TY - JOUR
T1 - Repositioning the Shire Valley Project - Part 1
T2 - Regulating an unruly nature
AU - Welsh, Marc
N1 - Part 1 of a short paper provided for the Society of Malawi in recognition of their support before and during field work in Malawi in 2008. Such papers are written for a 'general reader' and those with an interest in the region.
PY - 2013
Y1 - 2013
N2 - The Shire Valley Project (SVP) was an integrated macro-development programme that ambitiously aimed: to regulate the level of Lake Malawi, to capture the hydro-electric potential of the Shire River and to open up and irrigate a vast tract of the Lower Shire Valley. In this paper I explore how a state rationale oriented around the regulation of nature emerged in the 1940s as an ongoing response to a dynamic hydrological system. I argue for a reconsideration of the Shire Valley Project (SVP) as a centre-piece of colonial and post-colonial development planning. Implemented piecemeal the SVP was partially successful in achieving (sometimes) incompatible objectives. The underlying governmental rationale of seeking to regulate hydrology to make waters and land productive in a globalising economic system persists to the modern period.
AB - The Shire Valley Project (SVP) was an integrated macro-development programme that ambitiously aimed: to regulate the level of Lake Malawi, to capture the hydro-electric potential of the Shire River and to open up and irrigate a vast tract of the Lower Shire Valley. In this paper I explore how a state rationale oriented around the regulation of nature emerged in the 1940s as an ongoing response to a dynamic hydrological system. I argue for a reconsideration of the Shire Valley Project (SVP) as a centre-piece of colonial and post-colonial development planning. Implemented piecemeal the SVP was partially successful in achieving (sometimes) incompatible objectives. The underlying governmental rationale of seeking to regulate hydrology to make waters and land productive in a globalising economic system persists to the modern period.
UR - http://hdl.handle.net/2160/35911
M3 - Article
SN - 0037-993X
VL - 66
SP - 51
EP - 60
JO - The Society of Malawi Journal
JF - The Society of Malawi Journal
IS - 2
ER -