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Society for Cultural Anthropology
Oral Presentation Session
E. Christian Wells
University of South Florida
Cori Bender (University of South Florida)
W. Alex Webb (University of South Florida)
Christine M. Prouty (University of South Florida)
Maya A. Trotz (University of South Florida)
Rebecca K. Zarger (University of South Florida)
Linda M. Whiteford (University of South Florida)
James R. Mihelcic (University of South Florida)
Residents of southern Belize have been waiting for a centralized wastewater management system for nearly a decade. Local residents identified the system as a critical need following the 2001 devastation caused by Hurricane Iris. The national government agreed and, in 2011, identified the system as a top priority and dedicated $25 million to the WASH (water, sanitation, and hygiene) project. However, delays in planning, often mired in controversies about decision-making and access created an infrastructural time-warp influencing local responses to this and other environmental challenges. At the same time, residents of St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands continue to deal with water and energy infrastructure loss following 2017’s devastating hurricane season. In the aftermath, conflicting viewpoints emerged on how to cope with the loss while attempting to find ways to “build back better” these infrastructures for the future. In this presentation, we discuss how the potentiality of infrastructure development in both cases shapes experiences and expectations of water and wastewater challenges and how this process creates or perpetuates “infrastructural violence.” Drawing on five years of ethnographic fieldwork in Belize and the USVI, we consider the role of infrastructure potentialities in long-term responses to hurricane disasters. We argue that infrastructure futures in both cases are contested social constructions shaped by local/global politics and diverse environmental worldviews among different stakeholder groups. Understanding the trajectory of such futures is critical for advancing sustainable and equitable infrastructure development following natural disasters as well as for innovating resilient solutions to advancing threats.