Understanding everyday water experiences through flows: A feminist political ecology take on household metabolism

At a time of growing threats to global freshwater availability, urban water supply is becoming increasingly challenging, affecting water security for urban populations. Alternative water sources, technologies, and supply methods are employed to complement dwindling continental water sources and guarantee the human right to water. However, the related research reports that such solutions can exacerbate inequalities and jeopardise water security for the most vulnerable groups. There is therefore a need to delve into household dynamics and practices in order to detect the drawbacks of the water supply solutions implemented as part of sociotechnical transitions or climate change adaptation measures. The present article contributes by proposing a flexible framework for evaluating household water dynamics and everyday experiences based on the urban metabolism metaphor and enriched with feminist political ecology and critical literature on water security. The framework builds upon typical water balance accounts and is supplemented with information on (a) the source, price, continuity and pressure of all types of water consumed domestically; (b) the consumer’s relationship with water, that is, whether people trust each water source, whether they accept its organoleptic characteristics (flavor, odor, and transparency), and whether they fear that consuming water may have negative health impacts; and (c) the actions that people employ to improve tap water quality for drinking, thus allowing the calculation of indirect costs and impacts associated with inadequate water quality. Results indicate that lower-income households metabolise water of lower quality and do so more slowly than high-income households. Furthermore, the actions they take to improve water quality involve more effort, higher monetary costs, additional energy consumption, and greater health impacts compared to higher-income groups.