Infrastructure stress from negative consumption and the reordering of consumerutility relations Timo

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Infrastructure stress from negative consumption
and the re-ordering of consumer-utility
relationsTimothy MossIRS Institute for
Regional Development and Structural Planning,
Erkner (Germany)mosst_at_irs-net.de
UKWIR workshop series Traces of water
Developing the social science of domestic water
consumption, London, 9 February 2006
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Structure

• From water stress to infrastructure stress a
  shifting narrative of crisis in the Berlin
  region
• Challenging the modern infrastructural ideal
• Re-ordering consumer-utility relations in
  practice
• The case of cost allocation
• The case of technological innovation
• Questions for discussion

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1. From water stress to infrastructure stress

• Drivers of the water stress scenario, early 1990s
  
• Anticipated population growth
• Anticipated strong regional economic development
  (encroaching on water protection zones)
• Anticipated increase in water consumption as
  living standards rise
• Planned expansion of infrastructure networks
• Recognition of limits to regional water resources
  (low precipitation, over-exploitation for
  agriculture/industry, reduced mining water
  extractions, )

Responses
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Water saving campaign
(BWB, 1995)
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Water management plan for Berlin metropolitan
area
(MUNR/SenStadtUm, 1994)
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Schemes for re-directing water flows
(Moss, 2001)
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• Realities of consumption..

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Water consumption in Berlin, 1960-1996
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Water consumption in Eastern Germany, 1991-1998
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Explanations for the decline in water consumption

• Not in response to above plans and schemes, or
  even to water- saving campaign, rather
• Massive deindustrialisation gtgtgt loss of major
  water consumers
• Introduction of full cost pricing in E.
  Berlin/Germany
• Replacement of domestic and industrial appliances
  with modern, water-saving versions

Additional contributory factors to over-capacity

• Legacy of network expansion in divided Berlin
• Post-reunification network expansion and
  upgrading in East
• Substantial regional development funding focussed
  on infrastructure systems in E. Germany
• Municipalisation of water supply / sanitation as
  part of democratisation process
• Dominance of large-scale, centralised technical
  solutions

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Novel problems of chronic over-capacity

• Physical/technical
• Slow thro-flow threatens water quality, increases
  risk of pipe corrosion, creates odours from
  sewers
• Physical/structural
• Reduced water consumption gtgtgt rising groundwater
  levels gtgtgt damp/flooded cellars
• Environmental
• Water wastage through flushing (artificial
  consumption)
• Economic/financial
• Repayment of investments requires high unit costs
• Economic/social
• Affordability of spiralling prices (high fixed
  costs)
• challenge to underlying logics of
  infrastructure management

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2. Challenging the modern infrastructural
ideal

• Modern infrastructural ideal of the integrated,
  networked city (Graham/Marvin 2001) developed on
  4 pillars
• Ideological trust in the modernising and
  civilising impacts of urban infrastructures
• Theories and practices of modern urban planning
  infrastructures bringing order to the fragmented
  form city as machine or organism mastering
  nature
• Infrastructures supporting new types of
  mass-scale production and consumption gtgtgt
  parallel standardisation of technical networks
• Nation states and municipalities supporting drive
  for natural monopolies providing universal
  services supply-oriented strategies of
  infrastructure roll-out

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Problematising the modern infrastructural ideal
(Graham/Marvin 2001)

• The urban infrastructure crisis deterioration
  of services, 1970s-
• Changing political economies of infrastructure
  development privatisation, competition,
  unbundling
• Collapse of the notion of comprehensive urban
  planning technocratic, ineffective, selective
• Physical growth of metropolitan regions scale,
  unevenness
• Challenge of social movements and critiques
  environmental, feminist, consumer, post-colonial

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Declining consumption, over-capacity and the
modern infrastructural ideal

• Challenges to extend-and-supply /
  predict-and-provide logics
• Water consumption not following ever-upward curve
  to meet (extended) capacity
• Consumption levels harder to predict
• Growing spatial differentiation undermining ideal
  of universality
• Notion of the consumer under scrutiny
• the missing consumer, the non-compliant consumer,
  the network as consumer
• Relevance and direction of demand management in
  question
• Infrastructure a liability, not just an asset
• Path dependency of infrastructure systems
  restricting future options

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3. Re-ordering consumer-utility relations in
practice

• Initial responses of Berlin utility to
  over-capacity
• Reduce investments, limit financial risks
• Reduce infrastructure where possible closing
  STPs, WWs, re-routing flows, downscaling when
  retrofitting
• Raise unit prices, introduce (higher) flat
  rates.

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a) The case of cost allocation

• Utility passes increased unit costs of past
• investments/maintenance on to consumers
• Consumers reduce consumption to minimise costs

• Utility sees consumers as part of the problem,
  not the solution
• The water quantity problem here is that people
  are not using enough water for our
  infrastructure (engineer at Berlin Water
  Utility)
• gtgtgt strategy of disengagement (cf. water-saving
  campaigns of past)
• Consumers see selves as captive customers of
  (now) part-privatised utility
• Weak link in the chain of beneficiaries
  (municipalities, environment, workforce)

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Relations at crisis point in rural Brandenburg

• Higher levels of over-capacity
• Higher investment debts
• Massive population decline
• Spiralling unit costs for water/sanitation

gtgtgt Protest marches
gtgtgt Hunger strikes
gtgtgt Challenging obligatory connection to local
water/sanitation utility
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b) The case of technological innovation
Soakaways in Berlins new development sites
unearthing water flows, uncovering social
relations

• Openings for large-scale use of soakaways
  despite over-capacity
• Focus on water quality (stormwater run-off)
• Resilience to new uncertainties of consumption
• Compatibility with centralised sewer system
• Huge cost of alternatives (underground retention
  basins)

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How the technology affects social relations

• Wider range of actors involved
• landscape architects, property owners,
  developers, parks departments, water protection
  agency,
• Re-negotiation of responsibilities between
  actors
• ..... over the use of space
• ..... over rainwater disposal
• ..... over damage liability
• ..... over the distribution of costs

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By studying phases in which technical systems
undergo radical change, we might expect to gain
new insights into basic dynamics and properties
of these systems (Summerton 19942)

• Questions for discussion
• In what ways does the issue of declining
  consumption and network over-capacity challenge
  conventional understandings of demand,
  consumption and the consumer?
• Is the willingness of utilities to engage closely
  with consumers dependent on their perception of
  whether consumers can be enrolled to support
  their strategies?
• How are consumption practices caught up in wider
  social, political and economic development
  issues? What does this mean for the ways water
  managers need to work with the often hidden
  interdependencies between cities and their
  infrastructures?
• What does the Berlin experience tell us about the
  vulnerability of apparently stable and entrenched
  infrastructure systems to pressures for change
  and their ability to respond?

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