Urbanization, Water and Ecosystems inSelected African Cities

Associate Professor &

Coordinator, Education for Sustainable Development in Africa (Sustainable

Urban Development) Programme

Department of Geography & Environmental Studies

University of Nairobi, P.O. Box 30197 00100, Nairobi, Kenya

Urbanization, Water and Ecosystems in Selected African Cities

David N. Mungai, Ph.D.Associate Professor &Coordinator, Education for Sustainable Development in Africa (SustainableUrban Development) ProgrammeDepartment of Geography & Environmental Studies

International Continuing Education CourseSustainable Communities

Urban Environmental Management - A Tool for Supporting Sustainability7th-17th June 2012

AIT, Thailand

Presentation outline

• Introduction to the University of Nairobi

• Urban growth rate in Africa

• Urbanization trends in Kenya

• Case studies – Nairobi (Kenya), Yaounde (Cameroon), Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), Port Harcourt (Nigeria), Graahamstown (SA) – see also

• WRM challenges for African Cities

• Need for capacity building

Introducing the University of Nairobi

• Distinguished record in teaching, research, development and consultancy

• Incepted in 1956, as the Royal Technical College.

• Renamed University College, Nairobi in 1964

• Restructured in 1983 with creation of six (6) colleges

Fact fileStudent Population 58,700

Academic Staff-Full Professor-Associate Professor

1500108216

Administrative Staff 4,000

Research kitty Kshs 2 billion

Alumni 120,000

Programmes 517

International links 237

Centres 2

Faculties 3

Institutes 7

Schools 18

Boards 2

Urban growth rate in Africa

• Africa least urbanized – but annual growth rate is

fastest compared to other regions

• Urban population doubled from 205 mi in 1990 to 400

mi in 2010

• Urban population projected to triple to 1.23 mi by

2015

• Proportion urban projected to reach 50% by 2030 and

60% by 2050

Kenya – Urbanization trend

8

Year Kenya

(‘000s)

Urban

(‘000)*

% urban Urban

growth

rate (%)

No of

urban

centres

Nairobi

(‘000s)

Nairobi

growth

rate (%)

Nairobi

% of total

urban

1948 5,406 285 5.2 - 17 119 - 41.7

1962 8,636 671 7.8 6.3 34 227 4.6 33.8

1969 10,942 1,076 9.9 7.1 47 509 12.2 47.0

1979 15,327 2,314 15.1 7.7 91 827 4.9 35.7

1989 21,448 3,864 18.0 5.3 139 1,324 4.7 34.3

1999 28,686 5,360 18.7 3.4 179 2,143 4.8 38.9

2009 38,610 12,487 32.4 -* -* 3,138 3.8 25.1

Urbanization characteristics

• 30% live in informal settlements – 200 of them

• Poverty

• Inadequate watsan facilities and other services

• NMR with 15 urban centres incld. Nbi

9

Slums in Nairobi

30 % of Nairobi population lives on the same surface as the golf courses, 5 %

A section of Kibera informal settlement

Encroachment of railway reserve by informal settlers in Kibera

Challenges of high rate of urbanisation

- Provision of services- Informal settlements- Environmental pollution- Ecosystem degradation- Urban poverty & food insecurity

Urban poverty

Urban food (in)security

Water from inter-basin transfers

• Dry season flows: reduced• Wet season surface runoff: increased•Sediment load: High• Chemical and biological pollutants:

• Heavy metal pollutants (Pb)• High microbial pathogen counts in raw water esp. near town centres

• high water treatment costs

The major sources of water for Nairobi

20

Increasing reliance on groundwater

• 4,800 active boreholes (2010) - for domestic, industrial, livestock & irrigation

• Several “groundater hotspots“ identified –Westlands, Kikuyu triangle, Karen, Ongata Rongai and Thika

• Groundwater abstraction increasing leading to lowering of water levels in some hotspots e.g. Karen area. Water table in some places falling at 0.1 – 0.9 m/yr

Approaches to ensure adequate water

• Create awareness on need to conserve water

• Enforce legal provision on “polluter pays principle”

• Invest in rehabilitation of catchment areas from which the city obtains its water

• Reduce non-revenue water – upgrading water infrastructure, enhance billing system, reduce illegal connections, leaks/bursts

• Encourage CP in industries – to reduce waste/pollution + WUE

Approaches to ensure adequate water –guidelines for groundwater permits

• WRMA has developed guidelines for assessment of applications for groundwater permits

Yaounde (Cameroon)

• Population – 2.2 million people

• Sources of water – Nyong river, springs and hand dug wells

• Both urban and rural catchments degraded

• Habitat changes on slopes due to human settlements – with effects on quantity/quality of water from springs

Yaounde

• Widening gap between water supply and demand

• Inadequate waste management – affects

• Lack of planning in the city’s informal settlements

• Water degradation due to use of agro-chemicals

• Less than 50% city inhabitants have access to piped water

• About 30% have access to piped water in sub-urban areas – supply erratic forcing people to use springs & wells – in proximity to pit latrines

Addis Ababa (Ethiopia)

