The Transaqua Project: Narrative and Constructivist Analysis ; Le projet Transaqua : cadre narratif et lecture constructiviste

Abstract

International audience This article sets out to explain why the narrative of the Transaqua project should be understood prior to any analysis and why it is appropriate to think this initiative in terms of the constructivist approach to international relations. For several decades, the issue of the rescue of Lake Chad by the waters of the Congo has dominated both the African regional universe and the international chronicle. It is also the backdrop for several scientific publications covering various fields. In International Relations, the issue has been explored more under the anchor of classical theoretical approaches. Very little research has attempted to address the initiative according to the analytical logics of critical theoretical approaches such as constructivismwhich is powerful for its multi-causal explanation of social phenomena, its emphasis on social context, intersubjective arrangements, the social construction of national interest and the constitutive nature of initiatives and actors. When we try to comb through the existing literature on the issue of mega water transfer projects such as Transaqua, we cannot help but notice that much of the literature on the politics of large-scale water infrastructure is centred on classical theoretical schemes enshrining the centrality of the state, the West, urban development and even urban modernism [1]-[6]. Too often, case studies have focused on river bodies, transboundary basins, shared basins, shared water resources…in developing countries [7]. These approaches focus on issues of territorialisation of governmental power, legitimisation of state power, nationalisation, sovereignty and other forms of political competence [8]-[10]. With the inter-basin transfer to Lake Chad, social scientists have focused more on 'hydropolitical' analysis, such as Magrin's [11] political-ecological research on Lake Chad. Of course, Magrin sees the inter-basin transfer of water to restore the mythical disappearance of the lake as being motivated by various political interests. ...