Social relations of water access among the poor in urban Malawi
This paper examines some intimate ways that water constitutes and is constitutive of social relations in urban Malawi in a context where the government-sponsored water supply system has left a large section of the population off the municipal supply grid. Specifically, the paper focuses on the amb...
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| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Water Alternatives Association
2025-06-01
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| Series: | Water Alternatives |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.water-alternatives.org/index.php/alldoc/articles/vol18/v18issue2/786-a18-2-11/file |
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| Summary: | This paper examines some intimate ways that water constitutes and is constitutive of social relations in
urban Malawi in a context where the government-sponsored water supply system has left a large section of the
population off the municipal supply grid. Specifically, the paper focuses on the ambiguous role of ganyu, an informal
and ad hoc form of labour with deep roots in Malawi’s colonial history. Based on qualitative research (n = 30) and
grounded in perspectives rooted in urban political ecology, our findings indicate that ganyu helps poor households
cope with acute water shortages. On the other hand, it also binds them to problematic and often exploitative social
relationships. Specifically, the findings show that ganyu relations give rise to usufruct rights through which the urban
poor can obtain potable water on a day-to-day basis from the homes of the individuals for whom they work.
However, material control over potable water by those who own it fosters indentured relations, as it allows these
individuals to wield enormous control over the productive labour of the people who work for them. And as these
providers of ganyu hold all the cards, they also sometimes weave sexual demands into these ad hoc contracts,
locking poor women into a cycle of both labour exploitation and sexual servitude. Underscoring the relational nature
of water, overall, these findings contradict simplistic notions of water as a market commodity and show that in
urban Malawi water is a mechanism for the generation and exercise of social power, a marker of social
differentiation, a force for material reproduction for the well-off, and an instrument for further subordination of
women. |
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| ISSN: | 1965-0175 |