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Flowing against the current: The socio-technical mediation of water (in)security in periurban Gurgaon, India
Abstract
This research is located at the intersection of three canals in periurban Gurugram. Two of these canals were built to provide water for the growing city of Gurugram and one of them carries the wastewater of the city back to the villages. These canals cut through periurban villages that are excluded in principle from taking benefit of these canals. They are meant to be at their receiving end, as recipients of these waters. The paper, using a socio-technical lens, explores the mixed impacts of these canals on the villages through which they traverse. The paper further describes the strategies that periurban communities devise to circumvent the situation of exclusion. Using a qualitative, ethnographic research design, the paper describes the socio-technical mediation of periurban water insecurity, focusing on the mix of technologies and institutions that spring up around these canals that shape the periurban water users’ access to water. The paper concludes that approaches for promoting community resilience and periurban water security need to start from an understanding of the strategies devised by periurban communities to improve their access to water. In the larger discourse on building community resilience in the face of urbanization and climate change it is important to pay attention to local norms of cooperation that enable periurban communities to access water, rather than start from a premise that water insecurity caused by urbanization and climate change will lead to conflicts or necessitate capacity-building to promote avoid conflict and promote cooperation.
... The fact that Rawta is peri-urban is not just incidental but shapes, in important ways, the characteristics of water provisioning observed therein. While peri-urban studies have earlier foregrounded the role of formality and informality (as examples, see Narain and Singh, 2017;Randhawa and Marshall, 2014;Vij et al., 2019), we note that the growth of peri-urban spaces cannot be underestimated for propelling new and more complex relationships between formal and informal water provisioning. What makes the peri-urban unique is not purely 'locational' but relates to introducing a conceptual category that allows the features and processes of the geographic space to be foregrounded: namely the co-existence of rural and urban land uses and economic activities and the diversity and heterogeneity of actors inhabiting such a space (Follmann, 2022;Marshall et al., 2009;Mehta and Karpouzoglou, 2015;Vij and Narain, 2016). ...
... While attention has been paid to the dynamics of water distribution in (peri)urban spaces, the relative role of formal and informal actors, technologies and institutions is a more recent concern (as examples, see Mehta and Karpouzoglou, 2015;Narain and Singh, 2017;Randhawa and Marshall, 2014;Vij et al., 2019). Beyond a certain recognition of formal and informal in the (peri)urban there is still a lack of theorisation of how formality and informality interrelate particularly with regard to drinking water provision. ...
... The transitory and 'messy' characteristics of the (peri)urban create space for a wider diversity of actors, technologies and institutions associated with water provisioning. This research thus further contributes to our understanding of the sociotechnical mediation of (peri)urban water insecurity (Narain and Singh, 2017;Shrestha 2019;Vij et al., 2018Vij et al., , 2019. ...
Water utilities have favoured the modern ideal of piped networks and infrastructure that is reproduced in policies and discourses about achieving ambitious water targets. In this article, using ethnographic insights from an urbanising village of New Delhi called Rawta, we build on work that challenges the myth of formal water as ‘piped’ water and informal water as ‘non-piped’ and explore both piped and non-piped water as dynamic and socially negotiated water regimes. We analyse how water regimes are shaped by complex constellations of formal and informal actors, institutions and technological practices. What constitutes piped water supply in Rawta is in fact largely constituted by an elaborate informal network of underground pipes and water pumps laid down to realise very specific local water needs. We explore what this kind of informality means for drinking water supply in rapidly urbanising peripheries.
... Mollinga, 2003). Less is known about the interactions of peri-urban water users with wastewater canals (for exceptions, see Narain & Singh, 2017;Vij et al., 2018). While there is growing attention to wastewater in urban settings (e.g. ...
... The demise of rural and peri-urban commons in processes of urbanization in India has been analysed for expanding cities like Gurgaon (e.g. Narain & Singh, 2017;. Changing uses of both groundwater and surface water, and related property and access transformations, have been studied for Kathmandu Valley in Nepal (e.g. ...
... What is the role of the increasingly powerful "agents of globalization-oriented change", such as landowners, investors, real estate developers, and multinational and domestic corporate actors? (Shatkin, 2014, p.3; see also Narain & Singh, 2017). As Shatkin rightly argues, these questions basically concern issues of agency, power and social change. ...
This chapter sets the context for the analysis of water security in peri-urban South Asia. Urbanization has been a key demographic trend globally as well as in South Asia, in the recent past and increasingly also in the future. While cities are often seen as engines of economic growth and development, and are associated with economies of scale, efficiency and sustainability, much urban growth occurs through the appropriation and reallocation of land and water from their peripheries. This creates patterns of deprivation for resource-dependent peri-urban and rural communities, as well as increasingly severe environmental problems, such as the over-extraction of groundwater and water pollution. This chapter first introduces the various perspectives, themes and cases presented in the book chapters. It then discusses urbanization and the peri-urban more specifically, introducing two contrasting views — ecological modernization and political ecology — and introduces the concept of water security. Referring to the examples from the book, the chapter then gives an overview of some of its key themes: the role of material infrastructure; property transformations and the declining commons; socially differentiated access to water; intervening in the peri-urban; and the role of conflict and cooperation.
... At the local level, especially the way in which local communities use and manage water resources has been studied since the early 1990s, looking at the interplay among the local natural resource base, livelihood activities amid the citizenry and institutional regimes (Schlager and Ostrom 1992;Agrawal and Gibson 1999;Sikor et al. 2017). A bit more recently, also the importance of a new space within community resource management has emerged-along with the growth of urban areas and the growing importance of peri-urban spaces (Allen 2003;Kombe 2005;Narain et al. 2013;Narain and Singh 2017;Gomes and Hermans 2018). Peri-urban areas, typically located at the fringe of urban areas (and defined as the areas at the interface between expanding cities and rural areas), exist in a constant state of flux, characterized by transition more than by well-defined spatial parameters (Narain and Singh 2017). ...
... A bit more recently, also the importance of a new space within community resource management has emerged-along with the growth of urban areas and the growing importance of peri-urban spaces (Allen 2003;Kombe 2005;Narain et al. 2013;Narain and Singh 2017;Gomes and Hermans 2018). Peri-urban areas, typically located at the fringe of urban areas (and defined as the areas at the interface between expanding cities and rural areas), exist in a constant state of flux, characterized by transition more than by well-defined spatial parameters (Narain and Singh 2017). In many cases, peri-urban areas consist in previously rural areas now undergoing a rapid process of transformation into more urban-based communities, increasingly linked to the nearby city. ...
... Theoretical understandings hold peri-urban communities as diverse and heterogeneous groups, with different sectors and actors positioned differently on the power ladder (Allen 2003;Arabindoo 2009;Narain et al. 2013;Vij and Narain 2016;Narain and Singh 2017). The peri-urban is regarded as a political space wherein actors with diverse and often conflicting interests pursue a range of different goals. ...
Water logging is ever more obviously a slow-onset, persistent disaster in south-west Bangladesh. Increasing challenges linked to climate variability constitute an immense problem, especially to vulnerable segments of the citizenry such as women and children. In these areas, cyclones, structural water logging, and floods are very common natural threats. The coastal belt Tala Upazila is a most intensively disaster-prone area; thousands of women and children are extremely vulnerable to calamity. This study attempts to understand and assess how vulnerable women and children of the coastal belt face the challenges for their livelihood in a locked life situation. The study also aims to assess both the coping mechanisms developed locally by the victims of natural calamities and the disaster management processes adopted by the Bangladeshi government. Methods of research are mainly based on primary surveys; they include field interviews, content analysis, focus group discussions, and case studies. Both qualitative and quantitative data have been used. Prolonged water logging has caused humanitarian challenges regarding safe water supplies, sanitation, shelter, food security, employment opportunities and so on. The study revealed that 49% of respondents lived in refugee centres with their children at the time of the disaster and that 34% of respondents changed their livelihood due to water logging. Sixty-three per cent of respondents were frequently affected by diarrhoea and the common cold, and 68% did not have access to purified water. Inadequate transportation systems are a major cause of high school dropout rates. The study also expected to find out a real-time solution with empirical views concerning the social, technical, and governance aspects of water logging and other natural disasters. Ultimately, the aim is to enhance resilience capacities among the people involved, particularly the most vulnerable sections. A comprehensive action plan regarding the protection of women and children is suggested involving the cooperation between regional, national, and international institutions.
... Peri-urban areas are spaces in transition, combining features of both urban and rural environments. These spaces are institutionally and ecologically dynamic [1], characterized by socio-economic heterogeneity and growing competition over natural resources [2][3][4][5]. Peri-urban areas face the repercussions of urban expansion, providing the land, water and other resources for urban agglomerations and receiving urban waste [6]. Such changes in peri-urban spaces give rise to conflicts while also engendering new forms of cooperation [2]. ...
