Rethinking the Networked City: the (Co-)Production of Heterogeneous Water Supply Infrastructure in Nairobi, Kenya

RETHINKING THE NETWORKED CITY: THE (CO-)PRODUCTION OF HETEROGENEOUS WATER SUPPLY INFRASTRUCTURE IN NAIROBI, KENYA M.Sc. Elizabeth Kanini WAMUCHIRU Born in Trans-Nzoia, Kenya SUPERVISOR: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Annette Rudolph-Cleff CO-SUPERVISOR: Prof. Adriana Allen Approved Dissertation for the Award of Academic Degree of Doktor-Ingenieurs (Dr.-Ing.) The Fachbereich Architektur The Technische Universität Darmstadt El-Lissitzky-Str. 1 64287 Darmstadt Date of Submission: 14. September. 2017 Date of Oral Examination: 30. October. 2017 Darmstadt 2017 D 17 ERKLÄRUNG ZUR DISSERTATION Hiermit versichere ich an Eides statt, dass ich die vorliegende Arbeit selbstständig und nur unter Verwendung der angegebenen Quellen angefertigt habe. Alle wörtlichen und sinngemäßen Entlehnungen sind unter Angabe der Quelle kenntlich gemacht. Die Arbeit wurde bisher weder im In- noch im Ausland in gleicher oder ähnlicher Form einer anderen Prüfungsbehorde vorgelegt. Darmstadt, den 07.08.2017 M.Sc. Elizabeth Kanini Wamuchiru ii To humanity iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The completion of this study has been made possible through immense support from various institutions and individuals. I am greatly indebted to the Hans-Böckler-Stiftung (HBS) for awarding me the scholarship to undertake PhD studies at the Technische Universität Darmstadt, under the URBANgrad programme on Urban Infrastructures in Transition: The Case of African Cities. A special vote of thanks goes to my supervisor Prof. Dr.-Ing. Annette Rudolph-Cleff, for her relentless support, advice and guidance throughout the PhD process. Special thanks also goes to Prof. Adriana Allen for her valuable time and commitment to read and examine my written Dissertation on a short notice. I extend my gratitude to Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jochen Monstadt and Prof. Dr. Mikael Hård for constructive discussions especially in the early phases of my PhD journey. Special thanks to Dr. Emmanuel Midheme for always being available to discuss with me many ideas that form the core of this thesis. God bless you all! I also thank the University of Nairobi, for granting me a study leave that enabled me to undertake my PhD studies in Germany. My sincere thanks also go out to all who have helped and inspired me during my stay in Germany and whose names I may not be able enumerate here. Much gratitude to my learned dummpkoff crew of Frank, Jethron and Prince, for the many philosophical and fun moments we have shared since embarking on the PhD journey. I am equally grateful for the three years of friendship and learning from the URBANgrad colleagues and many individuals from the wider TU Darmstadt fraternity. Special thanks to Dr. Sophie Schramm for taking time to help me with translating the abstract into German and teaching me new words. To my family members who have continued to offer their moral support through encouraging words and prayers, may God bless you! Last but not least, I wish to acknowledge all the institutions, organizations and individuals who assisted me to obtain data for this research. Special thanks to Denno and Martin for assisting me with relevant map data. In all things, I give glory to the Almighty God for granting me good health and the energy to witness the culmination of this research journey. Elizabeth Wamuchiru Darmstadt, August 2017 iv ABSTRACT Water supply is an integral infrastructure that sustains urban life. It is for this reason that urban planning authorities and state actors have for long pursued the provision of water services through a standardized infrastructure system that conforms to ‘modern’ and ‘progressive’ ideals. As such, the ‘networked city’, a Western technological ideology of the Nineteenth Century has remained the blueprint for planning and development of water infrastructure across the Globe. The ‘modern’ planning model presupposes a centralized governed and uniform urban configuration for the provision of networked infrastructures for the supply of urban services such as water, sewer, electricity and telecommunication. However, the networked city ideology presents limited perspectives in the production of variegated socio-technical arrangements for water supply in many contemporary cities. This is particularly the case across rapidly transforming post- colonial cities of the Global South. The pronounced visibility of water trucks, hand cart pullers, long queues at water vending kiosks, exposed water pipes and the ubiquitous 20-litre jerry cans dotting the urban street depict, rather vividly, the everyday unequal struggles to improvise reliable water supply across different cities of the Global South. The reliance on interactions of numerous modes of water supply to sustain urban life is a clear indication