Shaping hydropolitics in Durban : community activist strategies in Chatsworth.
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Date
2017
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Abstract
This study is an attempt to better understand the strategies adapted by local community
organizations to challenge hydropolitics in the city of Durban. In the debate of hydropolitics
in Durban two very different images prevail. On the one hand, there has been wide
acknowledgment of eThekwini Water and Sanitation’s pioneering approach to water
management and its achievements in water provision to the poorest in society. On the other
hand, academics and civil society have found eThekwini Municipality’s approach to be
flawed and non-inclusive, a neoliberalist approach to cost recovery. High levels of protest
that spark around the city voicing dissatisfaction with service delivery seem to support the
critics. Community organizations such as the Westcliff Flats Residents Association (WFRA)
in Westcliff, Chatsworth have been at the forefront of challenging eThekwini Municipality’s
approach to water provision and further, its ignorance towards the poor.
Debates around water provision involves the questions “who gets what [water], when, where
and how” (Turton, 2002, p. 16). While this is traditionally understood as a resource
allocation by the state, there has been increasing attention on the role of civil society and the
potential to achieve change in this entity. This study draws on Miraftab’s (2004) concept of
“invited” and “invented” spaces to analyze where participation is taking place and how it has
shaped the relationship between communities and local government. Moreover, Foucault’s
approach of governmentality is used to consider how far community activism has impacted
on local government planning and decision making in Durban. The study draws on a series of
semi structured, in-depth interviews with members of the WFRA, as well as the local Ward
Councillor and eThekwini Water and Sanitation Unit. The study’s main findings are that while the decentralization of local government was meant
to bring democracy closer to the people and actively involve them in local government, there
are many challenges remaining. This is evident in the rather narrowed approach to “invited”
spaces and a general denigration of community activism in “invented” spaces which has
undermined the ability of meaningful citizen engagement in hydropolitics. This has in the
case of the WFRA led to a creation of distrust of municipal authorities and the Ward
Councillor amongst the community and a general feeling of not being taken seriously by the
government. 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
agents of change. Even though active citizenry is important in modern government strong
community advocacy may lead to an increasing governmentalization of civil society shifting
responsibility away from the state onto communities.
Description
Master of Social Science in Development Studies. University of KwaZulu-Natal. Durban, 2017.