... Such changes in peri-urban spaces give rise to conflicts while also engendering new forms of cooperation [2]. Significant attention has been paid to the dimensions of peri-urban water insecurity, focusing on the myriad ways in which urbanization erodes the access of peri-urban communities to water [3,7]. Water security can be defined as the availability of acceptable quantity and quality of water for health, livelihoods, ecosystems and production [8]. ...
... Water security can be defined as the availability of acceptable quantity and quality of water for health, livelihoods, ecosystems and production [8]. With this definition, peri-urban scholars have sufficiently demonstrated how the growth of urban agglomerations has been aggravating water insecurity for household and agricultural uses in peri-urban environments [3,9,10]. ...
This article describes the role of social capital and power as a significant underlying factor influencing water security in peri-urban Gurgaon. The article shows how differential access to social capital shapes differential access to water. In peri-urban contexts, communities that lack access to water mobilise their social capital to enhance their water security. We use the concepts of power and social capital to explain how the actors interact in peri-urban Gurgaon, paying attention to which social groups are powerful and how the powerless use social capital to adapt to changing resource access and usage. We conclude by drawing theoretical and policy-relevant insights from the field.
... Thus the boundary of the city has expanded gradually, engulfing the resources of the peripheral spaces. The spillover effects of the growth of the city have been studied using spatial mapping tools such as remote sensing (Yadav and Punia 2014) as well as through qualitative approaches (Narain and Singh 2017;Goldstein 2016). Concerns are raised about the implications of this process for the water and livelihood security of the peri-urban populations (Narain 2014;Vij and Narain 2016). ...
... Concerns are raised about the implications of this process for the water and livelihood security of the peri-urban populations (Narain 2014;Vij and Narain 2016). More recent studies, however, have demonstrated the different ways in which communities living around the city have struggled to maintain their water and livelihood security (Narain and Singh 2017). ...
... Current research on Gurgaon focuses on themes such as the equity and justice dimensions of the appropriation of land and water resources for the expansion of the city and its impacts on local power structures and resource access (Narain 2014;Vij and Narain 2016) and the sociotechnical mediation of water insecurity by peri-urban communities (Narain and Singh 2017), looking at how the latter struggle to maintain their livelihoods in a context in which urbanization policies weaken their access to resources. Political economy analyses are used to develop an understanding of the factors and processes shaping the growth of the city, in particular the role of private enterprise (Goldstein 2016). ...
Gurgaon is located in the northwest Indian state of Haryana. It has been growing since the 1980s as a recreation, residential, and outsourcing hub. This has been led predominantly by private initiative, though the state has provided a policy environment conducive to this. This process was shaped by the acquisition of agricultural land and water resources from the periphery; this has spawned debates about the equity and justice implications of such growth. Village settlement areas coexist with urban high rises. The city has expanded beyond its carrying capacity; water resources are overstressed and infrastructure falls way short of the requirements.
... Periurban, a loosely used term, refers to spaces typically at the periphery of the cities that are in constant transition, combining features of both rural and urban environments (Iaquinta and Drescher 2000;Narain and Singh 2017). Conceptually, scholars use a periurban lens to study the changing flows of goods and services between rural areas and urban centers (see for instance Narain and Singh 2017). ...
... Periurban, a loosely used term, refers to spaces typically at the periphery of the cities that are in constant transition, combining features of both rural and urban environments (Iaquinta and Drescher 2000;Narain and Singh 2017). Conceptually, scholars use a periurban lens to study the changing flows of goods and services between rural areas and urban centers (see for instance Narain and Singh 2017). As the processes of urbanization advance periurban spaces would grow in importance. ...
... A perspective on institutions in periurban contexts can help us discern how the process of transition described above extends to the norms, practices, and codes of conduct surrounding resource access and use in such spaces. The process of urbanization shapes insecurity for periurban communities through a weakening of access to essential resources such as land and waterbecause of the transitory characteristics of these zones (Douglas 2006;Narain and Singh 2017). Transitory characteristics refer to the change of a space from one form to the other, in this casefrom rural to urban. ...
Amidst growing concern about the decline of the commons, this case underscores the importance of understanding how the commons are refashioned and remade to address emerging challenges in periurban spaces. This article describes how institutions surrounding the use of common property resources get transformed and evolve in periurban contexts. What were once johads – common property village ponds – undergo a change in their usage from storing rainwater to storing waste water of the city for irrigation. This emerges as a collective response to the uncertainty attached to the availability of waste water. New institutions evolve with regard to contributions to waste water infrastructure, as well as the appropriation of waste water. Further research should document the changing use of village commons and the emergence of new institutions governing them.
... Wastewater is used for irrigation, using a wide diversity of sources, such as pipe outlets, diesel and electric pump-sets and tractors. The choice of technology is shaped mainly by topographical factors (Narain and Singh 2017). When the fields are at the same level or below the bed level of the canal, pipe outlets are used. ...
... Once this application is sanctioned, they pay to the Irrigation Department a nominal fees annually for the use of the wastewater. However, wastewater is used by a large number of farmers below the outlet-as many as 20 farmers from each outlet based on mutual norms of cooperation, locally called Bhaibandi (meaning brotherhood) (Narain and Singh 2017). ...
Java Island as the heart of Indonesia economic and where 60% of Indonesian population live are facing serious water security. Existing average index of water use in Java Island has exceeded 100%. Both land use and climate change factors contribute further to the water security problems in Indonesia. But, there is lack of investigation on the relative contribution of both factors to the future water security in Indonesia. Knowledge on their relative contribution enables us to select the most appropriate mitigation or adaptation options. In this study we used SWAT hydrological model to investigate the relative contribution of both factors on a water quantity as one component of water security in Ciliwung watershed. Like all watersheds in Java Island, the Ciliwung watershed is experiencing rapid development of residential area which affect the water cycle in the watershed. Result of the SWAT simulation showed that the relative impact of a climate change on the future water security is more pronounced than the impact of land use change. This result is mostly consistent with another study with different typology of watershed in Sumatra Island where the land use change is dominated by rapid development of monoculture plantations instead of rapid development of residential area.
... Wastewater is used for irrigation, using a wide diversity of sources, such as pipe outlets, diesel and electric pump-sets and tractors. The choice of technology is shaped mainly by topographical factors (Narain and Singh 2017). When the fields are at the same level or below the bed level of the canal, pipe outlets are used. ...
... Once this application is sanctioned, they pay to the Irrigation Department a nominal fees annually for the use of the wastewater. However, wastewater is used by a large number of farmers below the outlet-as many as 20 farmers from each outlet based on mutual norms of cooperation, locally called Bhaibandi (meaning brotherhood) (Narain and Singh 2017). ...
Bangladesh is one of the major countries vulnerable to climate change. The country is particularly at risk because of its geographical location, climatic variability, global warming and sea level rise. Sea level rise, frequent storm surge and recent cyclones such as A1LA and SIDR are intensifying salinity affecting the livelihoods of coastal region people especially in the south western part of Bangladesh. Along with salinity intrusion, corruption by local leaders and government officials, exploitation by big shrimp farmers, absence of drinking/sweet water have adversely affected local people. This paper explores the alternative mechanisms adopted by coastal communities to cope with increased salinity.
... The conventional understanding of periurban spaces therefore is that of spaces "crying out for attention (Halkatti et al., 2003)". Some scholars refer to them as spaces with governance lacuna while others draw attention to a governance vacuum (for a critique of this argument, see, Narain & Singh, 2017a;Singh, 2017). Many argue that there is a dire need of stringent legal frameworks for governance and management of these spaces (Halkatti et al., 2003;Shrestha, Roth, & Joshi, 2018). ...
... When scholars argue that there is a governance lacuna in periurban spaces, the pointer seems to be the weak capacity of the State. If however, we define governance to denote the mechanisms through which resources are allocated or the mechanisms through which control is exercised, then such mechanisms do exist in periurban spaces but are pronounced in the non-statutory sphere (Narain & Singh, 2017a). Understanding the diversity of mechanisms through which resources are allocated in periurban contexts is necessary before making assertions on institutional and governance lacunae. ...
... Relatively less powerful actors such as peri-urban residents are losing access and control over the water resources due to weak bargaining resources. However, the connection between actors and power interplay in peri-urban areas remains insufficiently understood (Prakash, 2014;Narain, 2017). ...
... Respondents also mentioned that water sellers transport groundwater out of the village to support other users, when the villagers are indoors. People are calling it 'water theft' (Graham, Desai & McFarlane, 2013;Narain & Singh, 2017). ...
