Water Management in Post-colonial Darjeeling: The Promise and Limits of Decentralised Resource Provision

Abstract

Water crises are spreading across the length of South Asia at an alarming rate, and some of the pockets of stress include unexpected locations such as Darjeeling, West Bengal, where rainfall is plentiful. This article explores the problems of post-colonial water management in the former British hill station to illuminate the prospects for integrated resource provision. We argue that to improve the scope of water distribution and provision, post-colonial townships such as Darjeeling need to acknowledge and address the multiple ways in which people get water from the centralised supply as well as the decentralised solutions that have arisen through community organisation in collectives known as samaj. Notably, the samaj have a distinct character based on histories of colonial neglect that prompted villages throughout the Darjeeling region to solve socioeconomic problems independently of centralised systems. The discussion overlaps the numerous resource pathways with the plethora of social and political organisations operating in Darjeeling to argue that municipalities would do well to harness the varied ways in which water flows through the township. Integrated within larger questions of sustainable development in India’s urbanising townships, the text offers a glimpse into the possibilities for more holistic and equitable water management.

Keywords:

• Water management
• post-colonial infrastructure
• centralisation
• decentralisation
• community organisation
• Darjeeling

Acknowledgments

Georgina Drew and Roshan P. Rai gratefully acknowledge the support of a Faculty Research Centre Competitive Funding Scheme Award from The University of Adelaide in 2014. Georgina Drew also acknowledges the receipt of ARC grant DE160101178.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. In citing Romit Bagchi's 2012 publication, we also wish to note Rai's critical response to the book in a 2013 issue of Himalaya. The review notes that the book mostly draws from a section of the separatist movement rather than its entirety, and that the movement is portrayed by an author who does not believe in the activists’ demands.

2. In all, we met with two municipal representatives, two technical water experts, two senior non-governmental organisation representatives, and fourteen samaj leaders. This amounts to a total of 20 key informants.

3. The lakes are designated as North and South. The North Lake, constructed in 1910, can hold up to 20 million gallons. The South Lake, constructed in 1932, can hold up to 13 million gallons.

4. Darjeeling, the Official Website of Darjeeling. Retrieved from http://darjeeling.gov.in

5. In the commodified spring supply arrangement, a person pays an entrepreneur an initial deposit for access to a spring on private land and thereafter pays a monthly fee for the water supply.

6. The term for these gallon jugs is either bhuldung or jerkin. The first word is of Nepali origin, whereas the second evidences a colonial influence. It is most likely derived from the expression “Jerry can”, a container for liquids whose use was popularised in World War II.

7. Situated on the lower-most southeastern border of Darjeeling township, Mangalpuri bears the brunt of upstream waste dumping practices.

8. Hydraulic citizenship includes the distinctions made when particular citizens are recognised as worthy of receiving municipal water supplies while others, such as those living in informal settlements, are excluded.

9. In 1981, the Public Health Engineering Department attempted to add a third lake to the existing two lakes at Senchel that supply water to Darjeeling. It was intended to have a capacity of around 16.3 million gallons. Due to faulty construction, however, this lake is prone to leaks and is not in use.

10. The cost sharing is expected to involve 80% central government funds, 15% state funds, and 5% municipal funds. See “RS 170 Cr Grants to Solve Hills Water Crisis”, Times of India, 22 February 2014. Retrieved from http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/Rs-170cr-grants-to-solve-Hills-water-crisis/articleshow/30814380.cms

11. There is a precedent for the role of springs in mitigating post-disaster water shortages. In 2012 in Gangtok (the capital of Sikkim, which has a similar population and mountainous topography to Darjeeling), spring water helped to provide for residential needs following a devastating earthquake that destroyed the town’s infrastructure.

12. Commenting on the nature of multiplicities, Deleuze and Guattari note: “Multiplicities are rhizomatic… A multiplicity has neither subject nor object, only determinations, magnitudes, and dimensions that cannot increase in number without the multiplicity changing in nature (the laws of combination therefore increase in number as the multiplicity grows)” (1988, p. 8). Our application of their work hinges on the idea that water must be treated as a material, sociocultural and socioeconomic set of assemblages that exist in ever-changing multiplicities.