Bates Hagood
Water, Please

Cities move many resources around as they seek to meet the needs
of populations. Water is one of the most important. Many societies have
developed unique relationships to water, but in the United States, that dynamic
can be strained. While there are many reasons for this, this thesis is most
interested in the issues of accessibility and the public conception of
value created by separating public and private modes of engagement with
water.

These issues are particularly pressing in Savannah, Georgia,
where this work is situated. A historic port city in a critical marshlands
ecosystem, the city and its people are deeply tied to the water. However, when
it comes to the public face of water, Savannah faces the same challenges as
other American cities; much of the infrastructure individuals interact with -
toilets, sinks, showers, and drinking taps - has been largely
privatized. This is, in effect, a tax on the dweller of public space to
access necessary water infrastructure. In a city with high poverty rates and a
robust tourism sector, this represents both a failure to provide services to
residents in need, and a missed opportunity to engage with, educate, and make
better tourists.

In response, this work seeks to reorient the public relationship
with water by closing that gap and achieving three primary goals: providing a
necessary utility in public places, educating populations about the local,
regional, and national issues around water, and reclaiming civic spaces, whose
water has been cut off by private interests, for public recreation. By shifting
paradigms, we can change our perception of water from one of pure utility,
invisibly provided by private markets to those who can afford it, to one that
views water as a fundamental component of life, and seeks to celebrate that
attitude in its infrastructure and distribution systems.