of multiple modernities that defy simplistic Western universalization around the ‘modern’ ideal of centralized and networked infrastructure systems. This PhD study employs a socio-technical approach in analyzing the existing water supply modalities in contemporary cities of the Global South. Through an interpretative case study of Nairobi, Kenya, the study illuminates the interrelations between the networked water infrastructure run by the public utility company on the one hand, and the multiple non-networked water infrastructure models such as privatized enclave infrastructures, water vending practices, private boreholes and rain water harvesting on the other across different socio-spatial typologies in Nairobi. The study interweaves situated urban development processes of rapid socio-spatial transformations, development of residential enclaves, informal settlements and peri-urban sprawl with the wider political economy dynamics shaping water infrastructure provision. The recurring themes is that of localized socio-spatial processes that shape and are in turn shaped by circulating conventional planning models enforced by city authorities to produce unequal geographies of water supply across different parts of Nairobi. This is demonstrated through comprehensive empirical accounts drawn from four different neighborhoods namely, Eastleigh (fast transforming residential-cum-commercial inner city district), Runda (a gated residential neighbourhood), Kayole Soweto (a rapidly transforming informal v settlement) and Ruai (a peri-urban district). Each of the cases presents different socio-economic and political realities on the ground that contradict city authorities’ visions of building an integrated ‘modern’ monolithic infrastructure system. Altogether, the four empirical cases help to ground the need for co-existence, co- production and co-governance of a heterogeneous infrastructure configuration, with the aim of broaching the inadequacies of centralized infrastructure systems across fast transforming 21st century cities. The interrelations and multiplicity of infrastructure interpretations as I suggest for Nairobi, relate closely with contexts characterized by either lack of a centralized service, intermittent supply and/or multiple modalities of water supply as is the situation in many cities of the Global South. The study findings reveal that no one infrastructure model works in isolation without interacting with other configurations in both complementary and conflicting ways. It is also clear that different urban actors ranging from the public utility, real estate players, international actors, residential communities, individual entrepreneurs and households employ diverse typologies of socio-technical arrangements in meeting their daily water needs. As a result, the constant co-existence of the heterogeneous water supply configurations defy simplistic notions of transporting the modern infrastructure ideal in different contexts by way of revealing multiple modernities through variegated water provisioning mechanisms. While this co-existence and co-production have complex implications for infrastructure and urban governance in general, the study urges policy makers, international actors, development partners and state agencies to shift focus to the existing multiple realities confronting them as opposed to burying their heads in borrowed monolithic ideologies that perpetuate urban inequalities. Particularly, the study suggests a deeper interrogation of the interface between the official planning models and their rationalities; and the growing grassroots initiatives in water provision fronted by different actors, agencies, institutions and communities. This interface promises a new perspective of understanding what socio-technical arrangements are suited for equitable provision and distribution of scarce water resources among the different socio-economic groups that compose the urban population. vi ZUSAMMENFASSUNG Die Wasserversorgung zählt zu den Infrastrukturen, die für das städtische Leben grundlegend sind. Aus diesem Grund wird seit langer Zeit von den Akteuren in Planung und Politik die Wasserversorgung für die Bevölkerung durch ein standardisiertes Infrastruktursystem angestrebt, das den "modernen" und "progressiven" Idealen entspricht. Die "vernetzte Stadt" ist ein solches Ideal, eine technologische Ideologie der westlichen Welt, die seit dem 19. Jahrhundert eine Grundlage für die Planung und Entwicklung der Wasserinfrastruktur auf der ganzen Welt ist. Dieses "moderne" Planungsmodell setzt eine zentral verwaltete und einheitliche Stadtstruktur als Bedingung für die Bereitstellung von vernetzten Infrastrukturen zur Versorgung mit Wasser, Elektrizität und Telekommunikation, sowie zur Entsorgung von Abwasser, voraus. Die Ideologie der vernetzten Stadt zeigt jedoch nur begrenzt Perspektiven

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