A River Runs Through It…
Nairobi River and Urbanization
A river runs through the city of Nairobi, but oftentimes we forget that it’s there. As we move along our lives in this fast paced, rapidly growing African city, we are propelled by other forces, modernization, commerce, innovation, all the hallmarks of a city which has tripled in size over 18 years to about 4 million people in 2020. Many of them are aspirational middle class entrepreneurs and yet more are simply ‘hustling’ in the informal sector, the masses of “jua kali” day labourers descending into the city centre in the mornings and rushing out at night after a hard day’s work.
Nairobi is the capital city of Kenya and a gateway to the East African region, which has a combined population of 150 million and was among the fastest growing global economies, with around 5.7% GDP growth against 3.5%, before the coronavirus pandemic slowed down growth. It’s a city like many others in the region and yet in some ways, it’s quite different, being unique in it’s beauty and singular in it’s particular struggles.
Built around a colonial structure for cities, the streets were narrow and housing development zoned, largely intent on filtering out the poor and segregating the working class migrant workers. Yet today, as the city grows to fulfill the 21st century needs of ordinary citizens, housing developments have rapidly expanded, but they are often poorly planned or built on unsuitable foundations, such as riparian land. This has transformed the city above ground into a dynamic, seemingly upwardly mobile city, despite the fact that over 60% of Nairobi’s resident live in slums. The attendant cost on the natural environment has been increasing damage to fragile ecosystems, encroachment of urban and widespread pollution of the river itself, that iconic resource which gave the city it’s name — Nairobi from the Maasai phrase Enkare Nyirobi, which translates to “the place of cool waters.”
Climate change and urbanization are also heating up the city, the maximum temperatures have risen significantly over the years, due to heat generation by the urban population, a phenomenon known as Urban Heat Island (UHI), which alters the microclimate and impedes the greening of the city, as well as causing flooding, decreased water supply and public health challenges.
Perspectives of a Cultural Anthropologist
Earlier this month, we invited the respected cultural anthropologist Professor Bettina Ng’weno, University of California, Davis, to share her perspective on how the city navigates and balances these complex challenges. Listen to the full conversation on the NAWE Podcast Earth Reflections. https://nawe.group/podcast-earth-reflections/
Professor Ng’weno is a cultural anthropologist who is currently writing a book called “Growing Old in a New City” which includes a chapter on the pressures of urbanization and climate change on Nairobi river and how this has added new fault lines to the city landscape and exacerbated existing inequalities.
The key messages for me from that short but riveting conversation were:
1. We need more Hydrologically Just Cities
These are cities which consider how different landscapes around the city are interlinked. So that in a city like Nairobi, where the richer neighborhoods are often on the hills, it’s important to consider how they may affect the water flow, so that poorer settlements, usually down the hill, don’t suffer environmental problems such as floods and water pollution.
2. We need to apply a cultural lens to building resilient cities
Building resilient cities requires a big frame of thinking about the entire catchment zone of a city. And that catchment zone is a sociological one, as well as an ecological one and hydrological one.
3. Citizens must be more actively involved in designing inclusive cities.
We often complain that African cities are not planned, yet no city can be built without some level of planning. Therefore the problem is not that we don’t plan, it’s just that it’s not the plan we want. In Nairobi, there is a clear mission and vision up to 2030 and beyond, but that vision is really of a neoliberal city. All across Africa there’s been an anti-urbanism, which sees the peasant farmer as good and the city dweller as a problem. Therefore the city is planned for political reasons, not for how we want to live in the city.
“ This notion that our real home is in the countryside and new African should not be in the city is so destructive to any kinds of thought about planning. As a government policy, whether it’s part of Africa, or Kenya, or Tanzania, or Nigeria or Ghana, there’s been this idea that you can’t trust the city person.
And I think part of that mistrust comes from the fact that in cities such as Nairobi are often the most diverse places. In Kenya i’s where people are the least likely to vote for whoever is in power, regardless of who they are. They are also the most wealthy and often the youngest. And all of those things, oddly enough, are seen as negatives…..diversity. Diverse political views, youth and wealth. And so that’s an interesting combination of what most cities are and that’s why politically they usually rub against the people in power.”
However these challenges of striving to achieving inclusive economic growth, without destroying the natural environment are global challenges. Kenya’s Vision 2030 has stated that it aims to transition to a “newly-industrializing, middle-income country providing a high quality of life to all its citizens in a clean and secure environment.” But it must also achieve SDG goals 11 “Making cities sustainable means creating career and business opportunities, safe and affordable housing, and building resilient societies and economies”. And this involves investment in public transport, creating green public spaces, and improving urban planning and management in participatory and inclusive ways.”
The phrase that struck me the most from our conversation with Bettina was that water is the one thing that connects us all. It brings life but it also carries the problems from it’s source and tributaries along the way. It’s almost a metaphor for our lives, struggling and looking for spaces to flow freely and realise our own dreams and ambitions, just like Nairobi River is trying to do.
References: Ndolo, I J., N. J. muthama, C. Oludhe, J. K. Ng’ang’a and R. S. Odingo, 2018: Influence of Urbanization on Minimum and Maximum Temperatures characteristics over Nairobi City. J. Clim. Chang. Sustain. Vol. 1. Issue 2, pp 73–81
