Building “21st Century Sewer Socialism”: Sanitation and Venezuela’s Technical Water Committees Rebecca McMillan A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies in partial fulfillment of the MA degree in International Development and Globalization Under the Supervision of Dr. Susan J. Spronk School of International Development and Global Studies Faculty of Social Sciences University of Ottawa © Rebecca McMillan, Ottawa, Canada 2013 McMillan, Building “21st Century Sewer Socialism” ii Table of Contents List of Tables ..........................................................................................................................iv Legend ......................................................................................................................................v Abstract...................................................................................................................................vi Acknowledgements............................................................................................................... vii Chapter 1: Towards A Political Geographic Understanding of Citizen Participation in Water and Sanitation Service Provision ...............................................................................8 Research Context ................................................................................................................9 Caracas: A Tale of Two Cities..........................................................................................9 Mapping “Alternatives to Privatization”.........................................................................10 Research Questions ...........................................................................................................12 Methodology and Research Methods ..............................................................................12 Literature Review and Conceptual Framework ............................................................17 Situating Participation in the Planning and Delivery of Sanitation Services..................18 Defining Coproduction....................................................................................................19 Comparing Technocratic and Radical Approaches to Coproduction..............................20 Assessing Transformative Participation: A Framework .................................................28 Structure of the Thesis......................................................................................................30 Chapter 2: Venezuela’s Radical Political Project – The Bolivarian Process and Contemporary State-Society Relations ...............................................................................31 Understanding the rise of Hugo Chávez .........................................................................31 The Bolivarian Process (1999-Present) ...........................................................................33 Who are the Chavistas? The State-Society Dialectic......................................................34 From Reformism to Radicalization: A Brief History of the Bolivarian Process ............36 Conclusions ........................................................................................................................40 Chapter 3: “From Technical to Social Logic” – The MTAs’ Engagement with Underlying Processes of Development ................................................................................41 Informal Development and Urban Water and Sanitation Services in Caracas ..........41 History of the Technical Water Committees (MTAs)....................................................43 Early Origins: From Protest to Parish Government (1993-1996) ...................................43 Scaling Up: The MTAs Reborn (1999-Present)..............................................................45 The MTA Methodology: Census, Sketch, Diagnosis, and Project Execution..............47 State Investment in Water and Sanitation......................................................................49 Conclusions ........................................................................................................................51 Chapter 4: “We are Building Urbanismos”: Water and Sanitation, Popular Power, and Citizenship in Antímano, Caracas.......................................................................................52 Participation as Citizenship .............................................................................................53 Radical Citizenship and Immanent Development...........................................................53 Citizenship and Poder Popular: Towards a New Geography of Power in Venezuela ....54 Introduction to the Case study: The MTAs in Antímano, Caracas .............................56 Geography and Socioeconomic Status............................................................................56 McMillan, Building “21st Century Sewer Socialism” iii Profile of Water and Sanitation Services ........................................................................57 History of Water and Sanitation Struggles in Antímano ................................................58 I. The “Material Emblems of Citizenship”: Service Improvements in Antímano......60 Water Service Improvements..........................................................................................61 Sanitation Service Improvements ...................................................................................66 II. Redefining Spaces of Citizenship: Improved Barrio-State Relations .....................69 III. Beyond Citizenship as Inclusion: Self-management and the Creation of New Political Subjects ...............................................................................................................70 Communities as Sites of Conflict: The Question of Elite Capture ...............................75 Conclusions ........................................................................................................................77 Chapter 5: “The Water that Buys Votes is the Water that I drink”: Challenges for Improving Sanitation and Building Popular Power in a ‘Hybrid’ State .........................78 The Finance Gap and the Limitations of the Local Scale..............................................78 The Contradictions of Insurgent Planning from Above................................................83 Bureaucracy and Politicization: Constraints to Autonomous Action? ........................86 Scale, Institutional Overlap, and the Brown and Green Agendas................................92 Participation, Community Labour, and Invited and Invented Spaces ........................95 Conclusions ........................................................................................................................98 Conclusion..............................................................................................................................99 Areas for Future Research .............................................................................................103 Learning Across Sectors: Comparative Work on the MTAs ........................................103 Sustainable “Alternatives” to Conventional Sanitation?...............................................104 Appendix A: Bibliography of Works Published on Venezuela’s Technical Water Committees ..........................................................................................................................107 Appendix B: Map of Caracas.............................................................................................109 Appendix C: List of Interviews and Events Attended .....................................................110 Appendix D: Interview Schedule .......................................................................................115 Appendix E: Survey Guide (Spanish) ...............................................................................116 Appendix F: Results of Venezuelan Electoral Competitions and Popular Referenda, 1998-Present.........................................................................................................................119 Appendix G: Structure of the Technical Water Committees in Urban Areas ..............122 Appendix I: Investment in Water and Sanitation in Select Latin American Countries (2010) ....................................................................................................................................124 Appendix J: Photographs...................................................................................................125 Appendix K: Ethics Certificate..........................................................................................131 Bibliography ........................................................................................................................132 McMillan, Building “21st Century Sewer Socialism” iv List of Tables Table 4.1 Official Poverty Statistics for the Parish of Antímano, 2001 and 2011 McMillan, Building “21st Century Sewer Socialism” v Legend AD Acción Democrática (Democratic Action, a Venezuelan political party) CCA Consejo comunitario de agua (Community water council) CMA Caracas Metropolitan Area COPEI Comité de Organización Política Electoral Independiente (Committee of Independent Political Organization, a Venezuelan political party) FUNDACOMUNAL Fundación para el Desarrollo de la Comunidad y Promoción del Poder Comunal (Foundation for Community Development and the Promotion