IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/envira/v40y2008i1p108-130.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Landscapes of Disaster: Water, Modernity, and Urban Fragmentation in Mumbai

Author

Listed:
  • Matthew Gandy

    (Department of Geography, University College London, 26 Bedford Way, London WC1H 0AP, England)

Abstract

The city of Mumbai is undergoing a complex social, economic, and political transition into an increasingly fragmentary and polarized metropolitan space. The tortuous flow of water through contemporary Mumbai presents one of the most striking indicators of persistent social inequalities within the postcolonial metropolis. We find that the city's dysfunctional water infrastructure has its roots within the colonial era but these incipient weaknesses have been exacerbated in recent years by rapid urban growth, authoritarian forms of political mobilization, and the dominance of middle-class interests within a denuded public realm. It is argued that the water and sanitation crisis facing Mumbai needs to be understood in relation to the particularities of capitalist urbanization and state formation in an Indian context.

Suggested Citation

  • Matthew Gandy, 2008. "Landscapes of Disaster: Water, Modernity, and Urban Fragmentation in Mumbai," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 40(1), pages 108-130, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:40:y:2008:i:1:p:108-130
    DOI: 10.1068/a3994
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1068/a3994
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1068/a3994?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Davis, Jennifer, 2004. "Corruption in Public Service Delivery: Experience from South Asia's Water and Sanitation Sector," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 53-71, January.
    2. Matthew Gandy, 2004. "Rethinking urban metabolism: water, space and the modern city," City, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 8(3), pages 363-379, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Federico Caprotti & Joanna Romanowicz, 2013. "Thermal Eco-cities: Green Building and Urban Thermal Metabolism," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(6), pages 1949-1967, November.
    2. Helga Leitner & Eric Sheppard, 2016. "Provincializing Critical Urban Theory: Extending the Ecosystem of Possibilities," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(1), pages 228-235, January.
    3. Malini Ranganathan, 2014. "Paying for Pipes, Claiming Citizenship: Political Agency and Water Reforms at the Urban Periphery," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(2), pages 590-608, March.
    4. Ilaria Giglioli, 2017. "From 'A Frontier Land' to 'A Piece of North Africa in Italy': The Changing Politics of 'Tunisianness' in Mazara del Vallo, Sicily," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(5), pages 749-766, September.
    5. Woodhouse, P. & Muller, M., 2017. "Water Governance—An Historical Perspective on Current Debates," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 225-241.
    6. Govind Gopakumar, 2014. "Experiments and Counter-Experiments in the Urban Laboratory of Water- Supply Partnerships in India," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(2), pages 393-412, March.
    7. Karen Bickerstaff & Harriet Bulkeley & Joe Painter, 2009. "Justice, Nature and the City," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(3), pages 591-600, September.
    8. COLIN McFARLANE, 2008. "Governing the Contaminated City: Infrastructure and Sanitation in Colonial and Post‐Colonial Bombay," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(2), pages 415-435, June.
    9. Bj⊘rn Sletto & Anja Nygren, 2015. "Unsettling Neoliberal Rationalities: Engaged Ethnography and the Meanings of Responsibility in the Dominican Republic and Mexico," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(5), pages 965-983, September.
    10. Laura Cesafsky, 2017. "How to Mend a Fragmented City: a Critique of ‘Infrastructural Solidarity'," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(1), pages 145-161, January.
    11. Natasha Cornea & Anna Zimmer & René Véron, 2016. "Ponds, Power and Institutions: The Everyday Governance of Accessing Urban Water Bodies in a Small Bengali City," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(2), pages 395-409, March.
    12. Kunyuan Wanghe & Xinle Guo & Xiaofeng Luan & Kai Li, 2019. "Assessment of Urban Green Space Based on Bio-Energy Landscape Connectivity: A Case Study on Tongzhou District in Beijing, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(18), pages 1-15, September.
    13. Sinharoy, Sheela S. & Pittluck, Rachel & Clasen, Thomas, 2019. "Review of drivers and barriers of water and sanitation policies for urban informal settlements in low-income and middle-income countries," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 1-1.
