Blog

Kalpana Maharjan, Dhaka Community Manager

Banu, a mother of two, lives in a slum of Bagunbari, Dhaka. She is a single mother who works as a housemaid to earn her living. She says, “The pond water I was forced to get water from previously was very dirty with a bad smell. My daughters and I would suffer from diarrhea, jaundice, dysentery, and skin diseases. But after the installation of the deep tube well, we are able to get safe water much more quickly… [now] we don’t have these water-borne diseases anymore!”

Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, is one of the cities with the highest population growth in the world. The World Bank estimates that approximately 28 percent of the population is poor, and about 3.4 million live in precarious conditions in slums and low-lying lands. These people do not own the land they live on, making access to water and sanitation in urban low-income communities a growing challenge. These communities often collect water from private vendors or unreliable sources like polluted rivers, which pose biological and environmental health threats. Plus, a significant number of slum residents live without access to toilets and garbage collection services, so human waste and garbage contaminate the environment, further elevating health risks. It is clear that poor water quality is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in Dhaka slums.

Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (DWASA), which was created in 1963 as a public utility under the Ministry of Local Government, supplies Dhaka with water and sewerage services. For many years, however, these services were limited only to those who had legal right to their land, thereby excluding slum residents. Today, a significant number of these marginalized communities nevertheless benefit from DWASA’s services, thanks to Dushtha Shasthya Kendra (DSK).

DSK, established in 1992, is a Dhaka-based NGO that operates in partnership with WaterAid Bangladesh and advocates for supplying Dhaka’s residents with water, regardless of land ownership. In order to get around DWASA’s fear that slum dwellers would not pay their utilities fees, DSK designed the Watsan Project. According to the model, water points were constructed in slum communities and were then connected to the DWASA water mains. Access to these water points costs just Tk. 50 per month, and security deposits help ensure that DWASA’s fees are paid on time.

Not only does this program provide a way to supply clean water to slum communities, it also provides residents with trainings on the maintenance of Watsan facilities, hygiene, and healthy practices. These initiatives help slum residents live a life free from water-borne diseases.

Photo credits: Water.org and BRAC University

Saima Sultana Jaba, Dhaka Community Manager

Shubbo, an eleven-year-old boy from Dhaka, welds car parts for a living. Too young and skinny to carry parts, Shubbo carries out one of the most risky and demanding tasks while his boss sips tea. He works from morning until late at night, and earns less than a dollar a day.

According to the International Labor Organization, there are 3.2 million children between the ages of 5 and 17 working in Bangladesh. Child labor has already received considerable attention in Bangladesh because of working children’s lack of access to education, leisure, and play, and increased risk of trafficking, abuse, violence, and exploitation.

To eliminate the incidence of child labor, the government of Bangladesh has accorded a prominent place to children’s rights in its national development agenda, and has undertaken a number of initiatives and policy measures. The Compulsory Primary Education Act of 1990 made the enrollment and attendance of primary education free and mandatory for all children. The government also targets vulnerable children, especially urban, working children, and attempts to cater to their educational needs free of cost. Although primary education is free, indirect costs such as transport, uniforms, and school supplies are not, which is why many children must work to be able to afford the additional expenses of school.

In 2006, the government enacted the Labor Act, which includes a chapter on child labor. This new law prohibits the employment of children under 14 years of age, and prohibits hazardous forms of child labor for persons under the age of 18. Although the current policy attempts to promote human rights, often it fails to establish social justice and to emphasize education, especially to urban slum communities, and it does not provide a strong enforcement mechanism for the child labor provisions. Limited access to government primary schools in the poorest urban slum areas is a large part of this issue. UNICEF Bangladesh recently released a report that urban slum areas have the worst performance regarding children’s well-being and access to basic services compared to rural and non-slum urban areas. In poor urban areas, school attendance is 20 percent lower than in rural areas.

The remarkable “Basic Education for Hard to Reach Urban Children Project” has helped 200,000 working children aged between 8-14 years old with access to education. This project, funded by UNICEF, SISA, DFID, and the government of Bangladesh, provides two hours of non-formal basic education a day to child laborers. Because it would have been impossible to abolish child labor completely from the start, the project adopted a “learn and earn” approach, where parents and employers were persuaded to let the child go to school for just two hours a day, and continue their work responsibilities the rest of the day. Not only does this project provide access to education and recreation for working children, it also provokes greater awareness of the rights of children in Dhaka.

The government’s laws and the “Basic Education for Hard to Reach Urban Children Project” are a good start to fighting child labor, but much remains to be done. The government should provide stipends or subsidies so that children can afford the indirect cost of schooling, and should also enforce laws, monitor actions, and create awareness about the adverse effect of child labor through media campaigns.

