Desalination as emergency fix: tracing the drought-desalination assemblage in South Africa
SOURCE: Tapping the oceans: seawater desalination and the political ecology of water
OUTPUT TYPE: Chapter in Monograph
PUBLICATION YEAR: 2018
TITLE AUTHOR(S): S.Scheba, A.Scheba
SOURCE EDITOR(S): J.Williams, E.Swyngedouw
KEYWORDS: DESALINATION, WATER MANAGEMENT
Print: HSRC Library: shelf number 10870
HANDLE: 20.500.11910/13780
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11910/13780
OUTPUT TYPE: Chapter in Monograph
PUBLICATION YEAR: 2018
TITLE AUTHOR(S): S.Scheba, A.Scheba
SOURCE EDITOR(S): J.Williams, E.Swyngedouw
KEYWORDS: DESALINATION, WATER MANAGEMENT
Print: HSRC Library: shelf number 10870
HANDLE: 20.500.11910/13780
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11910/13780
If you would like to obtain a copy of this Research Output, please contact Hanlie Baudin at researchoutputs@hsrc.ac.za.
Abstract
In this chapter, we argue that in the context of South Africa desalination is being adopted as an emergency 'quick fix' to drought crisis, supported by the middle class and wealthy who fear the effects of water shortage. We draw on the case of desalination adoption in the Knysna Local Municipality (KLM) in 2009-2010 to argue that powerful actors framed drought crisis as nature-induced, urgent and devoid of history to create the political space for desalination technology to emerge as the best solution. We then trace the historical materiality of the drought - desalination assemblage to counter this dominant narrative, showing instead the socio-natural relations that contributed to and benefit from its emergence.-
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