Turning Water into a Commodity: Digital Innovation and the Private Sector as Development Agent

by Christiane Tristl

Overview

Pay-as-you-go water dispensers are used in many areas in the Global South, particularly those that are ‘off-grid’. This book examines the increasing influence of private corporations and philanthrocapitalist principles in development cooperation in the SDG-era by focusing on water supply to the inhabitants of rural and peri-urban areas of Kenya.

The book explores how private sector approaches and digital technologies open up remote regions to permanent arrangements of transnational market-based water supply beyond state sovereignty, which define their users as paying customers. Considering these technological solutions alongside socio-political realities and local knowledge, it offers a nuanced perspective on the promises and limitations of market-based interventions in the water sector.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781529245486
Publisher:	Bristol University Press
Publication date:	07/31/2025
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	224
File size:	3 MB

Table of Contents

Introduction: PAYGo Water Dispensers and the Sustainable Development Goals

1. Digital Technologies and Private Sector Market Constructions

2. The Private Sector and Market- Based Development

3. From Large-Scale Water Infrastructure to Small- Scale Digital Technologies

4. Innovating PAYGo Water Dispensers

5. Extending Water Supply to Urban ‘Informal’ Areas

6. Disrupting Rural Water Supply

7. More Than Technical Infrastructures of Market-Based Development

8. Transparent Water Data or Multiple Waters?

Conclusion: The Private Sector as Development Agent and Market-Based Development in the Water Sector