4.2 Self-Reflection and Exclusivity
237
contrary, its central concern is the biodiversity and climate change adaptation within
a sustainable development theory and ideology.
Later during my analysis, I realised that the ecological infrastructure, especially
within the epistemic structure of the UEIP, focuses on water security as its main aspiration. Even so, policy-makers and scholars within the UEIP define water security
as being relative to the water quantity and quality found in the uMngeni Catchment.
This is another indication of the technocratic thinking that has influenced the implementation of the three ecological infrastructure pilot projects in the uMngeni River
basin (p. 131).
I argue that the UEIP was established in 2013 (p. 5) by eThekwini and SANBI,
as well as the other involved stakeholders, in order to place the uMngeni’s water
quantity and quality at a higher level on Durban’s water governance agenda, as it
relies on them for its survival. When the UEIP was established, we see that ecological infrastructures played an instrumental role in improving the uMngeni’s water
resources. However, what is unclear is who established the UEIP? SANBI played
a central role in its formative stages, since the definition of the institute’s ecological infrastructure was central in the motivation of the policy-makers to establish
the partnership. Therefore, it is not impossible that SANBI promoted its definition
as an ecological infrastructure and used it as an inroad to influence local government policy. That said, the empiricism located within the conceptualisation of an
ecological infrastructure played an influential role in deciding who to involve in its
formation. The purpose was to express a certain epistocratic vision of what constitutes water security and how to solve the uMngeni’s quantity and quality problems
through the ecological infrastructure. The unintended consequence of this is that the
formation and functioning of the UEIP have, over the years, excluded normative
structures that are imbedded within the catchment’s civil society and general public
structures including traditional authorities.
Between 2014 and 2018, I led a CSIR research team that investigated the
views of a host of stakeholders on water security in the eThekwini Metropolitan
and Sekhukhune District Municipalities. Our interviewees consisted of academics,
community members, municipal officials and traditional leaders (Meissner et al.
2018a, b, 2019). For the eThekwini phase of the water security project, I interviewed
some of the people with whom I had interacted during the green and ecological infrastructure research. I did not speak to community members and traditional leaders, since
my focus was on eThekwini, as a local government structure, and its implementation
of green and ecological infrastructures for the purpose of promoting water security.
In order to place the two research endeavours into context and to explain why I
put so much effort into researching these matters in eThekwini, I will give an insight
into my academic association with the city and the uMngeni River. I have been an
Honorary Research Associate attached to the Centre for Water Resources Research
(CWRR) at UKZN since 2014, when Graham Jewitt, who was then the Director of
the Centre, invited me to accept this role. My informal association with the university
started in 2011, when I met Professor Roland Schulze at a conference in Obergurgl,
Austria. Based on the water governance research that I conducted at that time, he put
me in touch with one of his students, Sabine Stuart-Hill, who I met at a conference
237
contrary, its central concern is the biodiversity and climate change adaptation within
a sustainable development theory and ideology.
Later during my analysis, I realised that the ecological infrastructure, especially
within the epistemic structure of the UEIP, focuses on water security as its main aspiration. Even so, policy-makers and scholars within the UEIP define water security
as being relative to the water quantity and quality found in the uMngeni Catchment.
This is another indication of the technocratic thinking that has influenced the implementation of the three ecological infrastructure pilot projects in the uMngeni River
basin (p. 131).
I argue that the UEIP was established in 2013 (p. 5) by eThekwini and SANBI,
as well as the other involved stakeholders, in order to place the uMngeni’s water
quantity and quality at a higher level on Durban’s water governance agenda, as it
relies on them for its survival. When the UEIP was established, we see that ecological infrastructures played an instrumental role in improving the uMngeni’s water
resources. However, what is unclear is who established the UEIP? SANBI played
a central role in its formative stages, since the definition of the institute’s ecological infrastructure was central in the motivation of the policy-makers to establish
the partnership. Therefore, it is not impossible that SANBI promoted its definition
as an ecological infrastructure and used it as an inroad to influence local government policy. That said, the empiricism located within the conceptualisation of an
ecological infrastructure played an influential role in deciding who to involve in its
formation. The purpose was to express a certain epistocratic vision of what constitutes water security and how to solve the uMngeni’s quantity and quality problems
through the ecological infrastructure. The unintended consequence of this is that the
formation and functioning of the UEIP have, over the years, excluded normative
structures that are imbedded within the catchment’s civil society and general public
structures including traditional authorities.
Between 2014 and 2018, I led a CSIR research team that investigated the
views of a host of stakeholders on water security in the eThekwini Metropolitan
and Sekhukhune District Municipalities. Our interviewees consisted of academics,
community members, municipal officials and traditional leaders (Meissner et al.
2018a, b, 2019). For the eThekwini phase of the water security project, I interviewed
some of the people with whom I had interacted during the green and ecological infrastructure research. I did not speak to community members and traditional leaders, since
my focus was on eThekwini, as a local government structure, and its implementation
of green and ecological infrastructures for the purpose of promoting water security.
In order to place the two research endeavours into context and to explain why I
put so much effort into researching these matters in eThekwini, I will give an insight
into my academic association with the city and the uMngeni River. I have been an
Honorary Research Associate attached to the Centre for Water Resources Research
(CWRR) at UKZN since 2014, when Graham Jewitt, who was then the Director of
the Centre, invited me to accept this role. My informal association with the university
started in 2011, when I met Professor Roland Schulze at a conference in Obergurgl,
Austria. Based on the water governance research that I conducted at that time, he put
me in touch with one of his students, Sabine Stuart-Hill, who I met at a conference