponsive state (Dugard, 2013;Rodina & Harris, 2016, Harris, 2020, and spaces where people's belonging to the city is being negotiated, contested, or protested. Consider this conversation with a member from the Environmental Monitoring Group: ...
... The examples here highlight disconnects between household and community resilience (e.g., flood risk), and overall system level resilience (pollution of aquifers, infrastructure challenges, ability to invest and plan to reduce risk) all of which counter pathways believed to be critical to achieve water related resilience in the city (see many parallels with Durban's experience with the 100 Resilient Cities program in Roberts at al., 2020). Also providing a sense of how the situation of marginalized, informal, and impoverished areas infringes on possibilities for broad-scale resilience building, we now turn to two additional examples of key disconnectivities that similarly act as 'counter-currents' that undermine 5 To learn more about service provision debates and the critical role of infrastructure in shaping urban realties in South Africa see Dugard (2013), Loftus (2006; Rodina and Harris (2016), and von Schnitzler (2008). and inhibit resilience, again centering the situation of the city's poor and vulnerable as pivotal to possibilities at the urban scale writ large. ...
... Papers vary in their conceptualizations of housing in relation to WASH. These aspects include landlord-tenant relationship (Foggitt et al., 2019), the quality and location of the physical housing structure in the settlement (Butcher, 2021;Cherunya et al., 2020), housing formalisation (Rodina & Harris, 2016), land tenure and/or security of settlements (Butcher, 2021;Cherunya et al., 2020;Rashid, 2009;Richmond et al., 2018;Singh, 2022;Vu et al., 2022), the home as the locus of domestic spaces -including parental responsibilities - (Baruah, 2007;Cherunya et al., 2020;Foggitt et al., 2019;Panchang, 2021;Vu et al., 2022) and of economic activities (Baruah, 2007;Cherunya et al., 2020). ...
... The interconnection between housing and WASH is further evident in situations where individuals rely, either partially or entirely, on public WASH facilities. The proximity of the house to these facilities plays a significant role in shaping access to WASH services (Cherunya et al., 2020;Rodina & Harris, 2016;Vu et al., 2022;Wiltgen Georgi et al., 2021). Access inequalities are exacerbated in cases where specific social groups are socially excluded (Butcher, 2021). ...
... Rashid (2009) also mentions a lack of political will to rehabilitate the urban poor. Efforts to formalise housing and WASH access through policies can inadvertently worsen exclusion for those who were already marginalised (Rodina & Harris, 2016) or in cases of deliberate slum clearance (Muchadenyika, 2015). According to Uddin (2018), a lack of policies addressing the specific needs of informal settlements is evident. ...
Urban inequalities are exacerbated due to rapid urbanisation. This is also evident within slums in low- and middle-income countries, where high levels of heterogeneity amongst the slum population lead to differential experiences in Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) and housing access. This scoping review provides evidence of the interconnection of WASH and housing and presents barriers to access and the consequences thereof for slum dwellers. It does so while considering the social stratification amongst urban slum dwellers and their lived experiences. A systematic search of journal articles was conducted in November 2022 in PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science. A total of 33 papers were identified which were full text reviewed and data extracted. Infrastructure, social and cultural, socio-economic, governance and policy and environmental barriers emerged as general themes. Barriers to WASH and housing were more frequently described concerning women and girls due to gender norms within WASH and the home. Barriers to WASH lead to compromised health, socio-economic burdens, and adverse social impacts, thus causing residents of slums to navigate their WASH mobility spatially and over time. Insights from this review underscore the need for an intersectional approach to understanding access inequalities to WASH and housing.
... Most urban cities in South Africa, including eThekwini, Durban, are experiencing the mushrooming of informal settlements and the government is caught in the middle between providing housing and basic services, that often comes with controversy whereby the citizens often feel neglected (Rodina, 2016). ...
