Water Scarcity and the Production of Urban Space in Shimla

Abstract

This thesis focuses on the multiple lives of water in Shimla and shows how water and urban space co-produce each other. It maps the spatial and sociopolitical relationships that are central to the production and maintenance of the discourse around scarcity. The thesis argues that institutional restructuring at the local level is intended to create ’world-class city' narratives such as 24*7 water supply instead of dealing with water availability issues, thereby keeping the true essence of decentralization in abeyance. A key contribution of this research is the analytical framework for understanding the politics surrounding water scarcity. I bring together literature from urban political ecology, citizenship and infrastructure studies to understand the trickles and surges of water flow in the mountain town of Shimla. How is water scarcity linked with the production of urban space, citizenship, and infrastructure? The study shows that the crisis is not just an event with a definite period. Instead, it has roots in the past and in the imagination of future. The issue of water availability needs to be seen beyond technological solutionism and involve a broader discursive understanding of water availability by bringing people back into the analysis. The research included approximately six months of field work and extensive archival research in Shimla to understand the city's past, present and future trajectories. Drawing upon my ethnographic observations during the 2018 water crisis and a textual analysis of interviews and newspaper archives, I have mapped institutional and discursive changes around water scarcity in Shimla. Each chapter takes as its entry point a different aspect of water scarcity in the city, from the production of the urban space to claims on the city and the politics over the control of the urban space.