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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Cat ButtonORCiD
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND).
Mumbai is a city where 60 per cent of the population are living in poverty in informal settlements, with low – and decreasing – water access, and low resilience to water shortage. In the middle-class areas of the city, inhabitants are being made responsible for securing their own water supplies via rainwater-harvesting technology, which is increasingly installed in new housing. This shifts responsibility for water provision from city authorities to private households. The domestication of water supplies could potentially give residents more control, and could also change the gendered power balance of water provision. However, this article argues that making the middle classes responsible for their own water provision in a context of water shortage and environmental concerns has justice implications. People living in poverty are not able to self-provision in this way; yet on the other hand, the move could free up more of the piped water supply. The article draws on three case studies offering different experiences of the impact of the policy, to reflect on concepts of power, gender, and environmental justice.
Author(s): Button CM
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Gender & Development
Year: 2017
Volume: 25
Issue: 2
Pages: 269-282
Print publication date: 11/07/2017
Online publication date: 11/07/2017
Acceptance date: 19/06/2017
Date deposited: 12/07/2017
ISSN (print): 1355-2074
ISSN (electronic): 1364-9221
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13552074.2017.1339949
DOI: 10.1080/13552074.2017.1339949
Notes: This paper was first presented at the RGS-IBG Annual International Conference 2013 in a session entitled SUSTAINABILITY AND THE HOME FRONT(IER): Between governmentality and embodied environmentalism?
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