Upsetting the apple cart? Export fruit production, water pollution and social unrest in the Elgin Valley, South Africa

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis article explores the encounter between two contrasting visions of how the hydrosocial territory of the Elgin Valley of South Africa is, and should be, constituted and the conflicts over water pollution this gives rise to. It studies how poor urban dwellers try to upset the status quo of unequal access to land and water, which is linked to broader, historically entrenched, inequalities. White commercial farmers have succeeded in upholding the dominant hydro-territorial order by emphasizing the economic importance of their sector, by reducing complex political issues to technical challenges, and by capturing ‘democratic’ water institutions.