Daanish Mustafa | King's College London (original) (raw)

Papers by Daanish Mustafa

The case study was undertaken in the arid highland ecosystems of the Balochistan province of Paki... more The case study was undertaken in the arid highland ecosystems of the Balochistan province of Pakistan. The purpose of the case study is to provide an ‘evidence-based story ’ to illustrate changes in impacts and opportunities in the Pishin-Quetta-Mastung corridor, in the context of a social, technological and institutional transition described as desakota in this report (Figure 1). The focus in this case study, as in the overall report is on delivery/management of water-based ecosystem services and livelihood/poverty patterns. The fulcrum of our narrative will be the ongoing transition in groundwater tapping technologies (from the ancient karez (qanat) system to tubewells) and the associated social, institutional and environmental changes. The impending climate change and associated scenarios provide the context within which, the ongoing trends must be interpreted. Towards that end, also included is a brief outline and review of the possible meso scale scenarios for the region. The c...

Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space, 2021

We use case studies of the Diné in the United States of America, and the Musahar people in Nepal,... more We use case studies of the Diné in the United States of America, and the Musahar people in Nepal, to understand how indigeneity is enacted in relation to the developmental and conservationist impulses of the dominant American and Nepalese states. We mobilize the concept of ‘waterscapes’ as assemblages of practices, technologies, emotions and worldviews, to unpack how geographical scales are produced and contested through symbolic and material practices. We find that the Diné of the Navajo Nation have socially differentiated engagement with the techno-legal assemblages embedded in the US Western water law and the water development infrastructure, e.g. the Glen Canyon Dam, that enables the tourism economy. The Musahar people, much like the Diné, have been excluded from their customary livelihoods as global-scale conservation was enacted in their waterscapes through techno-legal assemblages including the Chitwan National Park and water development and conservation policies for the Nara...

World Water Resources, 2021

The country of Jordan is characterized by severe water scarcity and deficient public water supply... more The country of Jordan is characterized by severe water scarcity and deficient public water supply networks. To address these issues, Jordan’s water sector authorities have adopted a water rationing scheme implemented by interrupting piped water supply for several days per week. As in many arid countries around the world, this has led to the emergence of private markets of small-scale providers, delivering water via tanker trucks. On the one hand, these markets play a crucial role in meeting residential and commercial water demands by balancing the shortcomings of the public supply system. On the other hand, providers partially rely on illegal abstractions from rural ground and surface water sources, thereby circumventing regulatory efforts to conserve these resources.

Water alternatives, 2018

Water tankers and private wells along with the municipal piped water system have become an import... more Water tankers and private wells along with the municipal piped water system have become an important feature of the techno-social assemblage of water supply in Amman, Jordan. The article takes a theoretically hybrid approach aimed at generating a conversation between actor-network theory (ANT) and the critical-realist and political-economic approaches. We undertake both ANT-inspired and then social-structural analysis of the geography of access to water in Amman. The ANT-based analysis of 'things' like tankers, wells, pipes and pumps draws attention to their relational agency in enabling or constraining access to water. The structural analyses remind us of the enduring class-, genderand geopolitically based power relations that provide the context for the technologies, or things, to work. The key argument is that ANT is useful as a meso-level framework, which may enrich structuralist narratives on geographies of access to water. Specifically, in the case of Amman, Jordan, th...

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2021

Significance Jordan is facing an unfolding water crisis, exacerbated by climate change and confli... more Significance Jordan is facing an unfolding water crisis, exacerbated by climate change and conflict-induced refugee influxes. We present a freshwater security analysis for the country, enabled by an integrated systems model that combines simulation of Jordan’s natural and built water environment with thousands of representative human agents determining water allocation and use decisions. Our analysis points to severe, potentially destabilizing, declines in Jordan’s freshwater security. Without intervening measures, over 90% of Jordan’s low-income population will be experiencing critical water insecurity by the end of the century. To gain a foothold on its water future, Jordan must enact an ambitious portfolio of interventions that span supply- and demand-side measures, including large-scale desalinization and comprehensive water-sector reform.

The Hindu Kush Himalaya Assessment, 2019

Water, 2020

Water resource geography has undergone a considerable transformation since its original moorings ... more Water resource geography has undergone a considerable transformation since its original moorings in engineering and the pure sciences. As this Special Issue demonstrates, many intellectual and practical gains are being made through a politicized practice of water scholarship. This work by geographers integrates a critical social scientific perspective on agency, power relations, method and most importantly the affective/emotional aspects of water with profound familiarity and expertise across sub-disciplines and regions. Here, the ‘critical’ aspects of water resource geography imply anti-positivist epistemologies pressed into the service of contributing to social justice and liberation from water-related political and material struggles. The five papers making up this Special Issue address these substantive and theoretical concerns across South and West Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa and North America.

