Unleashing Entrepreneurs or Controlling Unruly Providers? The Formalisation of Small-scale Water Providers in Greater Maputo, Mozambique

Ahlers, Rhodante; Guida, V. Perez; Rusca, Maria; Schwartz, Klaas

doi:10.1080/00220388.2012.713467

Cited by 33 publications

(40 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…This system was typical of hydraulic mission projects with a high modernist ideal but only to facilitate the exclusive water supply of the Portuguese population and the indigenous elites (former high-level DNA official, 2013, personal communication). As the majority of the indigenous population was pushed to the outskirts of the city, subject to a distinct and poorly financed administrative system, exclusivity of water supply was easily achieved by concentrating the network in the so-called 'cement city' 3 (Ahlers et al, 2013;Jenkins, 2000). Moreover, water was abstracted from the Umbeluzi River, through an intake constructed in 1930 in an area historically used by the locals as water source (former high-level DNA official, 2013, personal communication; MOPH/FIPAG, 2011).…”

Section: The Production Of the Empire State-space: The Estado Novomentioning

confidence: 99%

Space, state-building and the hydraulic mission: Crafting the Mozambican state

Rusca

Santos²,

Menga

et al. 2018

Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space

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This article explores the role of large-scale water infrastructure in the formation of states in sub-Saharan Africa. We examine this through a focus on government agents and their shifting hydrodevelopmental visions of the state in colonial and post-colonial Mozambique. Over time, the focus, underlying principles, and goals of the hydraulic mission shifted, triggered by contextual factors and historical developments within and outside the country. We identify the making of three hydraulic paradigms, fostering different imaginaries of 'the state' and social and spatial engineering of the territory: the 'Estado Novo' (1930-1974), the socialist post-independence state-space (1974-1987) and the neoliberal state (1987-present). We then conclude by discussing how the shifting discursive justifications for infrastructure projects consolidate different state projects and link these to material re-patterning of hydrosocial territories, showing that whilst promoted as a rupture with the past, emerging projects tend to reaffirm, rather than redistribute, power and water within the country.

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Section: The Production Of the Empire State-space: The Estado Novomentioning

confidence: 99%

Space, state-building and the hydraulic mission: Crafting the Mozambican state

Rusca

Santos²,

Menga

et al. 2018

Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space

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“…In recent years international donors and lending agencies appear to be questioning the 'modern infrastructural ideal ' (McGranahan et al, 2006). 'New' service delivery models, including co-production (Harvey, 2007;Ahlers et al, 2014;Marston, 2014) and formalization of smallscale independent providers (Njiru, 2004;Samson, 2006;ADB, 2008;Schaub-Jones, 2008;World Bank, 2009;Ahlers et al, 2013;Cheng, 2014), are increasingly being propagated by donors and lending agencies as acceptable service modalities that may co-exist or operate in partnership with the formal utility (Batley, 2006;Ahlers et al, 2014). The shift to acknowledging multiple service modalities has not undermined the faith in 'blueprint models', which international donors and development agencies remain devoted to for their interventions (WSP, 2009(WSP, , 2010WaterAid, not dated).…”

Section: Generic Models In the Water Services Sectormentioning

confidence: 99%

Adapting Generic Models through Bricolage: Elite Capture of Water Users Associations in Peri-urban Lilongwe

et al. 2014

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In the aspiration to upscale their activities in the global South, development aid agencies have a tendency to design and implement generic models. These are often associated with desired characteristics and principles, such as participation or inclusion of the poorest. However, in the dynamic environment in which models are implemented, the design characteristics and principles are mitigated, adapted or reinforced by context-specific socially embedded institutions through a process of bricolage. This process is driven and shaped by power relations and, as a consequence, development interventions tend to reproduce local power structures, and benefits derived from the projects are likely to be captured by elites to the detriment of others. Models thus carry the danger of reproducing and even increasing existing inequalities. Similarly, initial claims of participation or inclusion of the poorest often fail to materialize. We develop these arguments by focusing on the Water Users Association model in Lilongwe, Malawi.Dans le but d'améliorer leurs activités dans le Sud global, les agences de développement ont manifesté une tendance à concevoir et implémenter des modelés génériques. Souvent ces modèles sont associes a des principes et caractéristiques « souhaités », tels que la participation ou l'inclusion des plus pauvres. Cependant, l'environnement dynamique au sein duquel ces modèles sont implémentés mitige, adapte, ou renforce les principes et caractéristiques de leur design, à travers d'un procès de bricolage par des institutions specifiques au contexte, et ancrées socialement. Ce processus est dicté et formé par les relations de pouvoir et, par consequence, les interventions de développement tendent à renforcer les structures de pouvoir locales; les benefices derivées des projets sont souvent captées par les elites au détriment des autres. Donc, les modeles intrinsequement peuvent reproduire et meme accroitre les inégalités existantes. Les revendications initiales de participation ou inclusion des plus pauvres souvent ne se matérialisent pas. Nous développons ces arguments en nous focalisant sur le modelé de l'Association des Utilisateurs d'Eau à Lilongwe, Malawi.

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“…These licenses concern a license to provide water, a license to abstract groundwater, a license to use municipal land, and a commercial license. For SSIPs to qualify for the 1‐year license for providing water services, they have to submit a registration form to Fundo de Investimento e Património do Abastecimento de Água (FIPAG) containing personal information, level of service provided, tariffs, infrastructure, and other administrative documentation . These licenses also set requirements to which the small‐scale provider has to adhere.…”

Section: The Meshwork: Infrastructure Financing and Regulatory Instimentioning

confidence: 99%

(In)formality: the meshwork of water service provisioning

et al. 2014

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Cities in developing countries have for many decades been characterized by the co-existence of different service provision modalities. These modalities usually include a formal water utility and an array of small-scale private or community-based service providers. In recent years, the topic of informality in water provisioning has been subject to an upsurge in interest of both policy makers and academics. Frequently, literature on the topic distinguishes between informal providers and formal providers suggesting that a provider belongs to either a formal or informal domain. By highlighting the infrastructure, financing, and regulatory institutions of small-scale service provisioning in Greater Maputo, Mozambique, this article illustrates how informality and formality are interdependent and permeate throughout the water provisioning process creating a meshwork of service provisioning. Actors involved in service provisioning embody multiple identities and use these identities in various sites of governance in order to develop their water business. By adopting this approach to informality, it becomes impossible to distinguish convincingly between formal and informal providers. Instead, it leads to a focus on water provisioning rather than providers, in which informality and formality traverse through the service provision process.

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Unleashing Entrepreneurs or Controlling Unruly Providers? The Formalisation of Small-scale Water Providers in Greater Maputo, Mozambique

Cited by 33 publications

References 29 publications

Space, state-building and the hydraulic mission: Crafting the Mozambican state

Space, state-building and the hydraulic mission: Crafting the Mozambican state

Adapting Generic Models through Bricolage: Elite Capture of Water Users Associations in Peri-urban Lilongwe

(In)formality: the meshwork of water service provisioning

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