Bursting pipes and broken dreams: on ruination and reappropriation of large-scale water infrastructure in Baringo County, Kenya

IF 0.9 3区社会学 Q2 AREA STUDIES

Journal of Eastern African Studies Pub Date : 2023-04-03 DOI:10.1080/17531055.2023.2231790

David Greven

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引用次数: 1

Abstract

ABSTRACT In the course of Kenya’s Vision 2030 development plan, the Kenyan Northern Rift Valley recently became the playground for new stakeholders, interests and speculations. Large-scale development projects, such as the geothermal exploration in Tiaty East sub-county, is one of them and is described as game-changer in a formerly marginalized area. This article explores the case of Mt. Paka, a dormant volcano, where the Kenyan Geothermal Development Company (GDC) recently finished their exploratory drillings and established a road and water infrastructure for the geothermal project and the adjacent communities. Drawing on ethnographic research, this contribution examines the dynamic processes of ruination, reappropriation and negotiation along the newly built water infrastructure. While GDC is constantly trying to counter the ruination of pipelines with maintenance and retrofitting, local communities utilize leakages along the infrastructure, maintaining it in its ruined state to satisfy their own needs. This study highlights how the water infrastructure at Mt. Paka materializes in unexpected ways and shows its transformative potential in two directions: the ruination and the reappropriation of it.

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破裂的管道和破碎的梦想:关于肯尼亚巴林戈县大规模水利基础设施的破坏和重新利用

摘要在肯尼亚2030年愿景发展计划的实施过程中，肯尼亚北部大裂谷最近成为新的利益相关者、利益相关者和猜测的游乐场。大型开发项目，如Tiaty East副县的地热勘探，就是其中之一，被描述为以前边缘化地区的游戏规则改变者。本文探讨了休眠火山帕卡山的情况，肯尼亚地热开发公司（GDC）最近在那里完成了勘探钻探，并为地热项目和邻近社区建立了道路和供水基础设施。这篇文章借鉴了人种学研究，考察了新建水利基础设施沿线的破坏、重新征用和谈判的动态过程。虽然GDC不断试图通过维护和改造来应对管道的破坏，但当地社区利用基础设施沿线的泄漏，将其保持在破坏状态，以满足自己的需求。这项研究强调了帕卡山的水基础设施是如何以意想不到的方式实现的，并在两个方向上显示了其变革潜力：破坏和重新利用。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Journal of Eastern African Studies AREA STUDIES-

CiteScore

3.30

自引率

7.10%

发文量

期刊介绍： Journal of Eastern African Studies is an international publication of the British Institute in Eastern Africa, published four times each year. It aims to promote fresh scholarly enquiry on the region from within the humanities and the social sciences, and to encourage work that communicates across disciplinary boundaries. It seeks to foster inter-disciplinary analysis, strong comparative perspectives, and research employing the most significant theoretical or methodological approaches for the region.