Urban Water Governance for More Inclusive Development: A Reflection on the ‘Waterscapes’ of Durban, South Africa

Post-apartheid policies have tasked Durban’s municipal actors with the responsibility of achieving both inclusiveness and economic growth. However, they are confronted with the deep spatial and socio-economic inequalities resulting from apartheid, as well as the pressure generated by rapid urbanisation. This article analyses Durban’s water governance regime and its spatial expression or ‘waterscape’. eThekwini Water and Sanitation Unit’s (EWS) approach to water and sanitation provision has gained international recognition for its inclusiveness. This article argues that the resulting ‘waterscape’ – understood as the outcome of the interaction of actor coalitions and their power relations, discourses and knowledges, technologies and infrastructures, which are embedded in multiple spaces that come together simultaneously – exemplifies and challenges the notion of inclusiveness. This article reveals that almost universal access to basic water and sanitation has been achieved through incremental transformation, but that this has produced a highly uneven waterscape in Durban.