... Political ecologies co-exist with the state of water services infrastructure and operation, accompanied with complex interpretation of local politics and dynamics involved, where eventually the citizens either fall victim or thrive. The analysis of the Khayelitsha Township, in Cape Town forms a perfect example of a state in transition from post-apartheid era to the time of societal balance reconstruction in terms of infrastructure and other vital basic human right necessities (Rodina, 2016). ...
... Urbanization, informal settlements, hostels, unmetered and unbilled properties contributes to the drivers of NRW since most South African cities and metro's including EM are caught in the dilemma where they must provide social housing formerly known as RDP housing scheme, subsequently they are obliged to provide basis services such as water at 'zero' rate cost or free-basic water. This has been the case at Khayelitsha Township as well, in Cape Town, where there is a state of transition from post-apartheid era to the time of political ecologies and societal balance reconstruction in terms of infrastructure and various basic human right necessities (Rodina, 2016). ...
ABSTRACT
Water utilities worldwide lose a total of $141 billion per year (R2357.52 billion) in revenues due to non-revenue water (NRW). South Africa (SA) is losing revenue approximated at R7.2 billion annually due to water-loss scourge; eThekwini Municipality (EM) is losing R700 million annually due to its NRW currently sitting at 50 percent, whereas 15 percent is internationally accepted best practice. NRW of 50 percent is apparent and real losses, 15 percent, and 35 percent respectively. The aim of the research is to explore cost recovery strategies for NRW at EM by; determining NRW key drivers; investigating extent, effects, and implications; exploring effective and efficient information and communications technology support systems (I&CTSS); adopting effective and efficient cost recovery software programs; and by assessing effective and efficient billing and metering systems. This is a qualitative desktop analysis research of content such as: the state of NRW in SA, NRW global best practices, quantifying global NRW problem, SA’s Municipal utilities assessments & audits on NRW, Water-loss management and NRW reduction, Guidelines of reducing NRW in SA, from; the DWS and WRC Reports, M. Farley, A. Lambert, R. Liemberger, A. Wyatt, R. McKenzie & V. Kanakoudis. Findings of the research: determined the key drivers of NRW as the unmetered properties such as rural and informal settlements, hostels, low-cost housing, firefighting equipment, high burst rate and leakages, overflowing frequency of water pipes and reservoirs respectively, slow response to burst and leaks due to human capital and plant capacity issues. Water purchased from Umgeni Water Board, EWS could only account for 59.4 percent, and 40.6 percent was recorded as water loss. Over the years EWS used numerous (I&CTSS) tools such as WhatsApp Hotline, e-Services, c-Services, online/email services, App, Toll-free numbers, SMS Hotline, Facebook Page etc. Revenue Management System (RMS) is challenging in many instances and disruptive on daily operational functions and duties of EWS. Water Conservation and Water Demand Management (WC/WDM) Business Plan and strategy is recommended; to reduce system input volume, increase water reuse, install water meters, ensure clean audits, increase billed metered consumption, introduce flat rate, enforce water supply By-Laws, and apply tariff amendments.
Keywords: Non-revenue water; Strategies; eThekwini
... State development strategy plays a significant role, with several countries using water infrastructure and water resource development to impel economic development that can create or reproduce structural regional inequalities (Tortajada, 2016). Water infrastructures are highly politicised in this space: territorial control and infrastructure governance are used to condition residents as political subjects with varying claims to citizenship (Giglioli, 2021;Rodina & Harris, 2016). But if water infrastructure is a method of control and development, then the means for its mobilisation can vary considerably. ...
... Other feminist scholars have shown how social peculiarities affect embodied water experiences. For instance, using an embodied political ecology framework, scholars have shown that water infrastructure often reflects historical inequalities (Bell 2015;Rocha et al. 2019;Truelove 2019) and displaces low-income individuals (Boelens 2015;Damonte and Boelens 2019) while reinforcing gendered water access (Geere and Cortobius 2017; Mitra and Rao 2019) and classist power dynamics (Rodina and Harris 2016;Sultana 2021). As Truelove (2011) stated, "water [insecurity] experiences are inherently bodily and physical" (145)-hence our focus on the body as a research site. ...
