Without Water, There Is No Life’: Negotiating Everyday Risks and Gendered Insecurities in Karachi’s Informal Settlements

Citation:

Anwar, Nausheen H., Amiera Sanas, and Daanish Mustafa. 2020. “‘Without Water, There Is No Life’: Negotiating Everyday Risks and Gendered Insecurities in Karachi’s Informal Settlements.” Urban Studies 56 (6): 1320-37.

Authors: Nausheen H. Anwar, Amiera Sanas, Daanish Mustafa

Abstract:

ENGLISH ABSTRACT:
This article provides new insights into the politics of water provisioning in Karachi’s informal settlements, where water shortages and contaminations have pushed ordinary citizens to live on the knife edge of water scarcity. We turn our attention to the everyday practices that involve gendered insecurities of water in Karachi, which has been Pakistan’s security laboratory for decades. We explore four shifting security logics that strongly contribute to the crisis of water provisioning at the neighbourhood level and highlight an emergent landscape of ‘securitised water’. Gender maps the antagonisms between these security logics, so we discuss the impacts on ordinary women and men as they experience chronic water shortages. In Karachi, a patriarchal stereotype of the militant or terrorist-controlled water supply is wielded with the aim of upholding statist national security concerns that undermine women’s and men’s daily security in water provisioning whereby everyday issues of risk and insecurity appear politically inconsequential. We contend that risk has a very gendered nature and it is women that experience it both in the home and outside.
 

CHINESE ABSTRACT:

本文为卡拉奇非正规住区的供水政治提供了新的见解，在那里水资源短缺和污染已经迫使普通公民生活在水资源短缺的边缘上。我们将注意力转向卡拉奇的日常做法，这些做法涉及供水不安全方面的性别差异，卡拉奇几十年来一直是巴基斯坦的安全风向标。我们探索了四种不断变化的安全逻辑，这些逻辑极大地加深了街区层面的供水危机，并凸显了新出现的、“供水成为安全议题”的局面。性别差异说明了这些安全逻辑之间的对立，因此我们讨论了长期缺水对普通妇女和男人生活的影响。在卡拉奇，受军方或恐怖分子控制的供水实行严格的父权制。其目的是以破坏普通人的日常供水安全为代价，维护一种中央集权式的国家安全，在这种体制下，人们日常生活中的风险和不安全问题在政治上显得无关紧要。我们认为风险具有非常强的性别差异质，女性在家庭和外部都会经历这种风险.

Keywords: exclusion, Gender, infrastructure, politics, poverty, security, social justice, water, 关键词, 排斥, 性别, 基础设施, 政治, 贫困, 安全, 社会正义, 水

Topics: Gender, Women, Gender Analysis, Gendered Power Relations, Patriarchy, Infrastructure, Water & Sanitation, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Terrorism, Security Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: Pakistan

Year: 2020

© 2024 CONSORTIUM ON GENDER, SECURITY & HUMAN RIGHTSLEGAL STATEMENT All photographs used on this site, and any materials posted on it, are the property of their respective owners, and are used by permission. Photographs: The images used on the site may not be downloaded, used, or reproduced in any way without the permission of the owner of the image. Materials: Visitors to the site are welcome to peruse the materials posted for their own research or for educational purposes. These materials, whether the property of the Consortium or of another, may only be reproduced with the permission of the owner of the material. This website contains copyrighted materials. The Consortium believes that any use of copyrighted material on this site is both permissive and in accordance with the Fair Use doctrine of 17 U.S.C. § 107. If, however, you believe that your intellectual property rights have been violated, please contact the Consortium at info@genderandsecurity.org.