Photo credit: Child Labor of Bangladesh

AUW Writing Team, Dhaka Community Managers

In Dhaka, the poor mostly live near river banks, where they face the constant risk of floods and landslides. Because of the high cost of land, the urban poor can only afford to live near drainage congestions or on the edges of deep narrow valleys, areas which are prone to flooding because of the heavy rainfall, exacerbated by rapid climate change in the last few decades. In response to these difficult living conditions, and some of Dhaka’s environmental and connectivity issues, the Capital Development Authority of the Government of Bangladesh, Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (RAJUK) has planned a prodigious environmental sustainability project called Hatir Jheel.

Previously, the Hatir Jheel canal area was severely environmentally degraded due to the large amount of waste dumped in the canal. In addition, formal and informal settlements had sprung up around the canal, adding to the environmental issues, and posing a significant challenge to any proposed intervention.

RAJUK collaborated with Dhaka’s Water Supply and Sewerage Authority, and the Department of Urban and Regional Planning from the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology. Together, the team developed a plan to reconstruct and beautify the Hatir Jheel canal area, as well as to increase the connectivity of this neighborhood with the other areas of the city.

The Hatir Jheel project was completed in early 2013, and successfully transformed the area into an environment-friendly and beautiful location for both rich and poor residents. The canal was dredged into lakes, meaning that low-lying areas can be used as rain water retention basins. This also minimizes the risk of flooding, causing less damage to the nearby residents who live on the edge of ravines. The bridges and surrounding roads constructed around the lake have improved connectivity to other areas in Dhaka, like Bangla Motor, Moghbazar, Mouchak, Tejgaon, and Gulshan. In addition, RAJUK has built new apartments for the displaced residents.

Critics remark that the project was implemented in a top-down manner, without the participation of important stakeholders such as the inhabitants of the nearby formal and informal settlements, and the businesses that had developed near the canal. Despite these critiques, the project has generally been successful in facilitating rain water retention, developing east-west communication, reducing traffic congestion, and ensuring a safer environment for the Hatir Jheel area.

Photo credit: Ibrahim Husain

Katy Fentress, Nairobi Community Manager

The September 2013 Westgate crisis was the most recent in a slew of attacks that have rocked Kenya since it began military operations in Somalia two years ago.

The blame for this and previous attacks has generally been pinned on the Islamist group Al Shabaab, who claim to be retaliating against what for them is an unjust invasion and occupation of their country.

While Eastleigh, a neighborhood in the east of Nairobi that houses most of the city’s Somali immigrants, has borne the brunt of most of these attacks, residents have also experienced a rise in hostility from local Kenyans and harassment at the hands of the police.

Somalis in Nairobi live as urban refugees escaping from harsh realities back home. In their daily lives they invariably are affected to some degree by three overwhelming challenges. These, according to Kenyan-based film producer Vincenzo Cavallo, are discrimination, corruption, and terrorism.

In an attempt to address these three symbiotic challenges, a movie is currently being produced by Cultural Video Foundation (CVF), a Nairobi-based film production company that is run by Cavallo and fellow-filmmaker Alessandra Argenti, with the support of an Italian NGO called the International Committee for the Development of Peoples (CISP) and funding from the European Union.

The aim of the film, named Wazi FM, is to speak out about discrimination against Somali refugees at the hands of police and the connection between this and the rise in terrorist attacks. The film also attempts to send a message on the topic of corruption, as it highlights how it is this widespread practice that allows terrorists to cross the border into the Kenya in the first place.

In Cavallo’s view, in order to prevent future terrorist attacks in Kenya and Somalia, it is essential to find a way for refugee communities and the police to work together on reporting suspicious activities and building trust where at the moment there is none.

With Wazi FM, CVF has attempted to create a Kenyan Somali thriller. Filmed entirely in one location, the film is, according to Cavallo, a surreal take on the genre and one that aims to compete with commercial productions by providing the public with a breathtaking and compelling story.

The aim of the production is to speak to both Kenyans and Somalis about how it is corruption and not immigration that is the main cause of insecurity in the country. Allowing Kenyan authorities to keep on with the extortion, harassment, and targeting of Somalis residents only serves to increasingly marginalize them and to create fertile territory where would-be terrorists and attackers can operate.

Wazi FM was initially conceived as a twelve-episode TV series. Unfortunately, due to budgetary constraints, this was later cut down to a one-off feature film. CVF remains optimistic that they will succeed in broadening the reach of the show and that at some point it will be picked up by a local television channel brave enough to broadcast such a controversial message, or by an international distributor that is keen on covering sensitive topics of this kind.

