“Water-society relations have been produced by politics and power relations that have become entrenched and materialised in built infrastructure over space and time,” according to Patrick Martel, a researcher and the EPIC Durban Coordinator from the School of Built Environment and Development Studies at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Martel was delivering a special lecture on “Using the hydrosocial cycle and governmentality as a lens to explore the main ‘water moments’ in Durban, South Africa” organised by the Inter University Centre for Social Science Research & Extension (IUCSSRE), Mahatma Gandhi University, Kerala.
While analysing the dialectical relationship between water and society, Martel observed that “given the colonial and apartheid rule, South Africa’s version of hydro-modernism became intertwined with racial identity, as asymmetries in service provision became widespread.” He argued that “the ‘sinking’ of built infrastructure cemented these relations in material reality, and has created path dependencies. At the national scale, the transformative agenda has sought to reform water-society relations, with access to ‘adequate’ or ‘basic’ water being a constitutional right.” Martel said that “this right is often at odds with the neoliberal agenda. In response to national water reform, the local water services authority in Durban has adopted a spatially differentiated service provision model. Although there is universal access to water throughout the municipal area, the level of service differs. Within the last decade, the notion of ecological infrastructure has become prevalent in the local context, being driven by water security and climate change rationales,” Martel noted.
Reflecting on water-society relations in the city of Durban from 1854 to present day, Martel’s said that his research draws on “theories of governmentality, the hydrosocial cycle, political ecology, and water governance to analyse six emerging ‘water moments.’ The ‘water moments’ identified, which overlap with one another, include: ‘early’ water; hydro-modernism; asymmetries in service provision based on race; national water reform; spatially differentiated service provision; and ecological infrastructure.” Within this theoretical framing, Martel argued that “these ‘water moments’ have been shaped by a number of political projects that have been prevalent in Durban and South Africa. Over time, hydro-modernist approaches to water have become hegemonic in this context, which uses built infrastructure to ‘tame’ nature and secure water from ever-increasing distances. This approach favours technical, scientific and engineering knowledge” Martel said.
K.M. Seethi, Director, IUCSSRE, welcomed the session and Mathew A. Varghese, Faculty of the School of International Relations and Politics, Mahatma Gandhi University coordinated the programme.
Martel’s lecture was the first in the web-based series titled Engagements with Ecologies.
