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Urban Water Governance for More Inclusive Development: A Reflection on the ‘Waterscapes’ of Durban, South Africa

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Abstract

Post-apartheid policies have tasked Durban’s municipal actors with the responsibility of achieving both inclusiveness and economic growth. However, they are confronted with the deep spatial and socio-economic inequalities resulting from apartheid, as well as the pressure generated by rapid urbanisation. This article analyses Durban’s water governance regime and its spatial expression or ‘waterscape’. eThekwini Water and Sanitation Unit’s (EWS) approach to water and sanitation provision has gained international recognition for its inclusiveness. This article argues that the resulting ‘waterscape’ – understood as the outcome of the interaction of actor coalitions and their power relations, discourses and knowledges, technologies and infrastructures, which are embedded in multiple spaces that come together simultaneously – exemplifies and challenges the notion of inclusiveness. This article reveals that almost universal access to basic water and sanitation has been achieved through incremental transformation, but that this has produced a highly uneven waterscape in Durban.

Abstract

Les politiques post-apartheids ont censé les acteurs municipaux à Durban d’achever soit la croissance économique, soit l’inclusivite. Pourtant, ils sont confrontés avec des profondes inégalités spatiales et socio-économiques, dérivant de l’époque de l’apartheid, ainsi que les inégalités créés par une urbanisation très rapide. Cet article analyse gouvernance des eaux urbaine à Durban at son expression à travers la construction de l’espace, ou ‘waterscape’ (en anglais). L’approche pris par l’Unité de l’Eau et de l’Assainissement d’eThekwini est reconnu internationalement grâce à son inclusivité. Ici on argumente que le ‘waterscape’ – y défini comme un espace discursif pour les multiples relations entre les différents acteurs, leurs coalitions, leurs relations politiques, les technologies et infrastructures, alors même qu’ils construisent et contestent l’espace urbain sous toutes ses formes – au même temps exemplifie et défie la notion d’inclusivité. Cet étude révèle que l’accès presque universel a l’eau potable et a l’assainissement a été mis en place à travers une transformation progressive, mais que cala a produit une ‘waterscape’ très inégale à Durban.

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Notes

  1. eThekwini Municipality is the administrative name for the entity or local authority that administers the city of Durban. It contains both urban and rural areas within its boundaries.

  2. Water governance in eThekwini Municipality refers to the governance of both water and sanitation, as this is how the water governance arena has been constructed by the municipality.

  3. Goal 6 of the SDGs is to ensure the availability and sustainable management of water for all (www.sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdgsproposal).

  4. The concept of urban configurations was developed by the Chance2Sustain EU-funded project led by Professor Isa Baud from the University of Amsterdam. The project focused on how spatial knowledge management could contribute to more sustainable urban development. The concept of urban configurations was used as an analytical framework to understand the contribution of spatial knowledge management to megaproject development, the reduction of social inequality in sub-standard settlements and water governance, in 10 cities across four southern countries. This analytical framework is described by Peyroux et al (2014).

  5. The CLIMWAYS project is part of a Norwegian and South African research partnership, SANCOOP. This project is jointly funded by the Norwegian Research Council and the South African National Research Foundation.

  6. Meyer’s (2013) Master’s thesis (University of Amsterdam) was produced as part of the Chance2Sustain research programme.

  7. Lewis’s (2013) Master’s thesis (University of Amsterdam) was produced as part of the Chance2Sustain research programme.

  8. These are explored in more detail in the section on knowledge exchange processes.

  9. This is not covered in detail here as these discourses are described in depth in Sutherland et al, 2014.

  10. Sutherland et al (2014) and Sim et al (2015) provide an analysis of the development of the UDL in the municipality and its impact on service provision. The aim of the UDL is to promote densification and prevent urban sprawl, and it is mirrored in other cities in the developed and developing world.

  11. This is in reference to the Phiri Water Meters Case, in which five residents from Phiri, a suburb of Soweto, Johannesburg, took the City of Johannesburg to court over the instalment of pre-payment water metres, which violated their access to free basic water (http://apf.org.za/spip.php?article355, Lewis, 2013).

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the EU’s 7th Framework Programme (FP7) and the South African National Research Foundation (NRF) for funding the research. Sibongile Buthelezi, Bonang Lewis and Duduzile Khumalo contributed to data collection and analysis. Two anonymous reviewers and Nicky Pouw provided valuable and detailed comments on the paper.

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  1. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa

    Catherine Sutherland & Dianne Scott

  2. University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Michaela Hordijk

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  1. Catherine Sutherland
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Correspondence to Catherine Sutherland.

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Sutherland, C., Scott, D. & Hordijk, M. Urban Water Governance for More Inclusive Development: A Reflection on the ‘Waterscapes’ of Durban, South Africa. Eur J Dev Res 27, 488–504 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1057/ejdr.2015.49

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