Urbanising cities of India are engulfing the peri-urban land and water resources. Informal water sellers, who transfer water from peri-urban to urban areas, meet the growing water demand in Hyderabad, one of the fastest growing cities in India. This article qualitatively explores how informal water tankers are changing the flows of water, posing challenges to water access for peri-urban residents. We conclude that apart from the state's infrastructural and capacity challenges to provide piped water, power interplay between actors is responsible for the mushrooming of informal water markets. The transfer of water has contributed to groundwater depletion as well as to the water insecurity of peri-urban residents.
... Sub-tasks and points of attention/challenges Task 1: Preparing the process Understanding past initiatives and existing social arrangements Selecting committed participants that represent a 'balance of power' Identifying broad areas and boundaries of intervention Task 2: Reaching agreement on process design Understanding of institutional context, its possibilities and limitations, by all participants Specifying agenda and procedures, while allowing flexibility Task 3: Joint factfinding and situation analysis (problem analysis) Ensure participants understand each other: Clarity on the backgrounds, aspirations and interests of various stakeholders Access to and understanding of objective information on natural system Joint fact-finding might be needed Task 4: Solutions analysis Establish prior agreement on criteria, separate from weight given to them by different stakeholders All solutions identified by the stakeholders should be considered and discussed seriously Task 5: Forging agreement Positional bargaining by one or more parties might require active mediation by independent outside facilitator Task 6: Communication with constituencies Allow representatives with ample time and documented information to maintain communication with constituencies Task 7: Monitoring agreed actions Long-term commitment by stakeholders for monitoring of agreed actions and impacts of those actions Task 8: Strengthening capacity of participants Local communities may need extensive training to build knowledge and skills needed to become equal partners in negotiations -among themselves and with the other key stakeholders and government officials 1.3. Peri-urban groundwater management Peri-urban areas are the spaces at the periphery of cities that usually bear the brunt of urban expansion by providing the much needed resources, while acting as receptacles of urban waste (Narain and Singh 2017;). They are spaces in transition, that present some features of both urban and rural environments (Allen 2003;Mc Gee 1991). ...
... The rising attention for peri-urban spaces Peri-urban is a loosely used term, with no consensus regarding its meaning. Broadly, it refers to spaces at the periphery of cities that usually bear the brunt of urban expansion by providing the much needed resources, while acting as receptacles of urban waste (Narain and Singh 2017;Iaquinta and Drescher 2000). They are spaces in transition, that present some features of both urban and rural environments. ...
This publication has been prepared as part of the project “Shifting Grounds: Institutional transformation, enhancing knowledge and capacity to manage groundwater security in peri-urban Ganges delta systems”, funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research under grant W.07.69.104.
... Inter-personal exchanges • Sharing; local norms for water sharing or exchanging turns (Narain and Singh, 2017;Anand, 2017) • Socio-political relations (e.g., with "big" people, politicians) and ...
... Crisis-conditions, with particular consequences for marginalized peoples, are manifested from broader relations and institutions of the state. There is growing evidence now of the acquisition of common property resources for urban expansion and its adverse implications for the rural and periurban poor who depend on them (Narain and Vij, 2016;Narain and Singh, 2017). In states like Rajasthan and Maharashtra, water policy positions economic efficiency and surplus as key principles for (re)allocation, with the latter state being the first in India to afford higher priority to industrialists over farmers (Birkenholtz, 2016;Wagle et al., 2012). ...
In June, the Government of India (GOI) stated that the country is experiencing a severe water crisis in recorded history. We show here how the GOI continues to sideline underlying causes of the water crisis. Many government-led reports, schemes, and campaigns view large and small dams, micro-irrigation, and the presence of regulatory frameworks as capable of enhancing storage and curbing unsustainable water use. Such interventions are said to enable entire regions and communities in resisting crisis conditions. Efforts that increase the aggregated (volumetric) amount or equalize “supply-demand” gaps will, however, not necessarily disrupt water’s unequal distribution and access – a poorly recognized, yet central feature of the water crisis. A more comprehensive approach focuses not only on remedying the outcome of hydrological unavailability, but also on the underlying institutional causes driving water’s inaccessibility. We call upon activists, civil society groups, and researchers to continue sustaining pressure on government institutions to address the causes of differentiated water insecurities.
... Peri-urban area is a transition zone between urbanized land in cities, and predominantly agricultural areas possess mixed land use pattern, rural-urban activities, processes of ruralurban interaction which is responsible for constituting a social, physical, economic, and institutional space (Allen, 2003;Narain, 2014;Narain & Singh, 2017;Randhawa & Marshall, 2014). Peri-urban water security is seen as being shaped by the twin processes of climate change and urbanization (Kumar et al., 2011a). ...
Water is one of the most important natural resources, which is essential to ensure a sustainable life on the planet. Water security for everyone is a prerequisite for an area’s economic growth, social stability, and environmental sustainability. The peri-urban area is a transition zone with water insecurity in a severe manner. This study has assessed the condition of water security of six unions with peri-urban characteristics of Singair Upazila of Manikganj District of Bangladesh through conducting a total of 182 household surveys, 6 Focus Group Discussions, and 12 Key Informant Interviews. Singair Upazila has experienced mixed land use, industrial growth, infrastructural development, and transformation of economic activities. Here, water security is derived not only from the availability and accessibility of water sources, but also socioeconomic factors. Water security index has been calculated by aggregating the considered values of associated indicators and sub-indicators. Obtained water security index varies from dissatisfaction to highly satisfaction on a scale of 1 to 5. The results show that Saista scored the lowest and marked dissatisfaction among the six unions, while Jamsha scored highest with the highly satisfactory water security status. The study opts to mention that cooperation and partnership development among significant stakeholders, i.e., local people, policymakers, and non-government organizations, can enhance the water security systems in similar peri-urban settings.
... In poorer urban areas, Das and Skelton (2019) note that obtaining water from self-dug wells, borewells and private water tankers are common practices through which inhabitants try to secure access to water. Similarly, in their ethnographic study on peri-urban communities Narain and Singh (2017) note that inhabitants bypass state restrictions on extracting water from freshwater canals by installing handpumps in the vicinity, to benefit from the higher water table. By exercising various coping strategies, inhabitants circumvent existing structures in an attempt to be more water secure. ...
Hyderabad in India is a rapidly growing city and a popular global hub of high-tech and information technology industries. With its aspiration to be a global destination for transnational companies and engine of economic growth for the twenty-first century, it is rapidly urbanizing and expanding outward with intense infrastructure development. With this rapid expansion, the city increasingly witnesses water insecurity, especially in its peri-urban areas. To supply the high-tech and aspirational pockets of Hyderabad, water has been piped and sourced from far-away reservoirs, deep wells, and borewells, as well as through water tankers that collected water from the surrounding peri-urban areas. These unsustainable practices have led to groundwater shortages and severe water insecurity for the ordinary residents living at the edge of the city. Through a grounded understanding based on ethnographic fieldwork, this chapter delves into the everyday experiences of water insecurity in peri-urban Hyderabad. The chapter discusses the context of vulnerability and ways of coping in relation to water insecurity in peri-urban communities. It seeks to give a micro- and nuanced view of rural-urban relationships around water in Hyderabad, in a context of water-related conflicts, privatization and (piped) connections between the urban and peri-urban localities.
... The main manifestations of climate change in Budhera are the increasing unpredictability of weather cycles and extreme events, and the uncertainties this is creating for farmers cultivating their crops with wastewater. Studies in and around Budhera reveal several ways in which a changing climate is experienced by the residents (Narain & Singh, 2017;Ranjan & Narain, 2012). These include a longer duration of summers, shorter winters and changes in patterns of precipitation. ...
Farmers across India are protesting the apathy of the state towards the agricultural sector, which is facing a triple crisis – economic, ecological and existential. This chapter attempts to locate the changing dynamics of agriculture at a frontier where a geographically specific articulation of this crisis comes to the fore: in Budhera, a peri-urban village bordering Gurugram city in the Indian state of Haryana. The village is still largely agrarian but undergoing rapid changes under the influence of (peri-)urbanization. Our ethnographic research investigates the juxtaposition of these urbanization processes with the more general impacts of climate variability on peri-urban agriculture. Although climate variability plays out at a larger scale than the urbanization processes, the conditions for peri-urban agriculture derive from an intersection of both. The results show how dimensions of agrarian livelihoods such as cropping choices, irrigation cycles, sharecropping arrangements, declining common property resources and land use changes to non-agricultural uses are influenced by (peri-)urbanization processes. We conclude that changes in land and water use in Budhera reshape agricultural practices and can cascade upon climate variability impacts in making agriculture more precarious for peri-urban farmers.
... Polycentric governance systems, drawing on collaborations between local governments and community groups, have a role to play in lake restoration movements in Bangalore and many other cities (Nagendra and Ostrom 2014). Peri-urban farming communities in areas like Gurgaon have been able to self-organize the use of waste water flows from the city as a resource, mediating water insecurity and forging new norms and practices of cooperation for waste water sharing (Narain and Singh 2017). Environmental placemaking around restored urban ecological commons appears to be a route by which diverse migrants from different socioeconomic backgrounds forge an emotional connect to the city, deriving a strong sense of place and investing in commons action (Sen and Nagendra 2020). ...
