‘Too Little, Too Much, Too Dirty’: The Evolution of Water Risk Governance Networks in the Intermediate City Of Guwahati, India

The Global South’s small and medium cities are set to grow more than twice as fast as its large cities. The water risks emerging from this rapid urban growth, and increasing climatic uncertainty are challenging – especially as the human resources needed to respond to such risks are often spread thin and weakly coordinated. Understanding the evolving nature of how growing water risks are governed is crucial to inform urban plans that are inclusive of the physical risks, vulnerabilities, and local governance challenges. Guwahati, India, is a medium-sized city in the Global South which serves as a window to understand evolving trends in urban water risk governance. To explore how and why governance structures change for water risks within Guwahati, we draw on network governance theory and map evolving governance networks via social network analysis. The data is based on interactions from local newspaper over 50 years, plus interviews and policy documents. We assess, interrelated urban water risks: inadequate water supplies; urban floods; and river pollution. We find that despite growing diversity of actors and attention given to the three risks, the actors who make the most important decisions (such as, resource allocation and infrastructure) have not changed much since 1970. However, since 2000, there is an increase in the role played by local and international civil society in bringing accountability and attention to the lived experiences of water risks. These empirically mapped dynamics demonstrate the ongoing challenges and shifts between centralized and decentralized modes of urban water risk governance.