Water crisis through the analytic of urban transformation: an analysis of Bangalore’s hydrosocial regimes

Evolving connections, discourses and identities in rural–urban water struggles

“…Bakker, 2010;Lynch, 2013;Mehta, 2006). First, naturalizing, in cases where lack of access to drinking water in cities is portrayed as a problem arising because of environmental conditions such as droughtcarefully avoiding questions about the sociopolitical aspects that have caused some people to lack access while others have all they need (in this issue, see Damonte & Boelens, 2019;Goldman & Narayan, 2019;cf. Harris, Goldin, & Sneddon, 2013).…”

“…Next, also within these categories, all rural and urban spaces contain a large diversity of actors, each with their particular demands, interests, identities, powers and, accordingly, access to and control over water resources. Goldman and Narayan (2019), for example, point out that 'urban' is not one homogeneous water-user group, but a contested space in itself, with differentiated access regimes between urban peripheries and privileged (business) areas. In a similar manner, Hoogendam's article shows how rural spaces in Cochabamba, Bolivia, harbour diverse actors and interests that are continuously changing over time, in the process reshaping hydro-territorial notions, water claims and water solutions.…”

“…Here, an analytical lens that highlights urban water flows, discourses and connections helps make these equity concerns and power dynamics clear As these Bolivian and South African cases manifest, power dynamics often include cultural politics and specific discursive practices in which identities and legal-politicalcultural categorizations of water user groups are framed, assigned, deployed and also self-constructed: between 'the urban' and 'the rural' and also inside, to either legitimize or invalidate claims to particular water resources and services. The cases of Ecuador (Hidalgo-Bastidas & Boelens, 2019), Bangalore (Goldman & Narayan, 2019), Spain (Duarte-Abadía & Boelens, 2019) and Peru (Damonte and Boelens, 2019) also show this strategic-political (and sometimes unconscious) use of identity framing to justify rural-urban water transfer projects and undemocratic water decision making: it often relates to dualistic and stereotyped images of modernity (e.g., city) and backwardness (e.g., countryside); professional expertise (e.g., scientists and hydraulic experts) and non-formal knowledge (e.g., peasants); productivity (e.g., export growers) and wastefulness (subsistence farming)but equally relates to class-, gender-, caste-and ethnicityrelated labelling. As these same contributions show, cultural-political classifications and prioritization also convey water-related identity labels that speak of 'water consumers' (which makes seeing these subjects as water governance protagonists very difficult), 'clients' (assigning water users a specific role in the market), 'beneficiaries' (which delegitimizes any questioning of water-transfer projects), et cetera.…”

“…Even though it is not the primary focus of this issue to show the impact of global dynamics on place-bound local rural-urban territories, global aspects are inevitably to be found in a number of studies. For example, Goldman and Narayan (2019) show how global capital and ideas about solutions for Bangalore's water scarcity affect the city's hydrosocial regime and the different water user groups. Likewise, cases from South Africa and Peru (Wessels et al and Damonte & Boelens, 2019) show how foreign (largely urban) market demands for certain agricultural products are reconfiguring local rural-urban spaces and relations, promoting water flows to profitable large-scale agro-business (to be exported as productembedded 'virtual water') rather than to marginalized urban users.…”

“…In Bangalore, for example, communities have 'illegally' accessed water from an urban water supply pipeline that passes through their territory ('illegal water users' being another powerful legal-cultural -political identity label). They thereby materially challenged and 'reconstructed' the urban-serving water infrastructure and their assigned role as 'non-consumers' inherent in that infrastructure (Goldman & Narayan, 2019). In a different manner, in the Guadalhorce Valley in Spain, affected communities memorialize past injustices to claim recognition for them, and participation in decision making regarding new policies that transform their hydrosocial territory (Duarte-Abadía & Boelens, 2019).…”