Water Infrastructure in a small west African city: Situating sharing and volunteering in the making of urban infrastructures
Water Infrastructure in a small west African city: Situating sharing and volunteering in the making of urban infrastructures
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DOI：
10.1016/j.geoforum.2022.04.009
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发表时间：
2022-05-13
期刊：
影响因子：
3.5
通讯作者：
Alves, Susana Neves
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Alves, Susana Neves
本文以水共享和志愿服务为视角，探讨西非几内亚比绍小城巴法塔流动水的社会关系、愿景和抱负。水共享是巴法塔的一种普遍做法，该市大多数居民被牵连为捐赠者和接受者之一，或者往往既是捐赠者，也是接受者。与此同时，运营城市自来水供应所涉及的坚持不懈的工作是由一大群志愿者或非常低和不固定报酬的劳动者进行的，他们往往生活在甚至没有这个供水系统服务的社区。本文认为，水共享是促进这座城市水的循环和基础设施建设的基本做法，也是人们支持和抵制特定水制度的政治行为。它还强调了自来水公司的志愿者如何维持社会基础设施，这不仅有利于水的循环，而且还促进了职业、培训、收入和联网机会。通过这种方式，本文有助于讨论小城市出现的各种基础设施和城市治理结构，以及在这些城市中心提供服务的力量。它还提出了关于供水方面国际发展投资的价值以及由此产生的多种意想不到的可能性的问题。
This paper explores water sharing and volunteering as lenses to investigate the social relations, visions and aspirations moving water in Bafat ' a, a small city in Guinea-Bissau, West Africa. Water sharing is a prevalent practice in Bafat ' a, and one in which most of the city's residents are implicated as either, or often both donors and receivers. Simultaneously, the relentless work involved in operating the city's piped water supply is carried out by a large pool of volunteers or very low and irregularly paid labourers, who often live in neighbourhoods that are not even served by this water system. This article argues that water sharing constitutes an essential practice facilitating the circulation of water and infrastructure making in this city as well as a political act through which people support and resist particular water regimes. It also highlights how volunteers for the water utility sustain a social infrastructure that facilitates not only the circulation of water but also career, training, income and networking opportunities. In this way, this paper contributes to debates concerning the variety of infrastructural and urban governance configurations emerging in small cities, and the forces shaping service delivery in these urban centres. It also raises questions concerning the value of international development investments in water supply and the multiple unexpected possibilities emerging from these.