Narpat S. Jodha (1937–2020) passed away at the age of 83 years. He is best remembered for his contribution to research on the commons and livelihoods in semi-arid regions in India. His work has transcended geographical boundaries and has won him worldwide recognition. His passing away provides an occasion to revisit the commons issue for multiple reasons, mainly that the livelihood issues that triggered the study of the commons still remain. Despite all the livelihood benefits that the commons provide, it is widely acknowledged that the commons in India are under threat, which throws open multiple questions: Is it due to the absence of secure property rights among local communities or the result of weak governance mechanisms? We also recognize that research on the commons has moved beyond livelihood issues to gender perspectives, digital commons, urban issues, and health.
... From the perspective of the societal challenges, the urban region in the country has been experiencing rapid growth in population and urbanization (Roth et al. 2019), thus increasing water demand and pressure on existing water infrastructures. From an economic perspective, the challenges posed by rapid economic development and industrial growth caused an increase in water use and the deterioration of water piped infrastructure (Narain and Singh 2017;Tortajada 2016). On environmental problems, the high water losses (physical and administrative), which almost 25-40% in urban areas are due to leakage, poor operations and practices and mismanagement (Kumpel et al. 2017). ...
This book presents solutions to address water security in rapidly urbanizing cities, and explores the new paradigms of water security in changing contexts. Highlighting the latest developments in water research, changes in water policy, and current discourses on water security, the book also provides information and tools for local stakeholders, water managers, and policymakers to build the capacity for sustainable water governance. The book discusses a wide range of sustainable solutions and their implementation to ensure that the balance between water supply and demand remains sustainable in the long term, with a focus on local solutions to build capacity and developing policy awareness for a wide range of stakeholders. As the concept of urban water security in changing contexts is open to multiple interpretations, the authors set out various approaches.
Providing an overview of the changing perspectives of urban water security in different contexts, the book is based on findings of the Asia-Pacific Network water security project at the United Nations University, Tokyo, as well as the authors' current research-based at Pokhara University, Nepal, Hosei University, Tokyo, Institute for the Global Environmental Strategies, Japan and the Australian National University, Australia. The book also includes the views of international authorities (such as water experts) on the subject. The solutions are complemented by analysis of case studies of various localized sustainable solutions at different scales.
The book is a valuable resource for water professionals and policymakers around the globe, academics, teachers working in water-related areas, NGOs, think thanks, water research institutes, donor organizations, and international and local water utility services.
... From the perspective of the societal challenges, the urban region in the country has been experiencing rapid growth in population and urbanization (Roth et al. 2019), thus increasing water demand and pressure on existing water infrastructures. From an economic perspective, the challenges posed by rapid economic development and industrial growth caused an increase in water use and the deterioration of water piped infrastructure (Narain and Singh 2017;Tortajada 2016). On environmental problems, the high water losses (physical and administrative), which almost 25-40% in urban areas are due to leakage, poor operations and practices and mismanagement (Kumpel et al. 2017). ...
Ineffective water governance is a significant factor in causing water insecurity and hampering the goal of sustainable development in developing countries. The water resources in South Asia are under increasing pressure from population growth, urbanization and industrial growth along with socioeconomic water demand in the region. Urban water governance is pertinent in decision-making and policies designed based on the determinants of sustainability (society, economic and environmental). Due to the complexity of the decision-making system, fragmentation, poor coordination and lack of holistic planning, developing adaptive capacity in the developing region is underexplored. In this background, this chapter reviews the concept of urban water governance and its pathways to achieve adaptive water Governance in India. The main question here is which urban water governance pathway suits the Indian context and what are the barriers to implementing adaptive water governance in India. The analysis showed that water institutions' non-responsiveness, coordination/interaction issues, lack of collaboration, limited information access and communication between various levels of formal institutions and absence of capacity building and challenges to ensure fairness in distribution are the identified barriers. Furthermore, this chapter argues that the implementation of adaptive water governance through hybrid governance configuration is in the experimental phase in India and shows promising results. Evaluating the success of polycentric arrangement is too early now. Addressing the constraint herein, improving the dimension of the adaptive system mentioned in the section will enhance the strength of the urban water governance system to handle uncertainty in the future. The chapter contributes to the current discourse of the water governance pathways to achieve water security in developing countries in support of the water goal (SDG 6) of the United Nation's sustainable development goals.
... Several studies discuss the dynamics of competing claims on water in contested peri-urban spaces (Mehta et al. 2014;Narain 2014Narain , 2016Narain and Singh 2017;Shrestha, Roth, and Joshi 2018), but very few studies pay attention to caste-determined water exclusions in peri-urban contexts in South Asia. 1 The few studies that discuss caste and water in peri-urban context (Prakash and Singh 2016;van der Woude 2016;Vij and Narain 2016) often report on the traditional nature of caste-determined water exclusions. ...
Processes of urbanisation create peri-urban spaces that are socially and institutionally fluid. In this article, we analyse how contestations and competition over declining water resources in peri-urban Kathmandu Valley in Nepal reshape water use, access and rights as well as user communities themselves, by creating and reproducing new and existing exclusions and solidarities. Traditional caste-based discriminatory practices, prohibiting Dalits from physically accessing water from sources used by higher castes, are said to be no longer practiced in Nepal. However, our findings show that, exclusion persists for Dalits even though the characteristics of exclusion have changed. In situations of competing water claims in the research location, Dalit households, unlike higher-caste groups, are unable to exercise prior-use water rights. Their water insecurity is compounded by their relative inability to mobilise political, social and economic resources to claim and access new water services and institutions. By juxtaposing the hydro-social and social exclusion analytical frameworks, we demonstrate how exclusions as well as interpretations and experiences of water (in)security are reified in post-Maoist, supposedly inclusive Nepal.
... In particular, a wide diversity of norms around natural resource appropriation may evolve in periurban contexts. The processes of transition in periurban contexts shape institutional evolution with new rules replacing older ones; for instance, new norms of cooperation may evolve around scarce resources (Narain and Singh, 2017b;Singh, 2017). Sometimes local norms of cooperation may dilute or prevent conflicts of interest from erupting into conflicts (Narain and Singh, 2017c). ...
This paper describes the impacts of urbanisation on the water sources of the residents of Mukteshwar in the Kumaon hills of North India. It uses a periurban conceptual lens to understand the changing flows of people and natural resources between Mukteshwar and connecting urban centres. Following land use change, it traces the impacts of these processes on water sources and institutions, and employs a political ecology framing to illustrate how water resources are (re) appropriated. Further demonstrating how the effects of these changes are aggravated by climatic change and variability it describes how these processes impact gender relations around natural resource collection. The paper concludes with identifying some key areas for further research on periurbanisation processes in mountain contexts, focusing on important ideas and concepts that can be relevant in capturing the processes underway.
... However, physical access to water is also shaped through the hydrology of a place which, for example, determines whether a household can extract groundwater. Clearly water access is linked to the geographical location in such instances (Narain and Singh 2017). ...
Peri-urban spaces are frontiers of privatisation where inequalities in access to land and water evolve. In this article, we analyse a particular mode of land and water privatisation in peri-urban spaces of the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area (GAMA), Ghana. We illustrate that in the domain of land, traditional authorities tend to act as private owners rather than custodians of customary land, while in the domain of water, multiple private water providers have emerged next to the official water utility. A combined reading and analysis of these processes as forms of de facto privatisation contributes to understanding the similarities in the control over and access to land and water in peri-urban spaces. We show that in the de facto privatised control context of the peri-urban GAMA, access gained to land and water has to be actively maintained. Both gaining and maintaining access exhibit socio-economic inequalities and this is particularly so in the case of maintaining access. The article is a call for a better connection between land and water studies in order to deepen understanding of the processes at play in peri-urban spaces.
... WRA has set the priority order for different water uses, drinking water having first and irrigation second priority. Although drinking water supply has received much national 30 (and international 31 ) attention, peri-urban areas of Kathmandu Valley (like elsewhere; see Janakarajan, 2008;Narain and Singh, 2017) continue to be largely excluded from services of the official provider, KUKL. As elaborated in the case studies, peri-urban areas depend on community-managed drinking water services, priority for which has grown in local development projects facilitated by governmental and non-governmental agencies. ...