    14. Andrew Rumbach & Manish Shirgaokar, 2017. "Predictors of household exposure to monsoon rain hazards in informal settlements," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 85(2), pages 709-728, January.
    15. COLIN McFARLANE & JONATHAN RUTHERFORD, 2008. "Political Infrastructures: Governing and Experiencing the Fabric of the City," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(2), pages 363-374, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Matthew Gandy, 2006. "Water, Sanitation and the Modern City: Colonial and Post-colonial Experiences in Lagos and Mumbai," Human Development Occasional Papers (1992-2007) HDOCPA-2006-06, Human Development Report Office (HDRO), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
    2. Ramesh, Niranjana, 2022. "An experiment with the minor geographies of major cities: infrastructural relations among the fragments," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 114952, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    3. Céline Nauges & Dale Whittington, 2019. "Social Norms Information Treatments in the Municipal Water Supply Sector: Some New Insights on Benefits and Costs," Water Economics and Policy (WEP), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 5(03), pages 1-40, July.
    4. Auriol, Emmanuelle & Straub, Stéphane & Flochel, Thomas, 2016. "Public Procurement and Rent-Seeking: The Case of Paraguay," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 395-407.
    5. Vanesa Castán Broto & Harriet Bulkeley, 2013. "Maintaining Climate Change Experiments: Urban Political Ecology and the Everyday Reconfiguration of Urban Infrastructure," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(6), pages 1934-1948, November.
    6. Chen, Shaoqing & Chen, Bin, 2017. "Coupling of carbon and energy flows in cities: A meta-analysis and nexus modelling," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 194(C), pages 774-783.
    7. Fernanda Odilla, 2020. "Oversee and Punish: Understanding the Fight Against Corruption Involving Government Workers in Brazil," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(2), pages 140-152.
    8. Charles Kenny, 2009. "Measuring Corruption in Infrastructure: Evidence from Transition and Developing Countries," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(3), pages 314-332.
    9. Canoy, Nico A. & Robles, Augil Marie Q. & Roxas, Gilana Kim T., 2022. "Bodies-in-waiting as infrastructure: Assembling the Philippine Government's disciplinary quarantine response to COVID-19," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 294(C).
    10. Maty Konte, 2021. "How do education resources respond to the quality of local governance in Africa?," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(3), pages 1538-1557, August.
    11. Stanislav Shmelev & Harrison Roger Brook, 2021. "Macro Sustainability across Countries: Key Sector Environmentally Extended Input-Output Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-46, October.
    12. Anoop Jain & Lia C.H. Fernald & Kirk R. Smith & S.V. Subramanian, 2019. "Sanitation in Rural India: Exploring the Associations between Dwelling Space and Household Latrine Ownership," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(5), pages 1-14, February.
    13. Norbert Brunner & Vijay Mishra & Ponnusamy Sakthivel & Markus Starkl & Christof Tschohl, 2015. "The Human Right to Water in Law and Implementation," Laws, MDPI, vol. 4(3), pages 1-59, August.
    14. Antonio Estache, 2014. "Infrastructure and Corruption: a Brief Survey," Working Papers ECARES ECARES 2014-37, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    15. Lisa Björkman, 2014. "Becoming a Slum: From Municipal Colony to Illegal Settlement in Liberalization-Era Mumbai," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(1), pages 36-59, January.
    16. Olivia Jensen & Namrata Chindarkar, 2019. "Sustaining Reforms in Water Service Delivery: the Role of Service Quality, Salience, Trust and Financial Viability," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 33(3), pages 975-992, February.
    17. Franciszek Chwałczyk, 2020. "Around the Anthropocene in Eighty Names—Considering the Urbanocene Proposition," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(11), pages 1-33, May.
    18. Austin Zeiderman, 2012. "On Shaky Ground: The Making of Risk in Bogotá," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 44(7), pages 1570-1588, July.
    19. Alan Gilbert, 2007. "Water for All: How To Combine Public Management with Commercial Practice for the Benefit of the Poor?," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 44(8), pages 1559-1579, July.
    20. Bain, Robert & Bartram, Jamie & Luyendijk, Rolf, 2013. "Universal Access to Drinking Water: The Role of Aid," WIDER Working Paper Series 088, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:40:y:2008:i:1:p:108-130. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.