Progress in Human Geography, 2020

This article conceptualises a mode of geopolitical ‘action’ based on the writings of Hannah Arend... more This article conceptualises a mode of geopolitical ‘action’ based on the writings of Hannah Arendt. It does so to issue challenges to a hegemonic ‘artificial’ geopolitics characterised by the logics of ‘work’, and the material relations mistrusted by Arendt, which has marginalised ‘action’ as a basis for politics. While recognising that action and work are entwined, we draw attention to action-based geopolitical alternatives and the possibilities for new geopolitical publics to emerge which may defend speech, deeds and the places of human lives against the depredations of a geopolitics steeped in the material.

Urban Studies, 2019

This article provides new insights into the politics of water provisioning in Karachi’s informal ... more This article provides new insights into the politics of water provisioning in Karachi’s informal settlements, where water shortages and contaminations have pushed ordinary citizens to live on the knife edge of water scarcity. We turn our attention to the everyday practices that involve gendered insecurities of water in Karachi, which has been Pakistan’s security laboratory for decades. We explore four shifting security logics that strongly contribute to the crisis of water provisioning at the neighbourhood level and highlight an emergent landscape of ‘securitised water’. Gender maps the antagonisms between these security logics, so we discuss the impacts on ordinary women and men as they experience chronic water shortages. In Karachi, a patriarchal stereotype of the militant or terrorist-controlled water supply is wielded with the aim of upholding statist national security concerns that undermine women’s and men’s daily security in water provisioning whereby everyday issues of risk ...

Political Geography, 2019

This scoping study is part of a larger project entitled ‘Gender and Violence in Urban Pakistan’. ... more This scoping study is part of a larger project entitled ‘Gender and Violence in Urban Pakistan’. The project, from which this scoping study is drawn, focuses on the material and discursive drivers of gender roles and their relevance to configuring violent geographies specifically among urban working class neighborhoods of Karachi and the twin cities of Rawalpindi/Islamabad. The researchers’ concern is primarily to investigate how frustrated gendered expectations may be complicit in driving different types of violence and how they may be tackled by addressing first, the material aspects of gender roles through improved access to public services and opportunities, and second, discursive aspects of gender roles in terms of public education and media. This scoping study has both summative and formative elements. Particularly, it contributes to our knowledge about representations of violence and gender in the media, NGOs role and discourse and the impacts of urbanization on Karachi. It a...

Third World Quarterly, 2013

ABSTRACT Pakistan is the fastest urbanising country in South Asia, and the world’s sixth most pop... more ABSTRACT Pakistan is the fastest urbanising country in South Asia, and the world’s sixth most populous country, with a projected population of 335 million by 2050, and an annual urbanisation rate of 3.06%. Simultaneously it is undergoing a demographic transition to a youthful country and is experiencing the growth of rapidly expanding primary (megacities, like Karachi) and secondary (smaller towns) urban centres as a result of rural–urban migrations. This paper uses refereed literature and expert interviews to explore the drivers of urbanisation, and the social and, particularly, political consequences and potential impacts the phenomenon in Pakistan. Focusing on the impact of urbanisation on electoral politics, one predicted key driver of change will be the ability of politicians to satisfy the younger, more educated population’s desire for improved public services, employment and social justice.

International Journal of Water Resources Development, 2000

... Perspective. Authors: Wescoat JR JL 1 ; Halvorson SJ 2 ; Mustafa D. 1. ... Related content: I... more ... Perspective. Authors: Wescoat JR JL 1 ; Halvorson SJ 2 ; Mustafa D. 1. ... Related content: In this: publication; By this: publisher; In this Subject: Anatomy & Physiology , Business; By this author: Wescoat JR JL ; Halvorson SJ ; Mustafa D. You ...

Interdisciplinary Environmental Review, 2007

Environmental Conservation, 2002

... Water Management in Islam EDITED BY NASER I. FARUQUI, ASIT K. BISWAS AND MURAD J. BINO xxiv +... more ... Water Management in Islam EDITED BY NASER I. FARUQUI, ASIT K. BISWAS AND MURAD J. BINO xxiv + 149 pp., no figs., ISBN 92 808 1036 7 paperback, US$ 19.95/GB£ 14.75, Tokyo, Japan: United Nations University Press, 2001. Daanish Mustafa (2002) Environmental ...

Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space, 2021

World Water Resources, 2021

Water alternatives, 2018

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2021

The Hindu Kush Himalaya Assessment, 2019

Water, 2020

Progress in Human Geography, 2020

Urban Studies, 2019

Political Geography, 2019

Third World Quarterly, 2013

International Journal of Water Resources Development, 2000

Interdisciplinary Environmental Review, 2007

Environmental Conservation, 2002

UNDERSTANDING PAKISTAN'S WATER-SECURITY NEXUS, 2013

Pakistan, a semiarid region and a primarily agricultural economy, is facing declining water avail... more Pakistan, a semiarid region and a primarily agricultural economy, is facing declining water
availability and quality, growing water pollution, and overall environmental insecurity. Th is
situation, coupled with institutional, operational, and governance failures, is fostering
domestic discord.
■ Th e water confl ict has both historical roots and emerging dynamics.
■ Water scarcity, fl oods, droughts, and domestic mismanagement can embitter interethnic
relations and prompt political tension, which can in turn lead to violence.
■ Understanding water availability, allocation mechanisms, and demand is critical to understanding national management challenges and security threats.
■ A common response to the data on water supply and demand is to put it in the context of
population growth. However, the greater issue concerns the politics of distribution, allocation, and access.
■ Rapid urbanization, intersectoral competition, and a growing industrial infrastructure will
increase the need both for water and for development of new water infrastructures.
■ Climate change forecasts may seem like an antidote to water scarcity but may not have the
same implications for water security—that is, human and socioeconomic security.
■ Varying perceptions of water and security among stakeholders and decision makers are
preventing viable solutions for eff ective water resource management.
■ Th e current policy approach is oriented in supply-side interventions, and the overall ethos
favors engineering megaprojects, a bias refl ected in policy and in donor appeals. Th is
approach only veils the problem of water use ineffi ciencies.
■ Water stress should not be the tipping point but rather a means to promote social harmony,
environmental sustainability, and national unity. Eff ective management can only come
from domestic reform, and dependence on foreign aid will not render lasting solutions.
■ It is crucial that the government invest greater political capital to regulate water competition and provide quality water services to all communities. Conservation will prove key

This report is the final output of the Safe and Inclusive Cities Programme (SAIC) pr... more This report is the final output of the Safe and Inclusive Cities Programme (SAIC) project entitled
‘Gender and Violence in Urban Pakistan’. The project has focused on the material and discursive
drivers of gender roles and their relevance to configuring violent geographies specifically among 12
urban working class neighborhoods of Karachi and Rawalpindi-Islamabad. This project has
investigated how frustrated gendered expectations may be complicit in driving different types of
violence and how they may be tackled by addressing first, the material aspects of gender roles
through improved access to public services and opportunities, and second, discursive aspects of
gender roles in terms of public education and media. This report's findings are based upon
approximately two thousand four hundred questionnaire surveys, close to sixty ethnographic style
interviews, participant observations, participatory photographic surveys, media monitoring,
secondary literature review and some key informant interviews. The findings overwhelmingly point
towards access to services and vulnerability profiles of households as major drivers of violence, as
they intersect with discourses surrounding masculinities, femininities and sexualities. The core
discussions and analysis in this final report are anchored in the following four themes: vulnerabilities,
mobilities, access to services, and violence. This was a multi-method research project and each of the
methods was chosen to address specific types of data relevant to the specific research questions.

PeaceWorks, 2017

This report reviews the evidence for, and politics around, water-related conflict at local, provi... more This report reviews the evidence for, and politics around, water-related conflict at local, provincial, and interprovincial scales in Pakistan. Drawing on interviews with decision makers and communities at the provincial, municipal, and village watercourse levels, it provides insights into drivers of conflict over water; shows how water is used as a weapon in already existing conflicts; and suggests technical, institutional, and political changes that could help Pakistan negotiate its water-related conflicts.

. Handcuffed to History: Narratives, Pathologies and Violence in South Asia, 2000

Kashmir is important to both India and Pakistan for perfecting their sense of nationhood. But alo... more Kashmir is important to both India and Pakistan for perfecting their sense of nationhood. But along the way, Kashmiri subjectivities get occluded by the nationalistic and cultural projections by both India and Pakistan on to Kashmir. Kashmir is not a Tabula Rasa upon which either one of the countries or the world can inscribe their national narratives. Drawing upon Nehru's characterization of Kashmir, we argue that it has been constructed as a feminine in the dominant cultural and political imaginary. It is essential for the Kashmiris (a contested and contingent category in itself) to contest these very characterizations of themselves through non-violent non-cooperation.

This paper reflects critically on the results of a vulnerability assessment process at the househ... more This paper reflects critically on the results of a vulnerability assessment process at the household and community scale using a quantitative vulnerabilities and capacities index. It validates a methodology for a social vulnerability assessment at the local scale in 62 villages across four agro-ecological/livelihood zones in Sindh Province, Pakistan. The study finds that the move from vulnerability narratives to numbers improves the comparability and communicational strength of the concept. The depth and nuance of vulnerability, however, can be realised only by a return to narrative. Caution is needed, therefore: the index can be used in conjunction with qualitative assessments, but not instead of them. More substantively, the results show that vulnerability is more a function of historico-political economic factors and cultural ethos than any biophysical changes wrought by climate. The emerging gendered vulnerability picture revealed extremes of poverty and a lack of capacity to cope with contemporary environmental and social stresses.