Africa's Flooding Cities: Urbanization and the Economics of the Underground

Introduction

From a low base, Africa is today the most rapidly urbanizing region in the world. This article discusses the dilemmas faced by African policymakers as they confront the economically and politically destabilizing process of urbanization, focusing on the emblematic case of flooding in Africa's cities. As elsewhere in the world, urbanization has led to the rapid development of modern and prestigious structures above ground, in response to the transport, housing and business needs of the expanding populations. Viewed from above, African cities are visibly richer and more modern than a few decades ago. However, policy concern for the development of robust structures for sewage, water management and flood control has been less obvious. It would seem that "out of sight” has also meant “out of mind."

Flooding Cities

 In the past decade, floods have become ubiquitous features of the continent's burgeoning cities, even as countries continue to post high levels of economic growth. Cities in Africa are afflicted by the disruptive power of flash floods, and the informality of water, sanitation and sewage systems, and poor planning and inadequate resources to address them. The list of affected cities, too long to present in full here, includes Abidjan, Accra, Dar es Salaam, Durban, Kampala, Lagos, Maputo, Nairobi, and Tunis i.e. the challenge runs across the whole continent.  

National papers in Africa are awash with stories of the havoc that a few hours of heavy rain inflict on transport systems in the central business districts and businesses on the periphery. Equally, they periodically discuss government plans to confront the problem. No parts of the cities are spared from the effects of the incessant floods. Houses of parliament, in once exclusive parts of the cities are inundated, while sophisticated neighborhoods, including the diplomatic quarters on higher ground, are also affected, if by proxy. Floods wash away access roads to residences, as well as official and private vehicles, while sewage and other effluents are left exposed on the streets. Water sources are affected in most parts of the cities and the burden of waterborne diseases has risen markedly. Floods have a perverse equalizing tendency in that they bring economic life to a stop for all and sundry. 

 But the socio-economic impacts on the marginalized households and groups who find subsistence in the informal sector are often devastating. In the slums and at the fringes of the cities, floods tear away at the rude structures, the deluge carrying away beds, pans, and pets i.e. dwellings and sources of livelihood alike. Children swim with abandon in the brown lakes and gushing rivulets in their destroyed neighborhoods. Therefore, while it is broadly acknowledged that cities and urban areas will provide the socio-economic and technological backbone for Africa's transformation, the pervasive floods and their impacts on feeble and ill-prepared plans and structures indicate that there are still serious gaps in the continent's urbanization strategy. They must be addressed if the continent’s ambitious development plans such as those in Africa 2063 are to be realized.

 The Fire Next Time

 Writing about his beloved America, but from a Parisian exile, James Baldwin had entitled one of his books "Fire Next Time" drawing on an old spiritual from the African American community. The people, the spiritual went, had received adequate warning. God had sent them floods and even locusts, which had destroyed their livelihoods, but they had failed to "listen" and mend their ways. The song indicates that the only option left was to raise the level of potential punishment. In the absence of discernible change in behavior, "fire" would be used as the last resort. In similar fashion, it is difficult to see how African cities would continue to prosper by only focusing on vertical infrastructure and paying scant attention to the economics of the underground: water, sewage and flash flood management systems—which are crucial for urban sustainability. As part of the fire next time, many African cities have seen a sharp increase in malaria infections, owing to the greater breeding opportunities for the parasites enabled by stagnant water in urban areas during the rainy season.

 Economics of the Underground 2.0

 Africa's capital cities were relatively small colonial outposts in the 1960s, in otherwise rural settings. By the 2000s they had transformed into megacities with millions of residents, but infrastructure provision has not coped. In spite of the explosion of construction work in African cities, in terms of roads, metro rail systems, bridges and new housing projects, there is less emphasis on water supply, and related underground infrastructures, including drainage, sewerage and sanitation systems. 

In earlier decades, the issues of corruption, and cronyism and informality referred to more broadly as the economics of the underground (1.0), affected cities more severely than other parts of the countries. I would argue that those issues, while not the main causes of the insufficient quality of underground infrastructure (the economics of the ground 2.0) discussed here, have certainly exacerbated the problem. There are many ways in which infrastructure projects can go wrong, when they fall in the wrong hands.  

In many cities, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, the urban populations responded to the paucity of public infrastructure by devising coping mechanisms of their own to meet water and sewage service needs. These have included informal connections to water and sewage lines, use of plastic bags to dispose of human waste, and constructing makeshift sewage tanks. In the absence of good planning frameworks, such short-term private solutions tend to become the norm. Ultimately, they make the return to well-organized and well-funded infrastructure systems harder not easier. Notably, the plastic bags mentioned above have blocked drainage systems and poisoned drinking water sources in many cities today. 

Looking Ahead

 A key contribution of the African development debates of the 1960s was the importance of governments in the provision of public goods. The period of structural adjustment of the 1980s and 1990s distorted this view to some extent, but there seems to be a return in recent years to the cardinal role of governments as enablers in economic development. Notably, that governments need to take action and lead in policy formulation. That important issues, such as underground infrastructure development cannot be done on scale by the private sector alone. Moreover, that gaps in service provision should not be left to fester as corrective measures in the future could be both difficult and costly.

 However, the situation is not without hope and the progress made in recent years in cities like Abidjan, Addis Ababa, Lagos and Nairobi, with regard to infrastructure development, indicates that with focus and commitment much can be achieved. Recently, the planning authorities of Kampala, the Ugandan capital, announced a plan to banish flooding in all its districts, notably the low-lying areas, within three years. The news was as exciting as it was unbelievable. The flooding problems in African cities, are deep-seated; a result of accumulated policy neglect, few resources, poor planning, and inadequate sensitization of the populations. Stroke of the pen policies and standalone projects, of whatever size, might not be enough.

Urban planning must become a serious concern, part and parcel of planning at the national level, with dedicated and well-resourced urban planning units. Moreover, policy research and technical analyses within government and at tertiary levels will be required to study the many contributing factors to inadequate water, sewage, drainage and sanitation infrastructure , including population pressure, climate change, degradation of catchment areas, the regulatory environment and its enforcement structures, and urban tenure systems. These are also areas where learning from the experiences of other countries will be crucial. Governments will do well to give as much emphasis to underground infrastructure development in urban areas as they are giving to above ground infrastructure today.