‘Scarcity’ in Times of Plenty: Water, Governance and Everyday Politics in Metro Manila

FY2020 Working Paper Series No. 7

Do water crises have the potential to contribute to social and political unrest in cities, especially in the Global South? To address this question, this paper draws on 60 interviews, 8 focus group discussions and a survey of 800 urban poor households in Metro Manila. Analysis suggests that access to water for these households is rife with vulnerability. In other words, scarcity is not natural as much as produced through economic and political decisions. These pre-existing entitlements determine the scale of suffering during times of water crises. In 2019, as the entire population of Metro Manila experienced a water crisis, urban poor households suffered disproportionately. While people coped individually by altering their behavior, discontent was palpable among communities, highlighting that individual grievances were at the cusp of entering the social realm. This analysis is supported by discussions in political ecology, contentious politics, and governance and informality in cities in the Global South.