The production of space in the negotiation of water and electricity supply in a bosti of Dhaka

Abstract

Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (DWASA) and Dhaka Electricity Supply Company (DESCO) do not provide any direct utility supply in the informal settlements of Dhaka where more than one third of the total city population live. Large numbers of the population thus access utilities from local vendors who maintain relationships with administrative staff of the authorities concerned, political leaders and influential community leaders, thus making the supply available in the settlement and continuing their informal utility business. Access to these utilities is negotiated in the continuously changing arrangements of a complex hybrid institutional sphere and under informal regulation. In this process, the changing nature of the state and urban groups and the complicated and dynamic relationship between and within urban groups indicate that urban governance operates in a ‘third space’ of constant negotiation and contestation. Against this background this paper presents the informal practice of water and electricity supply by a local association, the regulations in place, and the inter-linkage between different forms of regulatory space whose presence is a necessary condition for the continuation of the informal practice.