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5 - Urban Water and Sanitation Injustice

An Analytic Framework

from Part I - Re-Politicizing Water Allocation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 February 2018

By
Ben Crow
Edited by
Rutgerd Boelens ,
Tom Perreault  and
Jeroen Vos
Rutgerd Boelens
Affiliation:
Wageningen Universiteit, The Netherlands
Tom Perreault
Affiliation:
Syracuse University, New York
Jeroen Vos
Affiliation:
Wageningen Universiteit, The Netherlands
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Summary

Urban water injustices are frequently intense and widespread in shantytowns, informal settlements and other residential areas excluded from urban facilities by some combination of ethnic divisions, remnants of colonial regulations, economic and social forces, and municipal and national policies. Different from rural water injustices, urban water injustices over access to household water rarely have traditional rules or plural laws to guide water allocation. The relationship between households and municipal agencies is often central to the injustice. Access to household water is one of a range of capabilities required for city life and livelihood, including access to sanitation, garbage collection, electricity and digital connections. The comparison of capability exclusions in African and Asian cities teaches lessons about the particular historical, material and social influences on exclusion from a capability and the range of actions being used to challenge these injustices. Opportunities for action on water injustice may expand by considering a range of capability deprivations.
Type
Chapter
Information
Water Justice , pp. 89 - 106
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2018

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