• Population 3.5 million people

• Water demand > water supply

• City supplied water by four reservoirs – also groundwater is used

• Low coverage of sanitation facilities – 13% have flush toilets; 57% use pit latrines and 30% have no sanitation facilities

• Surface and groundwater polluted by industrial/municipal waste – polluted water used downstream for agriculture + eutrophication

Addis Ababa - responses

• Decentralization of waste management services to lower administration levels

• Development of efficient / equitable service charge collection systems

• Involving communities in sanitation activities

• Sanitary landfills being planned

• City greening activities being conducted

• Rehabilitation of polluted rivers

Port Harcourt (Rivers State, Nigeria)

• Population 1.2 million

• Centre of Nigeria’s oil & gas industry

Most boreholes shallow

– prone to pollution >

waterborne diseases

“honey sucker”

discharging raw

sewage into the

environment

Abattoir

discharging

untreated

wastewater into

the river

Grahamstown (SA)

• Population about 130,000

• Inter-basin water transfers supply water to the town

• Town located in a dry area prone to droughts; and faces possibility of reduced rainfall

• Historical inequities in watsan services delivery between West (white) and East (Black) parts

Grahamstown (SA)

• Town has outdated and unreliable infrastructure

• Inadequate technical capacity of local authority employees

• Regulation, storage & abstraction of water from local rivers disrupts their flow and geographic continuity – which affects riverine biodiversity

Responses

• Working for Water Programme – to remove alien plant species – run-off to dams has increased considerably

• Rainwater harvesting being promoted esp in disadvantaged parts of the town – to provide water for irrigation, cooking & drinking

Challenges for African Cities

• Lack of knowledge about available water resources;

• Weak urban planning;

• Ecosystem degradation;

• Lack of coherence between urban water and other sectors, including environment;

• Inadequate human and financial capacity to ensure efficient management of the resources;

Challenges

• Weak systems for the exchange of information between African countries, as well as with other countries in Europe, America, China etc.

• Weak governance systems, including institutional• Paucity of data, including weak systems for

monitoring, quality control and data sharing.• Lack of political will to play dual role as

enforcement agent and service provider• Proliferation of borehole water access without

adequate monitoring• Old and dilapidated water infrastructure

Challenges

• Poor management of catchments; lack of involvement of cities in catchment management

• Inadequate facilities for wastewater treatment – non-conforming discharge

• Impact of climate change on water resources in catchment area

• Non-use of alternative water sources such as rainwater harvesting

Challenges

• Limited knowledge about impacts of water abstraction and wastewater discharge from cities on ecosystems

• Local authorities focus more on water & sanitation services vis a vis WRM

• To assist cities in Africa to engage more on water resources management

Training on water resources management in a broader context considering ecosystems

Action-oriented research to fill knowledge gaps

Dissemination of technologies e.g. for drinking water, municipal and industrial waste water treatment

Science-policy dialogue to inform policy- and decision-making based on sound science

Need for capacity building

• Develop training materials for target groups –modules

• Establish priority ecosystem services needing research to fill knowledge gaps

Ecosystem services

• Develop research protocols

• Establish baselines

Water demand management

• Rainwater harvesting

• Water recycling

• Unaccounted for water – CP audits of water supply systems

Capacity building......

Knowledge and information management for water demand & ecosystem management

• assessment of density and frequency of relevant measurements

• assess data quality and adequacy

• assess methods of data storage, analysis and retrieval

• assess how data is shared among institutions

• assess how information is generated for planning and decision making

• Develop strategies for better data management for decision making by city planners and water service providers

Capacity building.....

• Dissemination of water treatment and recycling technologies

Baseline studies

Develop options

Evaluation of options

Implementation + training

M&E

Capacity building

• Pilot projects

Development of economic instruments for sustainable watershed management

Development of conjunctive management of groundwater and surface water resources for cities

Determination of degraded or degrading ecosystem services, drivers and impacts

Establish baselines

Develop options and evaluate them (economic, social and environmental sustainability)

Develop effective intervention strategies

Implement the strategies + training

M&E of the management measures

Capacity building......

• Science-Policy Dialogue

Identify and define relevant policy-oriented research themes

Develop a platform for interaction between the science and policy communities

Establish a mechanism to guarantee high quality of advice based on sound science

Develop useful summaries of the state of scientific knowledge relevant to particular policy issues reflecting a scientific consensus or range of scientific opinions

Capacity building......

• Cities more involved in broader water resources management – water resources for cities secured in the long term and impacts on ecosystems and water reduced

• Reduced water demand; and pollution due to adoption of wastewater treatment technologies introduced

• Strategy for data acquisition, management, sharing and information for decision making developed

• Using the hotspot analysis capacity built on ecosystem assessments involving generation of knowledge and turning the knowledge into action

Outputs

• The water service providers reduce the proportion of unaccounted for water thereby increase water available for distribution to consumers as well as improve their revenues

• Appropriate policy responses developed to facilitate greater engagement of cities in broader WRM

Outputs

• Cities – planning, environment, finance departments

• Water service providers

• Water resources management authorities

• Environmental protection agencies

Beneficiaries

Sustainability is about integrating rather than balancing the three Sustainable Development Goals