‘Borehole Race’ and the Dilemma of Governing the ‘Ungoverned’: Understanding the Urban Political Ecology of Groundwater Exploitation in Nigeria

Abstract

Groundwater exploitation is an essential aspect of the numerous processes of transforming the urban natural environment for human gains. We use the political ecology of borehole exploitation in Nigeria’s urban environment to understand the micro-and macro-level processes mediating the transformation and changes in urban “groundwater scape”. The fieldwork processes depend on field counting of borehole distribution, in-depth and semi-structured interviews, and a review of secondary literatures. We argue that the social and environmental changes arising from the exploitation of groundwater bespeak the active and continual manifestation of the interplay of combustible interests and power friction among institutional agents within the permissible range of the natural environment. Such dynamic power relations engender a pattern of socio-natural transformation consistent with Swyngedouw’s notion of urban metabolism- “a series of interconnected heterogeneous and dynamic but contested and contestable processes of continuous quantitative and qualitative transformations that re-arranges humans and non-humans in new and often unexpected ways”.

Keywords:

• Akwa Ibom State
• environmental changes
• groundwater resources
• Nigeria
• political ecology
• Uyo

Note

Acknowledgements

Akpan Felix Effiong, Akpan Ime Udeme, Ekanem Unyimeobong, Udofia Ofonime Edem, Etim Esther Okon, Ekanem Godwin Otu, Abubakar Ibrahim Ali, James Ekom Ekanem, Etim Lemuel, Edimo Aniefiok, Agba Margaret, Aniekan Comfort, Udofia Elizabeth, Essung Attah Okon, Akpan Udeme Ezekiel, Michael David Peter, Edet Emmanuel, Peace Clement Bassey. We are grateful to the anonymous reviewers whose comments have been useful for improving the quality of this paper.

Notes

1 This was based on the conversion rate of NGN149.25 to 1USD