Detroit Water Brigade

= " a group of volunteer advocates and activists which ...supplies ... local residents, ... to homes subject to sudden shutoffs". [1]

URL = http://detroitwaterbrigade.org/

Description

Anne Pasek:

"In contrast to OSE, we might look at the Detroit Water Brigade, a group of volunteer advocates and activists which, over the past year, has crowdfunded the receipt of bulk amounts of water and water filtration supplies for local residents, distributing them to homes subject to sudden shutoffs. Detroit citizens are also rumored to be sharing knowledge on alternative ways to retain access to the civic grid, pouring concrete over water mains to keep lines open and trafficking in municipal keys to restore water when it has been turned off. Rather than relying on security through self-autonomy or generic solutions to specific cases, such actions in Detroit are made possible by the collective mobilization of advocates within and against larger infrastructural systems. While the Water Brigade’s larger goals include the creation of citizen-led eco-villages and decentralized rainwater collection systems, their pragmatic orientation to technology and highly local focus are much closer than OSE in enacting any kind of liberation. This suggests that collective control over infrastructure is equally as important, if not more so, than access to tools." (https://modelviewculture.com/pieces/tripping-over-our-bootstraps-open-source-ecology-and-the-promise-of-liberational-technology)