After Water: The Infrastructure and Politics of Desalination in Kuwait

Abstract

This research examines the role of desalination in the process of urbanization. The focus of the investigation is Kuwait, a country situated within a region containing some of the highest levels of water stress and per capita consumption around the world. The aim is to reveal the spatialization of desalination infrastructure, its underlying ecological epistemology, and the historic urbanization patterns that it has generated and will continue to perpetuate into the future. In doing so, this research reveals a novel view of water politics that is less focused on crisis and scarcity to instead examine the spatial practices that inform water management and consumption from the extraction of salt water to the metabolism of potable water in everyday household use.