Groundwater is an increasingly important source of water supply in Kathmandu Valley, one of the
fastest-growing South-Asian urban agglomerations. A groundwater policy drafted in 2012 was partly an outcome
of an institutional restructuring of water management in Kathmandu Valley. Our findings in this article show that
this policy lacks attention to peri-urban dynamics of change and growth and does little to address the unplanned
and unregulated groundwater use in peri-urban locations in the valley, which urbanises at a faster rate than the
main city. This article discusses the growing use of, and dependence on, groundwater in these rapidly evolving
peri-urban spaces. Groundwater use continues to increase, despite growing protests and worries about its
consequences. Our findings show that the polarised views and local conflicts around groundwater exploitation are
the outcome of multiple entanglements: sectoral divides and overlapping responsibilities in water institutions,
governance and management; social and economic transformations in peri-urban spaces; the invisibility of
groundwater; and ambiguity in the hydrological dynamics of conjunctive water use. While we see no easy
solutions to these problems, the policy-relevant recommendations we derive from our analysis of the drivers and
the dynamics of using, governing and managing groundwater draw attention to the complex on-the-ground
realities that need to be better understood for addressing macro-micro gaps in (ground)water management.
... In groundwater modelling the social requirements for use are the characteristics (structure, time and spatial scales and resolutions, etc.) of the model and what functions it can perform. The social requirements for use also refer to the question of who has the knowledge and skills to use the model and who can interpret the outcomes when it is used (Narain & Singh, 2017). Hydrological models steer policy debates based on the outcomes they generate and the way they are visualized; they set the agenda for policy discussions by emphasizing certain aspects while neglecting other aspects. ...
Groundwater flow models have been increasingly used to support policy making. A substantial amount of research has been dedicated to improving, validating and calibrating models and including stakeholders in the modelling process. However, little research has been done to analyze how the choices of model makers and steering by policy makers result in models with specific characteristics, which only allow specific modelling outcomes, and how the use of these modelling outcomes leads to specific social, economic and environmental consequences. In this study, we use the social construction of technology framework to explore the development, characteristics and uses of the groundwater model of the Mancha Oriental aquifer in Spain. The specific characteristics and functioning of this model influenced the policy implementation, implying that involving stakeholders in the development and use of models is crucial for improved democratic policy making.
... Agriculture and private land is acquired in periurban Gurgaon for building water and sewage treatment plants to meet the city requirements (Vij, 2014). Similarly, to supply drinking water to the Gurgaon city, canals are constructed in the peripheries (Narain and Singh, 2017). These canals cut through peripheral villages and are built on the agricultural lands of the periurban communities, depriving them both of the agricultural lands and water sources located on them. ...
Recent studies that emphasize the contested nature of resource allocation address the politics of periurban development. However, the issue of conflicts and cooperation in periurban contexts continues to remain weakly studied. Based on the study of periurban Gurgaon in North-West India, this paper unravels the different types of conflicts and cooperation that have emerged around land and water, drawing insights from conflict/cooperation studies and urban political ecology. We focus on how changes in land-use bring about changes in water use, access and practices in periurban Gurgaon, giving rise to new forms of conflicts, conflicts of interest and cooperation. Conflicts over land and water are linked to the changing characteristics of land and water appropriation that has occurred in the aftermath of neoliberal reforms. Drawing insights from urban political ecolog perspective, we show how periurban areas are systematically undermined through the acquisition of land and water to serve urban expansion and growth. We conclude that periurban conflicts are rooted in the issue of land-use change and are fundamentally tied to the politics of urbanization and its impact on periurban areas. These processes give rise to conflicts of interest and explicit conflicts, whilst creating new forms of cooperation. Cooperation is exemplified by emerging forms of collective action over the use of wastewater and groundwater. The paper distinguishes between conflict and cooperation but concludes that these are in fact not mutually exclusive; rather points along a continuum.
... Research on downstream reuse of urban wastewater has already been flourishing for a while (Amerasinghe, Bhardwaj, Scott, Jella, & Marshall, 2013;Drechsel, Scott, Raschid-Sally, Redwood, & Bahri, 2009). Research on urban-peri-urban connections due to water supply systems is also emerging (Narain, 2010;Narain & Singh, 2017). Other studies within ACCCRN have also flagged that climate change will affect the basins from which city water supplies are drawn (Bhat et al., 2012), even though they do not use any hydrological model to estimate what changes in precipitation might mean for the supply. ...
Much of the research on climate change adaptation in rapidly urbanizing developing regions focuses primarily on adaptation or resilience as the goal, assumes that climate change is the major stressor, and focuses on the household or the city as the unit of analysis. In this article, we use findings from two rapidly urbanizing sub-basins of the Cauvery River in southern India (the Arkavathy and Noyyal sub-basins) to argue for a broader analytic and policy framework that explicitly considers multiple normative concerns and stressors, and uses the entire watershed as the unit of analysis to address the climate–water interaction.
... In the context of Delhi, curbing water pollution is often framed by water experts and engineers as being primarily a city problem that does not concern directly the periphery even if that means effectively delegitimizing particular environments and social groups (Sharan, 2002;Karpouzoglou, 2012). In part therefore, the politics of WQD are located in water pollution prevention plans (such as those which relate to river water quality restoration) that are drawn up on the basis of an emerging convergence of expert knowledge and a middle-class aesthetic of what constitutes a 'clean' environment, whilst neglecting the consequences of this vision for the towns and regions that surround it (Karpouzoglou, 2012;Follmann, 2014;Mehta and Karpouzoglou, 2015;Narain and Singh, 2017). ...
Recent years have witnessed an expanding body of peri-urban and urban scholarship. However, recent scholarship has yet to adequately address the central role of politics and power shaping water quality decline. The article focuses on the trans-Hindon region which is part of Ghaziabad city, close to India's capital, Delhi. We draw upon urban political ecology and peri-urban scholarship to explain the role of politics and power shaping water quality decline. We argue in favour of creating stronger synergy between peri-urban and UPE debates as part of conceptualizing water quality decline. The article shows that as a complex socio-political challenge, water quality decline is centrally shaped by the intensifying linkages between urban and peri-urban forms of development and as a result deserves central attention as part of both these debates.
... Over the past one and a half decade peri-urban challenges in India have attracted substantial attention, both from natural and social scientists. This scholarship is broadly focused on a range of issues including heavy metal contamination in the crops grown in peri-urban areas (Sharma et al, 2007;Marshall et al. 2003;Hussain and Hanisch 2014), usage of wastewater for irrigation (Jacobi et al. 2009;Amerasinghe et al. 2013), water access and management in peri-urban areas (Randhawa and Marshall 2014, Mehta and Karpozouglou 2015, Narain and Singh 2017, groundwater quality and security (Prakash et al. 2011;Adhikary et al. 2012;Verma and Pandey 2014) and changing patterns of land use (Narain 2009). No doubt a wide range of scholarship is emerging on peri-urban issues but so far the issue of nature of activism related to environmental challenges in peri-urban areas has not been dealt with. ...
This paper explores the potential of a range of peri-urban environmentalisms to come together in support of sustainable urbanisation. The present-day ‘urban,’ along with the dominant planning visions of urbanisation, lack in inclusivity, deliberative democracy, grassroots innovations, and bottom-up processes of knowledge generation. To sustainably transform this scenario, there is a need for the participation of various sections of citizens, who should be seen not just as subjects of planning, but as creators of a planning framework that emerges from both contestations and innovations in everyday living. Our earlier research on a peri-urban village situated between Delhi city and Ghaziabad town suggested that there is little support for continuation of agriculture in such areas, despite its strategic importance for sustainable urban development. Agriculture could contribute to the greening of urban spaces while enhancing the livelihoods of the poor, recycling urban waste and producing perishable food items for the urban populations. However, we found that present-day government schemes, as they unfold–often under the banner of sustainability–tend to exacerbate peri-urban inequalities. Having observed local citizen environmental action in Ghaziabad, we wanted to understand the potential role it could play in dealing with the environmental crises facing the district and region. During the course of our research we came across a distinctive peri-urban civil society activism, which cannot be viewed in binaries and reflects a pluralist spectrum that allows for alliance building. This environmentalism in Ghaziabad is distinct from the ‘environmentalism of the poor’ practiced by rural and forest dwelling groups; from the dominant elite urban ‘green development’ practices and discourses of ‘bourgeois environmentalism’; and from the urban politics of the poor. It reflects the possibility of creating bridges across sectional interests–rural and urban, red and green ideological streams– and across classes.
... It is a call to engineers to design the 'right' technology; 'right' in the sense of fitting in with societal practices and institutions; and to social scientists to think about the social implications of technology, i.e. what kind of technology would have what effects upon a particular institution Singh, 2016, 2017). Water users mobilise technologies and institutions to shape or improve access to water, or to overcome situations of exclusion and marginalization (Narain and Singh, 2017). ...
In this article, we draw upon ongoing research in periurban Gurugram (formerly Gurgaon) in North–West India on the institutional dynamics around and conflicts over wastewater. Prevailing approaches to analysis of conflicts over natural resources pay scant attention to the role of the nature of the resource per se in shaping the possibilities of conflicts. Further, conflict researchers should pay attention to the difference between conflicts of interest and conflicts. In doing so, they should analyse the role of local norms that may prevent conflicts of interest from erupting into conflicts, while pushing people into situations of forced cooperation.
