Ways of storing and using water: Experiences of uneven water scarcity in a water-rich region

Abstract

Communities in Darjeeling town have been experiencing and coping with water scarcity for decades. Developmental history points towards fragmented governance and inefficient infrastructural interventions, which have led to uneven access to water defined by physical and political aspects at the household level. The outcomes of inequalities are reflected in the coping behavior and the ways of storing and using water. This work draws from urban political ecology (UPE), and it contributes to UPE studies by examining the physical, political, and infrastructural aspects of households in the production of unequal water scarcity. It furthers the need to add altitude while carrying out urban studies in the mountains as a driving factor for water accessibility. This essay is based on fieldwork carried out from 2014 until 2019 in Darjeeling town, which included topic-guided interviews, transect walks, unstructured interviews, document analysis, and household questionnaires.

Keywords

• mountain towns
• inequality
• urban political ecology
• household water security
• domestic water scarcity
• Darjeeling