Mobilizing rurality in peri-urban water contestation: A case from Dhulikhel, a lower Himalaya town of Nepal

Abstract

While urbanization is a global phenomenon, it is now more rapid in the countries in the Global South. Municipal authorities of burgeoning peri-urban areas in the lower Himalaya region are struggling to deal with the new geographies of water demand. Rapidly growing towns primarily access water from upstream rural water sources, while upstream communities themselves are increasing their water consumption as they gradually integrate in the peri-urban area themselves. This ‘reorganization’ of water has intensified contestation between upstream rural communities and downstream urban authorities. This paper examines the different narratives mobilized in the contestation of water transfer projects to the rapidly growing town of Dhulikhel in Nepal. Our analysis deploys Follman’s three perspectives on peri-urbanity to throw light on these discourses. From a transitional perspective, it shows how peri-urbanization heightens water demands across the peri-urban zone and heightens competition between water users. A territorial perspective questions the administrative subdivision of the peri-urban region, and its effects on the way water users envision water sharing as restricted within territorial boundaries. Finally, a third, functional perspective reveals how in more rural municipalities, the traditional rural character is emphasized to claim priority in the access to water, thereby giving rise to a divisive identity politics. From this analysis, we argue that peri-urbanization is a dynamic process shaped not merely by urban expansion, but by the interactions between rural and urban communities and functions. While increasingly integrated, peri-urban territories, by intensifying competition for resources, are also a fertile ground for a re-assertion of rural identities and rural-urban binaries.