Mapping the Politics of Water and the Hidden Violence of the Legal Economy through the Small-scale Water Providers of Metro Manila

What is it about?

This chapter questions the premise that small-scale water providers including syndicates operate in Metro Manila due to poor government capacity. It makes the case that the workings of these players is made possible due to policies of the post-colonial state reflective in criminalizing of the poor and anti-poor planning of urban space. In present-day Metro Manila, the neoliberal governmentality of making the urban poor earn the right to formal sources of water (either they must form cooperatives or else seek access informally) creates space for players like the water syndicates. Together, these dynamics contribute to the hidden violence of the legal economy.

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Photo by Imani on Unsplash

Photo by Imani on Unsplash

Why is it important?

It is important to understand why inequitable water landscapes come into being and why they persist over time. It is mainly poor communities that remain vulnerable and experience perpetual water scarcity. Considering that water shortages may become worse due to climatic factors and responses to them, it is necessary to outline contexts and mechanisms in the formal and (in) formal realm that entrench geographies of inequity.