Disciplining De Facto Development: Water Theft and Hydrosocial Order in Tijuana

Abstract

Abstract. Informal and illegal water provision is increasingly targeted as an impediment to state authorities and water development in the Global South. In contrast, this paper uses a biopolitical approach to argue that state authorities use illegal forms of water provision as a source of power, particularly to discipline certain spaces and sectors of the population; and moreover, that such power geometries are deeply uneven. To support these claims, I examine the production and enforcement of illegal provision in two communities located in Tijuana, Mexico. I examine how water theft functions-including the key objects and practices that shape the illicit abstraction and distribution of water-and then examine how water theft is policed and enforced by state authorities. Following Foucault, I suggest these processes occur on a bodily and infrastructural level to discipline water users. Findings indicate that while water theft supplies a vital resource for marginalized citizens-often in communal ways that exceed state power-the alternating tolerance and repression of water illegality is largely used by authorities to maintain hydrosocial order and, in eff ect, to control informal modes of development. The paper concludes with implications for understanding water informality and the uneven spatiality of state power.Keywords: water, illegality, informal development, state power, Tijuana IntroductionAs dawn breaks over a canyon in western Tijuana, Doña Rosa gets up for a drink of water. The hot August morning is already choked with dust from the unpaved roads of her neighborhood, Divina Providencia. (1) Rosa paces through the house-a tiny shack made of corrugated metal and discarded garage doors-and grabs a kettle, heading outside. Clotheslines and electricity wires zigzag above the small backyard patio, casting a lattice of shadows over colorful tins and potted plants. Rosa pauses and stares up at the web of white plastic tubes braced against steep canyon walls. High above the canyon fl oor, a toma clandestina-or unauthorized connection-diverts water from the municipal network into a maze of plastic pipes. Water is carried via gravity and piped to backyard spigots, such as Rosa's, where she fi lls the kettle to boil water for breakfast. Like many unconnected urban dwellers, Rosa and her neighbors rely on an intricate assemblage of unauthorized taps, unpaid labor, and nonmarket transactions to supply water and survive. In the absence of the grid, Rosa and other 'midnight plumbers' build networks and self-organize management of water that municipalities are unable or unwilling to provide (Bakker, 2010;Gandy, 2006Gandy, , 2008Swyngedouw, 2004).Informal and illegal water development, not surprisingly, is coming under greater scrutiny worldwide. World Bank experts estimate that over 48.6 million cubic meters of potable waterenough to supply 200 million people-escape daily from municipal networks, including 30 to

Drinking Water

“…This exacerbates these discrepancies, while the continued gaps in the development of centralized water supply networks is leading to (and perhaps being supported by) informal means of accessing water, including household rainwater harvesting, private water tankers, and wastewater recycling (Meehan 2013). …”

“…They resist through formal protest movements (Harris and Roa-García 2013), informal everyday practices (Ranganathan 2014), and so-called theft (Meehan 2013). These efforts, like the hydrosocial cycle, seek to (re)place people at the center of water's future governance.…”

Territorial pluralism: water users’ multi-scalar struggles against state ordering in Ecuador’s highlands

“…In this sense, territories determine how space is organized politically by interweaving its biophysical and social qualities (e.g. Baletti, 2012;Bridge, 2014;Meehan, 2013).…”

Guest Editorial

“…In this way, the papers by Bakker (2013) and Budds (2013) reveal the politics with which the concepts of state failure and market provision were constructed historically within the World Bank and Chile's military regime, respectively, as well as the ways in which they later became normalised in water development discourse. The paper by Meehan (2013) demonstrates how the Mexican state uses water theft as a source of power in order to discipline unserved groups and the infrastructure that they have constructed, but in an uneven manner: while informal plastic pipe networks in untenured settlements are tolerated, ad hoc perforations into the mains by itinerant groups are policed and eradicated. The papers by Sultana (2013) and Birkenholtz (2013) show how water technologies-tubewells and new infrastructure networks, respectively-were framed as representing development through increased access to water, but have ultimately reinforced and exacerbated existing forms of marginalisation.…”