... WRA has set the priority order for different water uses, drinking water having first and irrigation second priority. Although drinking water supply has received much national 30 (and international 31 ) attention, peri-urban areas of Kathmandu Valley (like elsewhere; see Janakarajan, 2008;Narain and Singh, 2017) continue to be largely excluded from services of the official provider, KUKL. As elaborated in the case studies, peri-urban areas depend on community-managed drinking water services, priority for which has grown in local development projects facilitated by governmental and non-governmental agencies. ...
This paper suggests that the pandemic offers an opportunity to alter narratives about crucial public policy areas. According to the author, narratives play an important role in framing public policy. The kind of solutions proposed depends on narratives that shape our understanding of the problem. Based on this premise, the author posits that the narrative around water needs to be reset from a mistaken focus on scarcity to the issue of unequal access. He elaborates on the implications of distributional inequities faced on the basis of class, caste, gender and geographic location in India. In light of this reading, the paper calls for greater sensitivity to existing forms of social, economic and political discrimination in the drafting of water policies. The author stresses the need for interdisciplinarity in water resources education to prepare professionals in this field to approach the complexities of water governance.KeywordsNarrativesPublic policyPolitical ecology of waterGender MainstreamingPeri-Urban SpacesWastewater managementInterdisciplinarity
This open access book explores the implications of urbanization in South Asia for water (in-) security in the peri-urban spaces of Dhaka and Khulna in Bangladesh, Bengaluru, Gurugram, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Pune in India, and Kathmandu Valley in Nepal. The book looks into specifically peri-urban water security issues in a context of rapid urbanization and social-environmental changes, including the changing climate and its emerging impacts. It demonstrates how urbanization processes change water flows between rural and urban areas, the implications of this processes for the water security of peri-urban populations, and how new institutions and technologies develop to mediate the relationships between peri-urban communities and water. The book seeks to further the debate on peri-urban water security, including what constitutes the peri-urban, socially differentiated access to water in peri-urban spaces, interventions for improving water access, and emerging forms of cooperation and conflict related to water access in a context of urbanization and climate change. As such, this book is an interesting read for academics with various disciplinary backgrounds, professionals working in the worlds of national and international policy, NGOs, activist groups, research and development institutes, and individual readers interested in water security and urbanization.
This paper explores the relevance of the concept of social capital in improving periurban water security and building resilience of communities in periurban contexts. In particular, it seeks to examine how bonding and bridging social capital play a role in building the disaster resilience of periurban communities. The paper draws on ethnographic and action research in Gurgaon, a city in the northwest Indian state of Haryana. It describes three ways in which social capital is relevant in understanding periurban water security and building the resilience of periurban communities to water insecurity induced by urbanization and climate change: first, as a way of building civic engagement—that is, in terms of improving the interface of civic agencies with periurban communities to improve the accountability of the former to the latter; second, as a way of mobilizing social relationships to improve access to groundwater; and the third refers to the mobilization of norms of cooperation in making wastewater, widely used in periurban agriculture in the face of growing urbanization and climate change, accessible to a large number of users. Research and capacity building programs for building resilience in periurban spaces need to pay attention to forms of social capital that are mobilized to improve access to water. Promoting civic engagement by bringing periurban residents into dialog with utilities can build their coping capacity and resilience.
While most research on climate change and water security focuses on purely agrarian or urban contexts, periurban contexts need special attention in terms of research and capacity-building. This is because they suffer from the effects of both rural and urban stressors, that are aggravated by the effects of climate change. Further, they are rapidly growing in geographical spread and importance and sustain an urban metabolism in the context of growing cities of the global south. Providing platforms for dialogue between the state and water users, and building human capital to promote occupational diversification can build the coping capacity of periurban communities and reduce their vulnerability to water insecurity caused by the combined effects of urbanization and climate change. This paper examines the impacts of urbanization and climate change on the water security of periurban populations in Gurgaon, North-West India and their adaptive responses. Efforts to enhance their adaptive capacity by promoting platforms for stakeholder dialogue with the state agencies and supporting occupational diversification are described. The methodology, leaning on an interpretive and social constructivist paradigm, comprises ethnographic tools, semi-structured interviews and key informant interviews (KIIs). Research for this paper was carried out between the periods 2009 to 2015 and shows that the population of periurban Gurgaon lost private and common property land and water resources to support the expansion of the city. There is growing pressure on the water table from the expanding city. The effects of these trends have been aggravated by a change in the seasonal distribution of rainfall and the duration of seasons, rising temperatures and disappearance of the monsoon season. Periurban communities have responded by switching to sprinkler irrigation sets, changes in cropping choices and increased reliance on wastewater. The paper concludes by developing a typology of urbanization and climate change induced periurban water insecurity and by making a case for increased research and policy attention to periurban areas that suffer the combined effects of urbanization and climate change on their water sources.
en In this article we develop a novel analytical framework for situated studies of uneven peri‐urbanisation that resist further dividing Marxist and Situated (Urban) Political Ecology. We conceptualise uneven peri‐urbanisation as a process in which access to the resources mobilised for peri‐urban developments, such as water or land, is rendered uneven. In a three‐step approach we suggest, first, describing how peri‐urbanisation unfolds in the case being studied and distinguish it from other processes, such as suburbanisation. Second, we propose analysing the transformations of nature on which the peri‐urbanisation process is based; and third, examining the uneven power relations infusing inequalities into these transformations and consequently into the peri‐urbanisation process described. To allow for a situated analysis this approach regards the study of practices as crucial, but they have to be embedded in wider socio‐economic, political, and historical processes, since both contribute to transformations of nature and thus shape uneven peri‐urbanisation.
Zusammenfassung
de In diesem Artikel entwickeln wir einen neuen Analyserahmen für situierte Studien ungleicher Peri‐Urbanisierung, der sich einer weiteren Trennung von marxistischer und situierter (urbaner) Politischer Ökologie widersetzt. Wir konzeptualisieren ungleiche Peri‐Urbanisierung als einen Prozess, in dem der Zugang zu Ressourcen wie Land und Wasser, die für peri‐urbane Entwicklungen mobilisiert werden, sich ungleich gestaltet. In einem dreistufigen Ansatz schlagen wir erstens vor zu beschreiben, wie sich Peri‐Urbanisierung im untersuchten Fall entfaltet. Dieser Schritt dient dazu, Peri‐Urbanisierung von anderen Prozessen, wie zum Beispiel dem der Suburbanisierung, zu unterscheiden. Es folgen zweitens eine Analyse der Transformationen der Natur, auf denen der beschriebene Peri‐Urbanisierungsprozess basiert, und drittens die Untersuchung ungleicher Machtverhältnisse, die Ungleichheiten in den Peri‐Urbanisierungsprozess einschreiben. Für eine situierte Analyse sieht dieser Ansatz die Erforschung von Praktiken als essentiell an, diese müssen jedoch in umfassendere sozio‐ökonomische, politische, und historische Prozesse eingebettet werden, da beide zu Transformationen der Natur beitragen und somit ungleiche Peri‐Urbanisierung gestalten.
Formally acknowledged in 2010, the human right to water reveals an increasing commitment to guaranteeing the universality of access to water for domestic uses, in accordance to the targets set in both the Millennium Development Goals and Sustainable Development Goals. However, countries' fulfillment of the goal to provide access to improved water sources varies. Investing in infrastructures or education and promoting women's access to formal jobs are expected to increase the access to improved water sources, especially in more urbanized areas.
Peri-urban areas, the dynamic zones located between expanding cities and rural areas, are given increasing attention as it becomes clear that these fast-growing areas demand specific strategies and perspectives. Such strategies and processes of socio-economic development provide both major challenges and opportunities to the diverse actors co-opting this space. Peri-urban farmers, who depend on local natural resources for their livelihoods, are often among the most afflicted. Political processes influence the control and rights to resource appropriation and use. Increasing pressures on land and water resources lead to scarcity and, combined with changing and complicated property rights systems, they can exacerbate inequality, exclusion, conflict, and contestation. As a result, collective action is not a composite stock meant for the holistic development of irrigation or conservation of resources. It is the individual trust, networks, technology, and various power relations that determine the fate of farmers vis-a-vis other actors in a peri-urban space. Understanding these developments requires a conceptual framework that goes beyond the simple “government–community” dichotomy. It requires an appropriate framework regarding property rights provided with sufficient detail and which fits the peri-urban context. We use a recently updated and expanded property rights framework so as to capture the story of scarcity, technological shifts, inequalities, rights, and power politics in the context of a deep tube well irrigation system of a peri-urban village near Kolkata.
