Paper short abstract:

As Senegal is achieving the MDGs by privatizing water supply, I explore how water circulation sheds light on social norms of power as well as on the process of state formation. The paper will focus on “sons of the soil”, connected civil servants who sponsor water supply in their communities of birth.

Paper long abstract:

In order to achieve the MDGs (Millenium Development Goals) agenda, Senegal is currently privatizing rural water supply. In the region of Kaolack, the State has delegated water management to local user committees. Water circulation among Kaolack communities sheds light on a conflict inherent in development policies. What is really water? It has officially no price: water access has been defined as a fundamental human right during the IDWSSD (International Decade for Water Supply and Sanitation, 1980-1990). But water is also an economic good: development policies gradually consented its market value since the 1990s. Both paradigms jointly define water only from the financial, legal and technical terms of access. However, as Gruenais points out, the relationship connecting men to space and water leads directly "at the heart of politics" (1986: 284).

I will explore water circulation through its dysfunction: the water supply failure. When this occurs in a community, the "son of the soil" is an informal key alternative to officials appointed by user committees. "Sons" have several points in common: born in the village, they work as administrative executives in Dakar and are connected to the ruling party. Water (non) circulation highlights social norms of exchange and debt bonding together communities and state reprensentatives. In this context, water is neither a right nor an economic good: what run daily through water taps are social norms. In this sense, water gives the opportunity to explore the process of state formation by disentangling the immaterial namely: power and affect.