Struggles over water: The history and politics of urban water supply services in Makokoba Township, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, 1894--1992

This dissertation explores the history of the African residents of Makokoba Township's struggles over water between 1894 and 1992. It examines this history from a “sustainable livelihoods” perspective, which emphasizes the inextricable link between human security and environmental sustainability. The study posits that the challenges of water scarcity were particularly acute in Makokoba Township than in any other suburbs of the semi-arid city of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second largest city Matabeleland province.;Three central questions shape this dissertation: what were the causes and the social and political basis of water scarcity; what were the social and environmental consequences of water scarcity for the residents of Makokoba; and, how did the urban poor in this colonial and subsequently post-colonial Zimbabwean community cope and creatively adapt in a water scarcity situation?;This dissertation rests on the central proposition that water scarcity in the City of Bulawayo, especially as it affected Africans, was a result of both natural ecological conditions and man made policies. The ecological perspective includes such factors as perennial aridity—i.e. the combined effect of an irregular rainy season, low rainfall, poor soil types, high temperatures, and consequent poor run-off into catchment areas—giving rise to droughts and severe water shortages. The second perspective—the man made policies—is about how resource distribution and how those who wield political and economic power allocate the preponderance of resources to themselves and to the socially marginalized. In support of such distribution patterns, fields of power such as, race, class, gender, ethnicity, and regionalism become the powerful organizing principles and rhetorical apparatus to legitimate the denial of access to water for the urban poor.;The study suggests that an exploration of access to, and struggles over water, offers a very important way to get at questions about the sustainable livelihoods of the urban poor. The study locates the experiences and voices of the urban poor at the center stage of scholarly analysis by demonstrating that far from being merely victims of the colonial and post-colonial policies that induced water scarcity, they often devised creative strategies that insured against the adverse impact of water shortages.