Year: 2017
Type: dissertation
Abstract: This study is an attempt to better understand the strategies adapted by local community \norganizations to challenge hydropolitics in the city of Durban. In the debate of hydropolitics \nin Durban two very different images prevail. On the one hand, there has been wide \nacknowledgment of eThekwini Water and Sanitation’s pioneering approach to water \nmanagement and its achievements in water provision to the poorest in society. On the other \nhand, academics and civil society have found eThekwini Municipality’s approach to be \nflawed and non-inclusive, a neoliberalist approach to cost recovery. High levels of protest \nthat spark around the city voicing dissatisfaction with service delivery seem to support the \ncritics. Community organizations such as the Westcliff Flats Residents Association (WFRA) \nin Westcliff, Chatsworth have been at the forefront of challenging eThekwini Municipality’s \napproach to water provision and further, its ignorance towards the poor. \nDebates around water provision involves the questions “who gets what [water], when, where \nand how” (Turton, 2002, p. 16). While this is traditionally understood as a resource \nallocation by the state, there has been increasing attention on the role of civil society and the \npotential to achieve change in this entity. This study draws on Miraftab’s (2004) concept of \n“invited” and “invented” spaces to analyze where participation is taking place and how it has \nshaped the relationship between communities and local government. Moreover, Foucault’s \napproach of governmentality is used to consider how far community activism has impacted \non local government planning and decision making in Durban. The study draws on a series of \nsemi structured, in-depth interviews with members of the WFRA, as well as the local Ward \nCouncillor and eThekwini Water and Sanitation Unit. The study’s main findings are that while the decentralization of local government was meant \nto bring democracy closer to the people and actively involve them in local government, there \nare many challenges remaining. This is evident in the rather narrowed approach to “invited” \nspaces and a general denigration of community activism in “invented” spaces which has \nundermined the ability of meaningful citizen engagement in hydropolitics. This has in the \ncase of the WFRA led to a creation of distrust of municipal authorities and the Ward \nCouncillor amongst the community and a general feeling of not being taken seriously by the \ngovernment. The study argues that hydropolitics in Durban has to become more sensitive to community challenges as well as everyday protest and the potential of local communities as \nagents of change. Even though active citizenry is important in modern government strong \ncommunity advocacy may lead to an increasing governmentalization of civil society shifting \nresponsibility away from the state onto communities.
Author: Jana Louisa. Rogoll
Language: English
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
Funder: Inyuvesi Yakwazulu-Natali
OpenAlex ID: W2947423619