Water insecurity in a peri urban community A feminist political ecology view on climate change

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1 Water insecurity in a peri urban community A feminist political ecology view on climate change Bernadette P. Resurrección, Ph.D Senior Research Fellow Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI)

2 Feminist political ecology focuses on Practices, processes and networks that aim to commodify resources ( neoliberalization of nature ) Multi scalar gender and power dynamics and inter connections with economic, political, and socio cultural spheres Co production of nature (socio natures) Science from below : everyday experiences, changing subjectivities and emotions ( the genderedness of our lives ) How specific (policy) framings acquire power and come to matter Social and environmental justice 2

3 The peri-urban conditions of water use Dramatic transformation from an agricultural to a peri-urban landscape of mixed and competing industrial and agricultural land and water uses Creation of an industrial frontier but with weak provisioning of public goods and regulation of water, and prioritising land use for industrial purposes Marginalisation of informal settlements especially in low-lying areas (flooding, water pollution, water shortages) Contested use of water: water stresses (shortages, scarcity and contamination) are distributed unevenly between places and between social groups Water rights are mediated through private land tenure, individual water rights and commodified water access, but co-exist with water as being part of the commons 3

4 Adapting to climate change in peri-urban Southeast Asia The Philippine case: Sta Rosa City, Laguna Sta. Rosa City is 30 kilometers south of Manila. Expanding industrial plants high- and middle-income gated communities, theme parks Resettlement communities of urban poor migrants from Manila and informal settlements of migrants from southern provinces. Water sources: State-run piped water company Groundwater and artesian wells 4

5 A village case on water shortage Study site: Barangay Sinalhan Informal settlements of migrants from Manila and southern provinces (4000 households) Low to semi-skilled employment in nearby factories and firms Traditionally, water was extracted from groundwater wells for free Wells have dried up since 2013 The Laguna TechnoPark (387 hectares) and Coca Cola Plant 1 are located 30 minutes away Water and power services are tied to private tenure rights and legal recognition of land ownership Women provide, manage, and ration water supply in households Due to dry wells, many women access water supply through undocumented connections with individual residents for monthly water fees (32 pesos or US$0.65 cents per cubic meter) Those who cannot afford the monthly water fees buy water by the pail (2 pesos) from a home with undocumented water connections that sells water 5

6 Drivers of people s vulnerability to water insecurity Top 5 of 45 companies account for 68% of industrial water demand. Unregulated extraction of water by industrial estates from groundwater sources Major well users tap the same aquifer layer used by neighboring communities. New private wells are drilled or extended to additional depths, reducing the use of older wells Water insecurity Water shortage due to drying up of wells especially during longer dry seasons, compounded by unregulated over-extraction of water by independent deep-wells of nearby industrial plants. Lakeside villages flooded by rise in water level due to heavy rains, resulting in pollution from floodrelated contamination. 6

7 Women speak about their everyday lives as water users PRECY I approached a woman in the market who has a legal water connection. For a monthly fee, she had a tap and meter installed so I get piped water. I store water nightly in a big drum, so that there s water to use in the morning. When the flow is weak, I store in 2 drums, and make a loan of water from a nearby shop which my husband pays for when he comes home. I watch how my children use water here, and I limit their baths to 2 pails each, and laundry to 3 pails every 3 days. Water keeps my home livable. YOLANDA Since 8 years ago, the water from the well began to smell and looked yellowish. I was able to connect to Laguna Water through a homeowner near the market who installed our water meter. She visits and charges monthly. But the water flow is often weak due to too many connections, and we live at the edge of the village. Laguna water will not provide their services here since we are a slum area. MARITESS I ve been living here 4 years and left our old home due to frequent flooding. I buy and fetch water from a neighbor who sells water by the pail. In the mornings, I fetch water 5 times, and when I wash clothes, I do it 6 times. At night, 3-4 times. I have 4 children, 2 are very young, so we need lots of water. We drink the water that I buy, although it is from the well. Sometimes my husband brings home bottled water from his workplace, where he works as a janitor. 7

8 Shifting subjectivities Aggressive land conversion from agriculture to industrial uses has differentiated water use/users: Industrial corporate estate owners, gated community residents, residents of informal settlements, leftover and minority farmers, formal and informal workers in the new industrial firms Practices of water access create and mark differentiated gendered identities of wives who manage household water and male breadwinners who pay for water; inferior women who fetch and buy water in pails; women water sellers who capitalize on women from informal settlements whose wells have dried up Privatising and commodifying the commons (land and water) create gendered and social water identities: women water sellers who capitalize on women whose wells have dried up; squatters; formal landowners; real estate actors; independent industrial and residential water institutions; informal water sellers 8

9 Climate response and water planning priorities in Sta Rosa GHG emissions inventory and monitoring Efficient waste management plan 0 plastic campaigns Enhancement of city disaster risk reduction management plan Construction of water wells, rainwater collectors, development of springs and inventory and rehabilitation of existing water wells, including monitoring More efficient issuance of water permits centralized under the National Water Resources Board 9

10 To conclude Climate change exacerbates existing weak and gendered water and land rights regimes Increased competition over the use of water Informal water networks and economies subsidize the state s weak water provisioning Daily illegal water connections intertwine with legal regimes in socially stratified and risky ways Aggressive land conversion and water access practices in the peri urban create and mark new and old gender and class subjectivities Women s experiences of water stresses do not match planned climate change adaptation responses (adaptation and mitigation planning has become a new discourse and institutional silo) Solutions: A new set of transformative practices is to enable people to unsettle existing relations of power, re think development priorities, and enhance their agencies to realize more just and redistributive rights to water 10

11 Solutions must be holistic Adapting to climate change democratize water governance Enable awareness of the multi scalar drivers of water insecurity Tax incentives for industrial firms to subsidize costs of housing and water supply, with affirmative action for poorer settlements Regulate water use (from aquifers and piped water) to reach sustainable levels through collective monitoring by forming community water boards Creating opportunities to act on other possibilities of being (Gibson Graham, 2005) Organize groups of women water users Integrate these groups with water boards, and incrementally make claims to action and decisionmaking rights Create opportunities to build a sense of care, solidarity and to define a sustainable water future for themselves, with a view to challenging normalized practices of water grabbing and to seek solutions that will benefit all 11