Institutions, infrastructures and the construction of water demand Heather Chappells

Consumption domain Demand arises from decisions and actions of consumers Production domain Providers aim to meet demand as efficiently as possible

Demand constructed in systems of provision Abstraction Supply Distribution Regulation Consumption

Overview 1. Identify different modes of water organisation and underlying assumptions about demand 2. Show how these modes and underpinning logics relate to decisions and actions of water managers today 3. Consider alternative modes of provision emerging at margins of networks and what these imply for conceptualisation and management of demand

SIMPLE Demand defined by locally available resources Fixed ceilings to meet limited local needs Consumers closely coupled to local providers UNIVERSAL Demand as a need that must be met at all costs Mass ceilings and spare capacity to meet demand Consumers as passive recipients served by provider MARKETISED Demand as highly differentiated and negotiable Multiple ceilings defined in line with different needs Consumers as co- managers of demand

1.Reinforce supply infrastructure 2.Enrol consumers as demand managers 3.Redefine operational ceilings Water managers responses to the drought

Dominant logics & implications Efforts to enrol consumers as co-managers of demand failed to elicit desired response More durable solutions involve reinforcing infrastructure & increasing capacity Systems are both durable and flexible at the same time Overall ethos is one of meeting non-negotiable needs

New modes of water provision: Allerton park Three households in Leeds disconnected from main network Drinking water and grey-water supply from stand-alone system Highly localised arrangements with close coupling of demand & supply Households reschedule & redefine practices to meet temporary shortages

New modes of provision and notions of demand Demand as something to be negotiated and managed by rescheduling activities to cope with intermittency Infrastructures can be reconfigured to challenge the dominant mind-set that water has to be available around-the-clock Intensity and scope of demand management is variable and relates to socio-technical arrangements and renegotiation of service expectations

Redefining service expectations Respecifying institutional ceilings Limits on expansion & abstraction Reinforcing technical capacity Production Consumption Demand redefined through entire system of provision The multi-layered structuring & coordination of water demand

Production Consumption Collective redefinition of demand at multiple interlocking scales Multiple intersecting scales & the renegotiation of demand Micro-networksSub-systems Mini-grids

Reinvigorating debate about demand How far will developing sustainable water networks depend on the renegotiation of institutional and infrastructural, as well as individual, expectations? How durable are existing configurations of sociotechnical systems and might more sustainable operating principles be overlain on more obdurate structures? How might new and old modes of provision intersect at different scales to generate multiple concepts of service provision that are collectively more sustainable?