Countries like Kenya that have signed the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights are required to uphold the rights of all people to liberty and security of person. They are also expected to guarantee non-discriminatory minority rights and equality before the law. It is thus imperative that the issue of corruption be adequately addressed both from the bottom up and through institutional processes, in order to guarantee that Kenyan citizens of Somali origin, and Somalis who are living in Kenya, are not subjected to discrimination on the part of those who are tasked with upholding their rights.

Photo credit: Lorenzo Misselari

Carlin Carr, Bangalore Community Manager

The poor live in precarious circumstances on a daily basis. Unexpected illnesses or job losses that would put a strain on any family often leave the poor on the brink. With no access to the formal banking system, microloans have not only served to help in emergency situations, but have actually helped these families to build up savings and gain access to important, life-saving products. The loans, mainly to women, have expanded in purpose and scope since Grameen launched its rural banking system in the 1990s. Today, microfinance institutions such as Samasta in Bangalore have used the women’s groups that form the basis of lending to focus loans on other important intervention areas, including insurance, home gas connections, and water purifiers.

Samasta started in Bangalore in 2008 and in just the first two years reached nearly 77,000 clients with a 99.97 percent repayment rate. Originally focusing on India’s southern states, the institution’s goal is to expand north and reach 1.8 million people by the end of this year. The bank’s focus is to “bridge the gap between ambition and achievement for the working poor across India, by providing financial and non-financial services in a sustainable, long-term relationship to enable them to achieve a better quality of life.” Samasta has had to expand its range of products in order to keep its clients as long-term customers.

Some of the new products Samasta has added include:

• Micro Health Insurance: The United Samasta Micro Health Insurance policy protects members and their families from burdensome costs due to unexpected medical emergencies.

• LPG (Liquid Petroleum Gas) Loan: The LPG loan helps clients to move away from collecting firewood or accessing kerosene, both of which are highly polluting and dangerous to their health.

• Water Purifier Loan: Not only can lack of access to safe drinking water be dangerous, the ongoing health impacts due to water-borne illnesses can take a large financial toll on families. This loan helps families access new safe-water technologies and products for their home.

One client — 49-year-old Victoria, a grandmother — was selling fruit on the roadside. Her first micro loan with Samasta helped her to set up a fruit stall at the market, thereby increasing her income. Once she repaid her first loan, Victoria took out a second loan to invest in her granddaughter’s education. Samasta’s loans have empowered women such as Victoria to take control of her family’s health and well-being in a variety of ways, from education to household improvements to healthcare.

No longer subject to rogue moneylenders, Victoria and thousands of others are taking incremental steps to improve their daily lives and expand opportunities for their own families as well as for the next generation. The growing importance of MFIs in the lives of the poor has moved the institutional role from one of expanding income opportunities to expanding opportunities to improve the overall quality of life. This is the new MFI in India.

Photo credit: McKay Savage

Catalina Gomez, Curitiba Community Manager

URB.IM is pleased to introduce Curitiba as one of the new cities covered by the platform. Curitiba, located in Brazil’s southern region, is the capital of the state of Paraná. The city has 1.7 million residents, making it the eighth largest in the country. The city is also the epicenter of the Curitiba Metropolitan Region, which is a conglomerate of 26 municipalities of approximately 3.2 million residents (Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estadística-IBGE).

Curitiba has the tenth highest Human Development Index ranking in Brazil (0.82), clearly standing out among the country’s 5565 municipalities. Given the excellent quality of life and the adequate social indicators, URB.IM will be periodically presenting some of Curitiba’s highlights on urban and social development to better understand some of the factors behind its successes.

One of the main reasons for Curitiba’s reputation as a model city is that it heavily relies on the culture of urban planning. The city is known to have adopted a planning culture since the ’60s, when it created Curitiba’s Research and Urban Planning Institute, known as the Instituto de Pesquisa e Planejamento Urbano de Curitiba (IPPUC), in an effort to adequately plan its sustainable development. The IPPUC is a government institution, but it is heavily technical and aims to support the planning, design, and further implementation of the city’s main infrastructure and development programs. It participates in the formulation of the city’s Master Plan as well as in other sectoral plans, ensuring they are properly interrelated and coordinated.

The IPPUC, along with other local government institutions, has been leading the planning of a city fit for all its residents. Its approach to urbanism in low-income neighborhoods is innovative in that it is highly focused on integrating these communities into the formal city through better infrastructure and services. This means that the urban, social, economic, and environmental needs of low-income areas are taken into account in the overall city planning, rather than in isolated initiatives separate from the formal planning process. An example of this integrated approach is the well-known bus-based rapid transit system, which was planned out by the IPPUC in the late 1970s, and which became one of the pioneering transportation systems of its kind. Indeed, it has been replicated successfully in various Latin American cities such as Bogotá and Mexico City, and in many others throughout the world. One of the main highlights of the system is that it was designed to be within the reach of even the poorest neighborhoods, enabling their physical integration with the city. The innovative design of the buses and stations, plus their adaptation for people with disabilities, and the system’s integrative function in serving most areas of the city has been recognized internationally.

