Community, markets, and conviviality : A political ecology of rural water supply

The provision of water services in rural areas poses a significant challenge for governments in both Western nations and countries in the Global South. The construction, maintenance, and operation of rural water schemes is complex and expensive due to the characteristically low housing density. Western nations are primarily challenged by the high cost to sustain and refurbish ageing infrastructure while developing countries are focusing on extending support to those still in need. Despite a series of ever-new concepts and approaches that promise a sustainable proliferation of water services in the global South, there are few success stories. At the same time longstanding rural water collectives in Switzerland are under increasing pressure to modernise and adapt to an efficiency rational dominated by neoliberal principles. This thesis takes a political ecology approach to understand the current situation of rural water service delivery both in South Africa and Switzerland. By analysing diverse cases, I aim to lay bare the underlying trends affecting collective schemes in both settings. The main research question I aim to answer is: “How are rural water collectives in the studied South African and Swiss context areas constituted and motivated, and how are these modes of collective water control affected by the dominant market-modernist imaginary?”This thesis is the result of a seven-year journey. It starts with the premise that even though development has not yet led to the promised progress, it can be improved to help reduce global and more local forms of inequality. The first two empirical chapters were written in this context, aiming to learn both from the public service delivery environment in South Africa and communal water schemes in Limpopo province to contribute to better development. I conducted the fieldwork for these chapters as a consultant to an international research institute in South Africa and both chapters explore the “role” of communities in service delivery. In the second chapter, six user initiatives to supply water in Tshakhuma are described. Tshakhuma is a peri-urban village situated along a mountain ridge in Vhembe district in Limpopo province, receiving relatively high annual rainfalls and citizens have access to several perennial streams that flow through the village. Since the public water scheme was increasingly affected by breakdowns and because the village had grown beyond the perimeter of that public scheme, users collaborated to plan, construct and operate their own water infrastructure as collectives. The described collectives show how users are willing to invest time and financial resources to collectively improve and sustain their water access. However, these examples indicate also the danger of members being excluded since users are requested to make an initial investment. Such collectives also tend to strengthen existing power structures by relying on traditional leaders for conflict resolution. Nevertheless, I show in this chapter how user initiatives applying low-cost technologies can create reliable water services.The third chapter studies public service delivery in South Africa based on the example of Ga-Moela, a small rural village in Sekhukhune district in Limpopo Province.