Continued chaos: the effects of the colonial overhang on the provision of water and sanitation

As per the second part of this series in which I aim to break down the colonial overhang that persists within the water and sanitation sector, this post will reflect upon the ways in which these colonial legacies are entangled within the infrastructure, delivery and provision of water and sanitation within Mombasa, a coastal city in Kenya. 

Water and sanitation issues can be traced back to the colonial era, where cities are seen to have been fragmented since their colonial origins. Urban waterscapes often resemble archipelagos rather than continuous networks, existing as a consequence of the skewed distribution of water and sanitation services, where residents have no choice but to look "beyond the network". This approach subsequently encourages alternative, heterogenous forms of water supply to appear, particularly within low-income settlements.

A Case-Study of Mombasa

Mombasa is Kenya's second largest city after Nairobi, located on the edge of the Indian Ocean and home to over 1.3 million people. It has been noted by Kithiia and Majambo (2020), that the water and sanitation challenges within Mombasa, were bred during colonialism, where over two-thirds of today's low-income residents do not access to safe and affordable water. 

Figure 1: Location of Mombasa, Kenya (Google Maps, 2021)

The Kenya-Uganda railway was constructed in 1896 to ensure that Britain had effective control over the region, facilitating the movement of the troops to suppress resistance, in order to effectively exercise an unequal system of commodity exchange. Therefore, Mombasa became the main port in this region, greatly impacting local water demands in a city that had long relied on wells. The response in addressing the water problem in Mombasa was to pipe water into the island, from Shimba Hills, a nearby region. The development of an adequate water infrastructure was driven by the British, for the quest of European-style modernisation, as well as for commercial and industrial interests. 

"Colonialism existed to impose the superiority of the European way of life" (Said, 1979)

By constructing infrastructures that reflected the European ideology of modernisation, it was thought that this would aid progress within the region, however both the water supply and sewerage systems where characterised by a series of inequalities in access, in which the "well to do" settlements were prioritised. These infrastructures are still just as damaging today, as a consequence of governments and organisations investing their limited funds into "fixing" these systems without the consideration of alternative options. This disproportionately effects the urban poor, where the focus remains on providing services for the more affluent customers as a way in which to generate revenue, echoing the unjust measures evident during the colonial rule.

In order to detach and breakaway from this colonial overhang and thus create a city with more equitable water service provision, we need to pay greater attention to scale and everyday life within settlements such as Mombasa. 

Alara Adali, the author of the article "Decolonising Systems Thinking", promotes the idea of a "systems thinking" approach, where she notes that there needs to be an investment of time and resources into creating support and care platforms that are attentive to the needs of marginalised communities. As Audre Lorde beautifully concurs, "without community, there is no liberation", and thus we need to recognise how the marginalised population of Mombasa, can act as agents of change, as part of inclusive and collaborative process in which to improve water and sanitation provision.