This paper describes the challenges and issues involved in mainstreaming disaster risk reduction in education from a periurban perspective. Periurban spaces, that combine features of both rural and urban environments, are rapidly growing in importance and geographical spread as urbanisation advances in the global south. These spaces face threats both from urbanisation and climate change. Yet most studies on vulnerability, adaptation and resilience focus on rural or urban spaces and contexts. This chapter looks at the unique nature of vulnerability and resilience in periurban contexts and highlights an approach that will be needed to mainstream disaster risk reduction in higher education curricula. It highlights key concepts and issues that need to be part of such curricula as well as important aspects of approach and pedagogy. The paper draws attention to the factors that shape vulnerability in periurban contexts as distinct from rural or urban contexts. Social capital is often eroded, gender relations are transformed because of rural–urban migration or land use change, and land acquisition processes give rise to several other changes, such as insecure tenure and access to water, that shape the vulnerability of periurban communities. In education programmes for urban planning or rural development practitioners, attention needs to be paid to building a perspective on periurban vulnerability and disaster risk reduction. This requires building an understanding of the concept of periurban and the drivers and features of periurbanisation processes. The weakening of social capital, transformation of gender relations and the fluidity of land tenure and changing water security are important subjects to be engaged with. Finally, an appropriate pedagogy would rely on case studies on vulnerability and disaster risk reduction in the periurban spaces of the global south.
Development policy and practice is replete with assumptions that local “communities” have both the willingness and capability to adapt to socio-environmental changes and become “resilient” to multiple old and new challenges. This paper analyzes socio-environmental change processes in a dynamic peri-urban context in the Kathmandu Valley of Nepal, and argues that unequal power relations between diverse actors and their differing interests refute notions of “collective action” and “community resilience.” Residents of peri-urban communities are diverse, have varying abilities and interests, and use different strategies and actions in response to complex socio-environmental changes. These differences reduce insecurities for some while reproducing inequalities for others. These interrelations at the local level are driven by wider socio-economic, political, and institutional processes that transcend community boundaries, interests, and benefits. In the face of these complexities, “community resilience” is an unviable, externally defined, and engineered goal, often at odds with the power discrepancies and heterogeneity found within actual communities. These findings suggest a need to pay attention to the social, economic, and political dynamics of socio-environmental changes that simultaneously shape local communities and their members’ abilities to respond to changes at various scales.
The authors of this article propose a definition of peri-urban and elaborate a conceptual peri-urban typology, including its relationships to rural and urban forms. Specifically, they identify five peri-urban (PU) types: village PU, diffuse PU, chain PU, in-place PU and absorbed PU. The typology derives from underlying sociodemographic processes, especially migration. The new definition helps to identify the institutional framework and relevant networks in the different peri-urban areas. Thus, development workers can use it as a tool to identify the key institutions in their area(s) of interest. As an example, the authors apply the framework to the area of land tenure/inheritance rules. They include a second example, based on the ageing of a population, but do not discuss it at length. The article finishes with identification of some of the, as yet, unresolved issues and constraints.
Common property resources (CPRs) have provided a basis for sustenance to countless households, especially those that lack access to private assets. Several factors have eroded the access of CPR dependent communities, such as, conscious policy decisions of the state, elite domination, the process of land consolidation and commercialization. In the period of neo-liberal reforms in India, after 1991, the nature of threats to the commons has changed. Emerging factors such as urbanization, land acquisition and real estate development have played a more significant role in depleting the CPRs. The commons have increasingly come to bear the ecological foot-print of urbanization as they got acquired or encroached upon for urban expansion and required infrastructure. This compromises the livelihood security of those who depend on them for sustenance. There is a need for debate on alternative and more sustainable models of urbanization.
This paper describes how urbanization processes and urban expansion intersect with social and power relations to reduce the access of periurban communities to common property resources (CPRs). Unequal power structures mean that certain groups are deprived of access to village CPRs. Processes of urban expansion further reduce access to CPRs, as the latter are acquired to support urban expansion. Though rural-urban transformations are characterized by the emergence of new sources of irrigation such as wastewater, not all are able to benefit from them. The acquisition of common property grazing lands to support the drinking water needs of the city affects the livelihood of livestock dependent population, that shift to casual labor. This also translates into a shift from grazing, the domain of men in the household, to stall-feeding, the domain of women, and thereby creating additional responsibilities for women in natural resource collection. The demise of CPRs such as village ponds with the increased pressure on groundwater resources increase the drudgery of women and marginalized groups in accessing water.
The south Indian city of Bangalore provides a challenging yet representative context within which to examine issues of governance of urban social-ecological commons. The city was once famous for its numerous large water bodies, which have witnessed tremendous encroachment and pollution in recent years. These water bodies, called tanks or lakes, were typically managed by adjacent village communities but are now administered by a number of government departments involved with aspects of lake management, with multiple overlapping jurisdictions. The public's perceptions of lakes has also changed with urbanization, transitioning from community spaces valued for water and cultural services to urban recreational spaces used largely by joggers and walkers. We focus on a set of seven lakes located in the urbanizing peripheral areas of southeast Bangalore. Some water bodies have been restored and managed effectively by newly forged collaborations between citizens and local government. Others are extremely polluted, and some have completely dried up and have been encroached. We use a social-ecological system (SES) framework to investigate why some locations have been successful in negotiating changes in governance from community-based systems to state management following urbanization, whereas other lakes have deteriorated. We use seven second-tier SES variables that were associated with self-organization in previous research: size of resource system, number of actors, leadership, social capital, importance of resource, existence of operational-choice rules, and existence of informal mechanisms for monitoring. We also include three third-tier variables previously identified as important in urban lake commons in Bangalore: scale and type of pre-existing pollution, exclusion of socioeconomic groups from the planning process, and networking with government organizations. We use this subset of 10 variables to examine social outcomes of the lakes, which we define as the extent of collective action by residents working together for lake restoration and ecological outcomes based on the ecological condition of the lakes. Collective action was low in only one of seven lakes, which challenges the presumption that citizens will not organize efforts to cope with common-pool problems. However, only two of seven lakes were highly successful in regard to both the extent of collective action and the level of ecological performance. While one lake was small and the other moderate in size, these two cases shared similar ranking in all other variables. Both lakes were polluted at a relatively low level compared with the other lakes, and in both cases, the leaders of local groups were able to network with government officials to clean up the lakes. Unfortunately, the challenge of cleaning up urban lakes after many decades of pollution is very difficult without effective interaction with various governmental units. Our analysis illustrates the usefulness of the SES framework in examining the combination of variables that makes a collective difference in affecting the outcomes of collective action and ecological performance. Our findings illustrate the need for polycentric arrangements in urban areas, whereby local residents are able to organize in diverse ways that reflect their own problems and capabilities, but can also work jointly with larger-scale governments to solve technical problems requiring changes in major engineering works as well as acquiring good scientific information. Such arrangements can reduce transaction costs for city governments by actively engaging local communities in processes that include coordination of collective activities, design of inclusive and locally suited ecological and social restoration goals, and planning and enforcement of regulations limiting access and withdrawal. At a time when many city governments are facing financial and administrative challenges that limit their ability to regulate and maintain urban commons, models of public-community partnerships could provide more inclusive, equitable, and sustainable institutional alternatives. This is an aspect that needs significant further consideration because the attention of most urban planners and scholars has remained on privatization while studies of successful instances of cooperative action in the urban context remain few and far between.
The article reflects on the urbanization process and the social interactions that have played a role in diminishing access to common property resources (CPRs) for the vulnerable residents of the peri-urban Gurgaon. It emphasizes on the factors responsible for changing access and usage. Coupled with uncertain rainfall, these factors have reduced the dependence on and changed the usage of the CPRs in the two peri-urban villages—Budheda and Sadhrana. The article shares the field evidence of how social and political institutions shape access to resources affecting the livelihoods of the vulnerable groups, especially agriculture and animal husbandry. Lastly, it provides evidence of changing gender relations around the tasks of natural resource collection and use with increasing urbanization. These nuances raises the questions on the policy gaps based on the community perceptions and evidences in the field.
This paper uses the concepts of human carrying capacity and natural capital to argue that prevailing economic assumptions regarding urbanization and the sustainability of cities must be revised in light of global ecological change. While we are used to thinking of cities as geographically discrete places, most of the land "occupied' by their residents lies far beyond their borders. In effect, through trade and natural flows of ecological goods and services, all urban regions appropriate the carrying capacity of distant "elsewhere', creating dependencies that may not be ecologically or geopolitically stable or secure. The global competition for remaining stocks of natural capital and their productive capacity therefore explains much of the environment-development related tension between North and South. Such macro-ecological realities are often invisible to conventional economic analyses yet have serious implications for world development and sustainability in an era of rapid urbanization and increasing ecological uncertainty. -from Author
Urbanization processes involve the appropriation of land and water resources from the peripheral regions. Thus some individuals and groups lose access to these resources to support urban expansion. Since water access is often tied to land ownership, the acquisition of land for urban expansion compromises periurban water security. This process creates a potential for water conflicts; these conflicts may take place between urban and periurban water users, between periurban water users and the state or among periurban water users. Understanding potential causes of conflict and devising institutions to reconcile divergent interests could be instrumental in promoting periurban water security.
