Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Ganapathy, Gautam
• Narayanan, N. C.

Titel

Colonial modernity shaping the pipe dream: a historical account of advent of the modern water supply system in Trivandrum

Ist Teil von

• Water history, 2019, Vol.11 (3-4), p.107-124

Ort / Verlag

Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands

Erscheinungsjahr

2019

Quelle

Alma/SFX Local Collection

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• The history of introduction of a “gravitation” water supply system in Trivandrum illustrates how a distinct colonial engineering ethos, amidst the prevailing state of affairs in the Travancore princely state, shaped critical decisions including coverage area, service level, and disposition of engineers towards traditional water bodies. The paper argues that the attempt to replicate an integrated hydrological system of the type adopted in London or Paris contained in itself a germ of failure from a financial standpoint. In addition to correspondence between engineers and administrators, the paper relies on the proposals submitted by colonial engineers to the Government of Travancore between 1882 and 1923 to illustrate the process of conception and introduction of the modern water supply system in Trivandrum. The continued focus on replicating this ideal, without any meaningful engagement with the local social and environmental context, partially explains the prevailing inequitable access to service provision and the acute public financial constraints faced by India’s small and medium towns.