Unruly Waters: The Reproduction of Power Relations within Domestic Water Infrastructure in the Neighbourhood of New Guinee, San Andrés

Abstract

Mass tourism, inadequate water management, and socio-cultural inequalities shape the water distribution and infrastructure in New Guinee, a low-income neighbourhood on San Andrés Island, Colombia. Piped water supply here is either unavailable or intermittent, leading residents to store water in and around the home in tanks, cisterns, and buckets. Through the collection and storage of water in the house, the materiality of infrastructure impacts the water, making it lively, as microbes and mosquitoes reproduce. At the same time, women in New Guinee bear the responsibility for domestic water labour. Therefore, this research aimed to analyse how social and ecological processes intersect within the home, shaping women’s everyday lives and bodies. It adopted concepts and theoretical perspectives from urban political ecology, feminist political ecology, and studies of more- than-human agencies related to water and infrastructure. Using New Guinee as a case study, a qualitative and ethnographic approach was employed to collaboratively generate data with twelve community research assistants (CRAs) from the neighbourhood. The multi-modal methodology included autoethnographic water diaries, cartographic interviews, body mapping, a community mapping workshop, life histories, and participatory observations. Data was analysed using thematic coding to identify patterns and emerging connections. The study revealed that an array of intersecting economic, political, and gendered power relations shapes the configuration of water infrastructure in New Guinee, exacerbating hardships for women. Due to the lack of reliable piped water and sewage connections, domestic water infrastructure becomes a patchwork of diverse sources accessed through various collection and storage systems. This infrastructure and stored water exhibit more-than-human agencies by corroding, leaking, and serving as breeding grounds for microbes and mosquitoes. Consequently, women perform extra labour to maintain water quality, repair infrastructure, spend more on upkeep, and endure the physical and health impacts of labour and diseases. These findings highlight the importance of taking the scale of the home and the body as a lens for understanding the everyday realities of women in the urban South. Sensitivity to the intersection of social power relations and ecological processes offers crucial insights into how inequalities are reproduced and challenged at this scale. In the context of New Guinee, the research emphasises the need to strengthen community-led resilience strategies and solutions outside technocratic frameworks, recognising the needs and knowledge of those most affected.