Although there is no consensus on the definition of the peri-urban interface, there is growing recognition among development professionals and institutions that rural and urban features tend increasingly to co-exist within cities and beyond their limits. There is also recognition that the urban-rural dichotomy that is deeply ingrained in planning systems is inadequate for dealing with processes of environmental and developmental change in the peri-urban context. This paper argues that environmental planning and management of the peri-urban interface cannot simply be based on the extrapolation of planning approaches and tools applied in rural and urban areas. Instead, it needs to be based on the construction of an approach that responds to the specific environment, social, economic and institutional aspects of the peri-urban interface. The paper also outlines approaches to environmental planning and management in the peri-urban interface, examining its specificity in terms of both the challenges faced and possible approaches for implementation.
Based on research in peri-urban areas, this paper explores questions of water justice in the context of emerging global cities. With the growth of large cities, authorities focus on meeting their water needs through infrastructure expansion and supply augmentation. The changing water needs and priorities of peri-urban locations, which provide land and water for urban expansion, receive scant attention. This paper looks at changing patterns of water use between rural and urban uses, based on research in peri-urban Gurgaon, an emerging outsourcing and recreation hub of North West India. It describes the diversity of ways in which peri-urban residents lose access to water as the city expands. These processes raise important questions about water justice, about the politics of urban expansion, and the implicit biases about whom these cities are meant for.
Although nutritionists have long been aware of the importance of clean drinking water and sanitation, water is becoming part of the international political agenda only after a slow realization of its scarcity. This is mainly because water has been taken for granted in industrialized countries except during periods of drought. In many areas of developing countries, water shortages already exist. Even with improved management, new sources of water will have to be developed at higher costs per project. Provision of clean water and sanitation has been rendered difficult by rapid urbanization since the middle of the twentieth century. Although cities have managed to provide a water supply, they have not been able to provide sewage and wastewater treatment. Meanwhile, irrigated agriculture uses nearly 70% of world water. In the future, food security will become even more dependent on irrigation. Poor management, due mostly to low salaries and political interference, is one of the main reasons for inefficient water systems. Underpricing of water in towns and on farms discourages conservation. Furthermore, people who do not have access to tap water in developing countries pay 10 times more than those who have taps.
This paper presents a comprehensive review of the concept of water security, including both academic and policy literatures. The analysis indicates that the use of the term water security has increased significantly in the past decade, across multiple disciplines. The paper presents a comparison of definitions of, and analytical approaches to, water security across the natural and social sciences, which indicates that distinct, and at times incommensurable, methods and scales of analysis are being used. We consider the advantages and disadvantages of narrow versus broad and integrative framings of water security, and explore their utility with reference to integrated water resources management. In conclusion, we argue that an integrative approach to water security brings issues of good governance to the fore, and thus holds promise as a new approach to water management.
This paper describes the implications of the land acquisition process in a village in the Gurgaon district of Haryana state in northwestern India. Gurgaon city, the district capital, is emerging as a major industrial hub, its growth made possible by the large-scale acquisition of agricultural lands by the government. The expansion of the city has altered patterns of rural natural resource use, created social, cultural and economic changes, and bred resentment among many peri-urban residents against urban authorities. The current top-down policies for land acquisition need to be revisited and replaced by more participative processes in which landowners and peri-urban residents themselves are involved. The speedy disbursement of reimbursements for lands acquired, and the spread of livelihood generation activities, can make processes of urbanization more inclusive and participatory. Improving transportation and connectivity to the city will be essential for sustaining new peri-urban livelihoods.
This paper describes the peri-urbaninterfacein two villages — Shahpur Khurd and Karnera — located in the state of Haryana in north-west India, and close to Delhi, India's capital. The paper argues that devising policy interventions for the peri-urban interface requires explicit attention to strengthening rural—urban linkages that materialize through the two-way flow of goods and services between villages and urban centres. Improving transportation and connectivity have a clear role in this, and this requires collaboration across not only rural and urban governments but also across authorities at various levels — village, state and national. As the peri-urban interface emerges, there is a need for protecting common property resources that are diverted to other activities and purposes, or to provide an alternative to those who have conventionally depended on them for their sustenance. Finally, improving the quality of life in peri-urban settlements requires explicit attention to the siting and location of factories, which can adversely impact the quality of life of peri-urban dwellers.
Urbanization is not only a socioeconomic phenomenon; it is also a process of ecological transformation by humans. Here we examine two aspects of resource use as a result of urbanization: (1) consumption of natural resources such as water and forest products; and (2) transformation and use of land for urban activities. We also review concepts and methodologies for framing urbanization and resource use such as urban metabolism and ecological footprint, and their recent applications. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of innovative urban and land use planning and management of urban development to minimize the resource demands of cities by reducing energy and material inflows and closing the urban metabolism loop.
Spatial transformation in peri-urban areas has provided an emerging picture of the growth of many metropolitan regions in developing countries. In this paper, we present a new perspective on this transformation from the viewpoint of the developing and transitional countries of East Asia, and suggest its potential implications for planning and governance. First, we reveal the uniqueness of peri-urbanisation in these countries in relation to its dependence on the metropolitan centres, capital accumulation and dynamic coexistence of urban and rural livelihoods. Although we acknowledge the growing contribution of peri-urban areas to regional economies, this is still at the expense of spatial cohesion, regional sustainability and quality of the physical environment. It is argued that these undesirable consequences have been a reflection of fragmented institutional landscapes, particularly at the regional level. In order to address this institutional fragmentation, we suggest a need to transform current domestic planning systems, strengthen collaborative approaches, promote innovative institution-building and consider rescaling of governance.
Landscape and Urban Planning j o u r n a l h o m e p a g e : w w w . e l s e v i e r . c o m / l o c a t e / l a n d u r b p l a n a b s t r a c t Land-use conflicts are a concern for landscape planners, especially in peri-urban areas. Planners need to understand these conflicts better in order to make optimal decisions on land-use allocations and conflict management. Such conflicts, however, are complex entities. A common approach for better understand-ing complex entities is to categorize them into a limited number of types. This study contributes to this end by presenting a typology of land-use conflicts for a peri-urban area of Switzerland. The primary data source is a content analysis of print media reports on land-use conflicts in a larger geographi-cal area from 2006 to 2009. Information on conflict issues is extracted from the reports, transformed via presence/absence coding, and then further processed using cluster analysis with Jaccard's distance measurement. The results of the cluster analysis are displayed as dendrogram and correlation table. Six meaningful types of peri-urban land-use conflicts are identified, namely 'Noise pollution', 'Visual blight', 'Health hazards', 'Nature conservation', 'Preservation of the past' and 'Changes to the neighborhood'. The conflict types do not exist independent of each other, but are often closely related. Analyzing these rela-tionships reveals that alleged 'main' issues may not necessarily be the 'real' issues. These insights are crucial for effect-oriented landscape planning.
This paper attempts to reframe debates on the equity implications of spatial, socioeconomic, and political change in global cities in developing countries through a review of recent literature on this topic. It begins by critiquing the view that global cities in developing countries are converging around a model of development similar to that of the prototypical global cities of the United States, Europe, and Japan. It argues that three emerging perspectives hold the key to an analysis that better accounts for local agency and divergent outcomes in such cities: a focus on the diversity of cities’ experience with globalization; recognition of the inherently negotiated nature of global impacts on urban outcomes; and a focus on actor-centered perspectives in urban analysis. The combined influence of these ideas amounts to a shift from a focus on global city ‘models’ to an examination of the interaction between global and local actors and institutions in a particular setting. Building on this literature review, the paper suggests an alternate framework for analyzing the link between global city development and inequality that focuses on three processes of change: the formation of public–private partnerships in urban governance, the spatial implications of the privatization of planning, and the flexiblization of labor. It argues that a focus on these processes has important implications for both theory and practice, as it allows us to understand similarity and difference in urban development, and more importantly, to understand the actors, institutions and interests that are driving change.
This paper describes and evaluates the warabandi system of irrigation prevalent in NorthWest India and Pakistan. It argues that warabandi needs to be understood as a composite sociotechnical system comprising a physical infrastructure and a corresponding institutional arrangement for rationing and sharing water. This has implications for efforts at replicating the system in other parts of the region. An understanding of these features is also essential in assessing the prospects and potential for irrigation management reform in the region. The paper concludes by identifying some challenges and opportunities for management reform in the warabandi system.
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