Water water everywhere…not a drop to drink
While people in Cape Town prepare themselves for the big switch off, cities around the world are watching with great trepidation the turn of events that has lead to households facing fines if they use more than 350 litres of water a day. (An average washing machine uses 60 litres per load). Yet, just this morning I was speaking to the project manager of an international NGO that over 18 months ago had a report on how to manage such a crisis should it occur, that has never been read by those who could effect the necessary changes. It struck me how much anthropology has to offer in a situation like this. Particularly with reference to some of the issues raised in the Larkin article on our reading list when it comes to the ‘technopolitics’ and ‘aesthetics of poetics’ of infrastructure. It seems that was is at play in Cape Town is not so much the collapse of a particular type of infrastructure, as the mismatch between different infrastructures where the public, government officials and civil society are all talking about the same thing (water access) but referring to different infrastructures (domestic, technical and social). This article in the Atlantic
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/02/cape-town-water-crisis/553076/
layout clearly the factors that have lead to the current crisis that make for interesting analysis through an anthropological lens.
Contributed by JCNiala on 19/02/2018
