The Fluvial Imagination: On Lesotho's Water-Export Economy

by Colin Hoag

Overview

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Landlocked and surrounded by South Africa on all sides, the mountain kingdom of Lesotho became the world's first "water-exporting country" when it signed a 1986 treaty with its powerful neighbor. An elaborate network of dams and tunnels now carries water to Johannesburg, the subcontinent's water-stressed economic epicenter. Hopes that receipts from water sales could improve Lesotho's fortunes, however, have clashed with fears that soil erosion from overgrazing livestock could fill its reservoirs with sediment. In this wide-ranging and deeply researched book, Colin Hoag shows how producing water commodities incites a fluvial imagination. Engineering water security for urban South Africa draws attention ever further into Lesotho's rural upstream catchments: from reservoirs to the soils and vegetation above them, and even to the social lives of herders at remote livestock posts. As we enter our planet's water-export era, Lesotho exposes the possibilities and perils ahead.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780520386358
Publisher:	University of California Press
Publication date:	11/08/2022
Series:	Critical Environments: Nature, Science, and Politics , #12
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	236
File size:	10 MB

About the Author

Colin Hoag is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Smith College.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

1 Water Production 27

2 The Soil Problem 44

3 The Soil Solution 63

4 Bureaucratic Ecology 80

5 Livestock Production 100

6 Negative Ecology 120

Conclusion 141

Notes 147

Acknowledgments 177

Works Cited 183

Index 211

Editorial Reviews

"Overall, the  book  was  a  fascinating  read  and  source  of  discussion in our classroom. An approach to constructing an ethnography  of  a  landscape  spoke  to  the  issues  of  environmental change in the Anthropocene so central to our current crisis."

African Journal of Range and Forage Science

"The book is enjoyable to read and the argument is clear and easy to follow, with little jargon or theory to get in the way of the non-anthropologist reader."

Journal of Environmental Anthropology and the Interpretation of Landscapes

Encourages a deeper understanding of the complex interrelations of history, community practices, and environmental governance.”

Anthropology Book Forum

"The work of Colin Hoag is an outstanding work of political ecology and environmental humanities. All the chapters demonstrate his capacity to consider both the broader context (analyzing the history of Lesotho and using socio-economic data, particularly those linked to pastoralism) and the local perspective (through ethnographic approach and in-depth analysis of discourses and landscape)."
 

Water Alternatives Book Review

"The Fluvial Imagination is an ethnographic project that speaks to cultural anthropologists concerned with environment, economy, and governance, as well as ecologists interested in better understanding sociopolitical drivers of environmental change. This is a self-consciously interdisciplinary book (in fact, Hoag gained training in biology along the way), one that serves as a useful example for fellow cultural anthropologists aiming to write to broader audiences."
 

American Ethnologist