Chapter 5. (Un)Making Connections

Abstract

In this chapter I am concerned with water. To be more precise, I am concerned with the restructuring, or indeed, the 're-infrastructuring' of the water supply in the village of Amezray. Although this is a quite specific "ethnographic moment" (see Strathern 1999), I will approach it in a broader and more holistic way. In doing so, I want to obviate my thinking on what water is and what it means in this particular context (cf. Krause/Strang 2016; Krause 2018). The leading question is: What are the social practices, technological preconditions, and political forms of organization that underpin how people engage with water and how a water supply system is implemented? To answer this question, I draw mainly on ethnographic material while providing context by drawing on recent literature concerning the infrastructure of water.My focus is on the village of Amezray where I and many of my main interlocutors, research partners and friends lived. Moreover, Amezray SMNID, the main association I was working with during my stay in the valley was equally based there. It just so happened that I was present when the association began working on a new water supply system. I ended up sitting in assemblies convened by the association in order to inform the community about the project, its goals, and scope. Friends of mine would also explain certain aspects of the project to me, and I equally witnessed the installation process of a new water connection and water meter in the house were I was living. I realized that I was looking at a new research focus for my dissertation project, led by the empirical occurrences of the particular locality in the High Atlas.