Katie Meehan, University of Oregon, Department of Geography

Title: Water Justice in Mexico City: Grassroots Innovation and Paradoxical Promise

Abstract: How might we (re)plumb cities for twenty-first century social and environmental challenges? In 2012, Mexico enshrined the human right to water in its constitution, and yet Mexico City residents still suffer from spatial and social inequalities of public water access, reliability, quality, and service. In the crucible of dysfunction, grassroots efforts have emerged to build new kinds of infrastructural relationships between people, water, and the city. This presentation reports on the promise and perils of grassroots sociotechnical innovation and institutional change in Mexico City, based on a five-year ethnographic study of urban rainwater harvesting, and explores coordinates for a just agenda of water supply experimentation.

Reception to follow.