Chapter 6

Water Scarcity and the Colonial State: the emergence of a Hydraulic Bureaucracy in
Southwestern Matabeleland, Southern Rhodesia, 1964 -1972

, Muchaparara Musemwa

This chapter examines how water was institutionalized in southwestern Matabeleland, 1964-1972, Rhodesia, following a devastating drought in 1964-65 and how ‘water scarcity’ became a dominant idea in this specific locale. This drought triggered a ‘crisis’ condition and water scarcity became a decidedly hegemonic concept as the diverse water users debated and interpreted the diverse meanings of persistent bouts of water scarcity. They succeeded in inducing the state to extend its ‘hydraulic mission’ to this region to mobilize all water resources. It argues that their struggles accentuated the supremacy of the colonial state in producing and nurturing this hegemonic notion

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