Paper short abstract:

Using the knowledge infrastructures approach, we scrutinize the scalar discourses associated with deep-bore-fed and spring-fed water supply systems underway in Dhulikhel municipality of Nepal and assess the utility of this approach in understanding the urban marginality issue in the global South.

Paper long abstract:

Ratifying the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)-6 of ensuring universal access to water supply, the government of Nepal has set a national target of providing drinking water to 99% of households by 2030. Subsequently, the municipal governments have heavily invested in water infrastructures under the "one-house-one-tap" initiative. Dhulikhel Municipality (DM), an emerging urban center near the capital city Kathmandu, has drilled deep borewells to distribute water for all and portrayed it as a "reliable" water system to meet growing water demands in "water-scarce" peri-urban villages. Local communities are however skeptical of the sufficiency and sustainability of the deep borewells and claim that locally managed spring-fed water supply would rather be a "sustainable" and "equitable" solution in their hilly terrain. Our study focused on the knowledge infrastructures - an alliance of actors, networks, and expertise - underpinning the development of these water systems shows the municipality relied on technocratic knowledge to legitimize deep borewell-fed system while the communal resorted to their traditionally-managed spring-fed system. Socio-economically weaker communities however remain marginalized in access to water and water-related decisions in both of these infrastructure systems. In these contexts, scrutinizing discursive framings at scales, we examine the usefulness of the knowledge infrastructures approach as an analytical framework for understanding urban marginality and in identifying strategic alternatives for a more inclusive and equitable urban water system and urban society.