Wastewater and wishful thinking
Treatment plants to "revive" the Santiago River in Mexico
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4464639 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Cindy Mcculligh (0000-0001-6447-7842, Centro de Investigación y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 6 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 1966-1986 |
| Publication date | 2023-09-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Environment and Planning E Nature and Space (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2514-8486 • E-ISSN: 2514-8494 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/25148486221125230 |
| OpenAlex | W4296353378 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 36 |
This article grapples with issues of urban wastewater sanitation in one of Mexico's most polluted river basins, through an analysis of a river restoration project centered on the construction of municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). Taking an ethnographic approach to the study of infrastructure, the main argument is that, beyond their possible contribution to reducing pollutant loads, in this context municipal WWTPs can best be understood through the concept of "duplication," whereby the infrastructure works serve as a vehicle for the transfer of public resources to the private sector, through construction and operation contracts. At the same time, these plants also fulfill objectives related to their symbolic value, in this case as indicators of a commitment to resolving one of the state's main socio-environmental conflicts, while studiously avoiding its root causes, including industrial pollution sources. From an urban political ecology perspective, the paper also examines how investment in wastewater treatment infrastructure in the basin continues to reinforce social and environmental inequities, particularly for peri-urban communities along the Santiago River
Context (archaeology · Drainage basin · Environmental planning · Environmental resource management · Geography · Sanitation · Sewage treatment · Wastewater · Water resource management · Child Nutrition and Water Access · Environmental Science · Water Governance and Infrastructure · Water Treatment and Disinfection · Environmental Engineering
The State in Political Ecology
In the Nature of Cities
Unsafe waters
Promising Forms
The Stages of Economic Growth
Governance restricts”
Theorizing state-environment relationships
Does Commercialization Undermine the Benefits of Decentralization for Local Services Provision? Evidence from Mexico’s Urban Water and Sanitation Sector
Towards a peri-urban political ecology of water quality decline
Ways of knowing the wastewaterscape
The Poolitical City
Infrastructural Discontent in the Sanitary City
Urban Political Ecology, Justice and the Politics of Scale
On the Postcolony
Hydrosocial territories
Political ecologies of the state
The State, Sewers, and Security
Remaking Urban Environments
Good Water Governance without Good Urban Governance? Regulation, Service Delivery Models, and Local Government
The Ethnography of Infrastructure
Introduction
Seeing Like a StateHow Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed
Figures of the Subject in Times of Crisis
Leaky States
The Politics and Poetics of Infrastructure
| Unique citing works | 4 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 2 |
| Citation span | 2024 - 2025 (2) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 4 |