FEATURES BUILDING RESILIENCE WITHIN LOW INCOME URBAN NEIGHBOURHOODS
By Kounkuey Design Intiative (KDI) Introduction The most effective means of achieving resilience of a people is to adopt a community-based approach in policy making, planning and implementation of climate change adaptation measures. African cities are now faced with increased vulnerability to climate change due to scarce resources and limited capacities to adapt to the effects of climate change as pointed out by Siri Eriksen et. al. The urban poor of SubSaharan Africa experience a heightened vulnerability to climate extremes owing to the fact that they live and work in hazardous environments that have poor infrastructure; in addition to inadequate governance structures. (WIREs Clim Change 2014. doi: 10.1002/ wcc.287) This article seeks to highlight the importance of building resilience through changing the way built environments are planned and constructed to reduce vulnerabilities within low-income neighbourhoods. Based on Kounkuey Design Intiative’s (KDI) decade-long experience working in Kibera, it demonstrates how grassroot level approaches to decision making, context-appropriate innovation, green infrastructure design solutions, and co-development of adaptation measures to climate change with local communities can
Issue 03 | March 2021
help residents of low income neighbourhoods build their resilience. KDI has demonstrated that in order to enable these communities to be better prepared to respond, survive and recover from adversities of climate change, an approach that seizes the local knowledge and the assets existing among the people ought to be embraced by practitioners in the built environment, non-profit organisations, the government and civil societies. Flooding in Kibera, Nairobi The informal settlements in Nairobi city, like other major growing cities, exhibit a pattern of forming along roads and riverines where flooding is extreme among other adversities such as limited access to potable water, sanitation and electricity. Kibera is an informal settlement and a home to about 250,000-350,000 residents. The settlement follows the banks of Ngong river, other minor rivers and tributaries lacing through the settlement
and culminating in the Nairobi Dam. It continues to grow and densify with the cheapest structures for rent being found along the streambanks where riverine (fluvial) flood risk is highest. Moreover, due to the lack of a waste management system and the poor state of the make-do drainage systems the settlement is also affected by localised (pluvial) flooding. Often, houses get destroyed by being washed away or collapsing. Impacts of extremities of climate events are more pronounced among the residents of urban informal settlements and are expected to maintain an upward trend with projected increases in rainfall over parts of Eastern Africa. Innovative, sustainable water management is critical to protecting urban ecosystems, developing climate-resilient cities, improving living conditions for the most vulnerable and is key in contributing to sustainable urban development in these densifying neighbourhoods and expanding cities.
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