Paper short abstract:

This paper will explore multiple, fragmented, and often contradictory practices surrounding water use inside people’s homes and in their wider community in urban Romania.

Paper long abstract:

This paper will explore multiple, fragmented, and often contradictory practices surrounding (warm and cold) water consumption inside people's homes and in their wider community in Romania. It forms part of a larger research project that expands upon current anthropological debates in architecture, ecology and economic anthropology in order to examine how rapidly changing everyday life impacts on domestic energy consumption in post-soviet cities, but also beyond. Based on long term participant observation and innovative visual methodologies, I will focus on the role various social actors play in the circulation and use of water in a block of flats in Piatra Neamt, Romania. In most urban buildings, the inhabitants calculate their warm and cold water consumption themselves, and report to the building administrator with a number which is often untruthful, resulting in a huge difference between the reported amount and the total consumption. This considered, I will focus on the everyday practices of water consumption in some of these apartments, and relate them to the larger material and social discourses concerning water use in post-socialism. My findings so far highlight the importance of increased water price in shaping Romanians' attitude towards water saving practices. I will conclude with a discussion about the institutional framework of the regional water company in Piatra-Neamt (and how it contributed to rocketing prices) and about the subsequent politics of the entire water cycle, from extraction to use.