NAIROBI
Focus on Nairobi' slums ...
Part 1: inside Kiberia ...
Document 1 -
Document 2 -
Document 3 -
Document 4-
Thirsty city : after months of water rationing Nairoby may run dry.
The rains have been poor while demand for water grows along with the city- there are solutions but they will mean radical action.
For the team managing Nairobi’s water, the stakes have never been so high. Water-rationing has been going on in Kenya’s capital since 1 January, and supplies might run dry by September. The last two rainy seasons were dismal ; more rain is not expected until October and cannot be counted on.
For the city’s 3.4 million residents, the possibility of the entire city running dry is so beyond their control that most bat the thought away and soldier on, storing water in jerry cans when taps flow. But the problem is getting harder to ignore. On 14 July, Nairobi City County declared a cholera outbreak, citing among causes « irregular supply of potable water ». How bad might this get ?
« At the end of every rainy season I have excess water, but this year no, we’re only 37% full », says Job Kihamba, who manages Ndakaini, the storage dam that traps three rivers that flow down from the Aberdare mountain range and releases the water in the dry season. The Ndakaini-Ng’ethu system accounts for 85% of Nairobi’s water ; every day the engineer measures what comes in, what leaves, and the safety of the dam wall.
For the last 12 months water has been short. The rains in october-December 2016 delivered just 268mm of water compared to about 700mm expected from rainfall patterns in recent years. Then the March-May rains this year were late. (…).
Source: The Guardian, July 2017.
Document 5- Inside Kiberia (video)
Part 2 : Dandora dumping site
Dandora dumpsite’s days as eyesore are numbered (décembre 2016)
Any mention of solid waste in cities such as Nairobi conjures up images of huge heaps of garbage. It’s an eyesore many residents want eliminated.
In Dandora, however, thousands of slum dwellers try to earn a living out of the dumpsite by collecting electronics, meat bones, metals, milk bags, plastics and rubber, which are mostly sought after for recycling.
But as they do so, hazardous waste, such as used syringes, endanger the lives of those rummaging through the filth. This is because all manner of garbage from airports, hotels, industries, residential areas and restaurants is dumped here.
Studies have also pointed to the presence of hazardous elements, such as cadmium, lead and mercury. For instance, a study commissioned by the UN Environnemental Programme in 2007 revealed that soil samples collected from the site recorded high levels of lead compared with reference standards in the Netherlands and Taiwan.
Similar findings were reported for other heavy metals. Tests carried out on 328 children and adolescents living and attending school near the dumpsite indicated a significant health pollution, Kimani said, with 154 suffering respiratory problems.
The study sought to emphasise the link between environnemental pollution and public health in an urban setting. Over the last three decades, the public health impacts of environnemental pollution, in particular the burden of disease, have raised increasing concern globally.
(…) Aware of this sad state of affairs, the government has put in place various initiatives to reverse the trend. In the first plan, the government will put up a Sh3 billion state-of-the-art incinerator in partnership with Japan.
(…) The incinerator will be located in the Eastern bypass to help handle some of the hazardous garbage. Richard Mwendandu (…) said waste that mostly contains mercury will be given priority. (…)
Source : The Star (Kenyan newspaper), 7 December 2016.
http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/2016/12/07/dandora-dumpsites-days-as-eyesore-are-numbered_c1465409
Nairobi churns out 3,000 tonnes of rubbish daily, City Hall overwhelmed
The city of Nairobi is sitting on a monumental garbage problem, and that crisis is beginning to stink to high heavens. City Hall, which is in charge of Nairobi’s cleanliness, calls the current state of affairs « abnormal » while environmental experts call it « a hazard ».
(…) Never in the history of Nairobi, even when it was at its lowest ebb, have the alleyways and back streets of the CBD been turned into dumping sites.
There is a reason, though, for the current crisis : the Dandora dumpsite is full to capacity.
The National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) has condemned it.
City Hall agrees with that verdict, but there is nowhere else to dump the city’s ever-growing mountains of garbage.
The fall-back plan was the Ruai dumpsite in the outskirts of the city on the road to Kangundo. But the plan was put on hold after experts warned that the site would pose a danger to the aviation industry. This was because the dumpsite is directly beneath the flight path of planes using Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, and the birds that would naturally be attracted to the site would become a safety risk.
In effect, this means that, for now, Nairobi is stuck with a dumpsite that is well past its sell-by date. Scientists (…) have agreed that Dandora has reached its maximum shelf-life of 14 years, and that as a consequence it has now become a major health threat to residents.
What is even more tragic for the city is the fact that this problem has been staring it in the eye for months but no one seemed to notice.
Nairobi only erupted in a chorus of condemnation when the rain came. The tropical sun’s heat cooked the El-Nino rains-drenched garbage heaps all over the city into one putrid mess. Then everyone noticed something was amiss.
The rains also made the single lane directing trucks to the only accessible corner of Dandora dumpsite a muddy mess, and contractors stopped ferrying waste to the site. Indeed, they started dumping it at undesignated areas, including Juja Road and Eastleigh.
(…) It is estimated that over 3,000 tonnes of waste is generated daily in Nairobi, and City Hall officials say they do not have the capacity to collect and dispose of it properly. Even when it is ferried to Dandora, it is not properly treated. (…)
Source: Daily Nation (Kenyan newspaper), January 2016.
Part 3: Nairobi, emerging metropolis?
Document 1 -
The 'Global City Index' is a ranking of the most powerful cities based on business activity, information exchanges, human capital, cultural experience & political engagement.
Document 2-
a)
b)
c)
Document 3 -
Document 4 -