The linkages between water insecurity and human health have been of long-standing research interest togeographers, especially those studying the human–environment dimensions of health. This article contributesto this scholarship by demonstrating how insecure access to irrigation water produces differentiated bodilyeffects for women. Data for the article come from empirical field work using interviews, focus groupdiscussions, drone-based participatory mapping, and community validation workshops. Grounded in theliterature on embodiment and intersectional feminist political ecology and through the firsthand experiencesof women and their struggles to secure irrigation water, the article makes two main contributions. First, itdemonstrates how drones could be innovatively integrated into qualitative and political ecology field work tobetter understand human–environment interactions. Second, it shows that space and time are critical tounderstanding the differentiated embodied experiences of water insecurity. More specifically, differentirrigators experience different bodily effects depending on where their irrigated fields are located. Comparedto women with plots near irrigation canals, the article shows that those with plots further afield experiencemore debilitating pains in the limbs, waist, and hips as they struggle to secure water. Overall, the article’sfindings highlight how the uneven geographies of access to irrigation water warrant closer attention byscholars studying hydrosocial relations and health.
... The structure and functioning of formal and informal governance arrangements and associated infrastructure play a central role in shaping how disruptions are experienced 1 , how actors respond, and how such responses influence subsequent system (re) organization and potential transformation [2][3][4][5] . When water or food provisioning systems falter or fail, these disruptions not only affect access to critical resources for human wellbeing, but also the political legitimacy, financial viability, or authority of actors involved in resource distribution 6 . Critical goods such as water are typically delivered via a combination of public and private means, which can result in exclusion from access [7][8][9] . ...
... In doing so, these nonstate actors imagined and enacted innovative possibilities, and established new legitimacy and visibility for themselves as service providers by demonstrating their capacity to participate in resource governance. Nevertheless, the emergence of new governance arrangements and associated resource flows inevitably confronts existing sources of power and legitimacy entangled in infrastructure 6,46 , as well as the expectations and social-political relationships that characterize the status quo. ...
The structure and functioning of formal and informal governance arrangements and associated infrastructure prior to major environmental disturbance play a central role in how cities experience and respond to such events. This paper considers how city managers, businesses, and residents responded to two disturbances experienced in the City of Cape Town—a drought-induced water crisis and a pandemic crisis (COVID-19) that followed a year later—and the consequences of these actions for infrastructural assets and governance innovations. Our analysis suggests that efforts aimed at transformative change in these provisioning systems require attention to the existing and potential roles and responsibilities of private and public sector actors, as well as the associated distribution of risks and rewards. Furthermore, polycentric and decentralized governance arrangements, which are often thought to be most flexible in the face of shocks, are not always feasible or desirable to actors with a stake in resource governance.
... Therefore, technologies and infrastructure -and changes in them-bring about 'significant alterations in patterns of human activity and human institutions' (Winner, 1986, p. 6). Literatures on infrastructures also emphasize how infrastructure plays a key role in state-society relations (Harris et al., 2018;Kooy & Bakker, 2008;Larkin, 2013;Rodina & Harris, 2016). These insights have received much echo in the irrigation literature where several authors have studied different dimensions of socio-technological transformation (Boelens, 2008;Bolding et al., 1995;Obertreis et al., 2016). ...
Drip irrigation is often considered a technological solution to increase water use efficiency and crop productivity. However, all too often, its social and institutional entanglements are ignored. This paper treats drip irrigation as a socio-material assemblage and discusses the social and institutional changes triggered by the introduction of drip irrigation infrastructure in Ağlasun, a rural town located in the southwest of Turkey. Through an ethnographic study, we investigate how the switch from surface irrigation to drip irrigation entails an interaction of institutional re-arrangements, material infrastructures and strategizing actors to reshuffle the operation and maintenance of irrigation infrastructures, water distribution rules and water pricing. Expanding the concept of institutional bricolage to socio-material bricolage, we offer a nuanced understanding of how material infrastructures and institutions are mutually shaped by individual and collective agency.