Beyond the well-known urban transportation system, Curitiba is also known for its excellent urban services, which are accessible even to low-income residents. Worth highlighting are the Ruas da Cidadania (or “Citizen Streets”), a series of public offices spread around the city. They gather decentralized public administrative offices, where city residents can issue basic documentation, access government information on social programs, and pay for public services. The Ruas da Cidadania are meant to concentrate all services, saving time and costs. In addition, all the “Ruas” are located close to the main transportation system stations in an effort to facilitate access to social and urban services for all residents.

Photo credit: URBS Curitiba

Applying human power to rotary motion goes back as far as the 10th Century in China and in Europe. Treadles were used to pump water, power machinery for producing textiles and working with wood. Pedal-powered machines boomed in the late 1800s, according to Low-Tech Magazine, and the rise of cheap electricity put an end to the continued development of human-powered machines. It was not until the oil crisis of the 1970s that pedal-powered machines witnessed a resurgence. Read more.

Submitted by Tracey Grose — Mon, 02/03/2014 – 16:10

Last July, I reported on Mozilla’s roll out of its Firefox HTML-based operating system for smartphones. Mozilla’s innovative approach has enabled the first mobile device to be run completely on web technologies. This low-cost smartphone promises to expand global access to smart devices, make a huge contribution to the open-source movement, and create new entrepreneurial opportunities for developers around the world to meet local needs. Read more.

Submitted by Tracey Grose — Mon, 01/06/2014 – 11:34

The internet has quickened the pace of globalization by speeding the flow of information, creating access to new markets and enabling cross-border collaboration. The African continent is witnessing this as fast-growth economies emerge. The McKinsey Global Institute, the think tank of the global business consultancy, has released a series of insightful analyses on Africa’s growing economies and the role of technology. Read more.

Submitted by Tracey Grose — Tue, 11/26/2013 – 11:02

Silicon Valley and the wider San Francisco Bay Area is a global innovation hub. The success of the region’s highly adaptive innovation system can be attributed to multiple factors, and one of which is its strong ties with other places in the world. The Bay Area’s global linkages are growing, they drive innovation, and they generate new value in and outside the region. Read more.

Submitted by Tracey Grose — Thu, 10/31/2013 – 15:32

Jamaican youth are finding entrepreneurial opportunities in the $4 billion global ornamental fish market. The amenable local climate, visionary leaders, neighborhood collaboration, and raw personal initiative combine to pull young urbanites out of poverty. Read more.

Submitted by Tracey Grose — Tue, 10/01/2013 – 12:47

Throughout the developing world, urban farming is taking root in a variety of forms and yielding not only food but also livelihoods and community. Above-ground planting beds, kitchen gardens, and rooftop greenhouses are cropping up in urban centers. Farming is transforming tall buildings, empty lots and abandoned warehouses. In many cases, people are using the most basic tools or extremely innovative new combinations of existing tools. Some examples are leveraging newer production methods and tools. Read more.

Submitted by Tracey Grose — Wed, 09/04/2013 – 13:38

Some of the fastest-growing cities in the world are in Africa. According to the United Nations, there will be over a billion people living in slums in Africa by 2050. This concentration of humanity with little clean water and no sanitation yet with a surplus of refuse presents growing public health hazards. What signals are there of new solutions to meeting these urgent issues? Read more.

Submitted by Tracey Grose — Mon, 07/29/2013 – 13:10

With the roll out of its Firefox OS phone on July 2, 2013, the Mozilla Foundation, nonprofit provider of Firefox browser, has made a huge contribution to the open-source movement and expanding global to smart devices. The Firefox OS phone is the first mobile device to be run completely on web technologies. Launched initially in Spain, Telefónica will sell the ZTE Open powered by Firefox OS for 69 Euros (about $90), and will include 30 Euros worth of credits for pre-paid customers. Read more.

Submitted by Tracey Grose — Mon, 07/15/2013 – 16:45

The fastest growing urban centers are also home to the world’s worst commuter experiences. Eight of the top ten painful metro areas reported in IBM’s most recent Commuter Pain Index are in fast-growth economies. Development of public transit systems is moving at a rapid pace in many areas, and some places may be investing in more than they actually need or can afford. Read more.

Submitted by Tracey Grose — Wed, 06/26/2013 – 17:17

In the area of health, mobile devices are enabling developing countries to not only leap-frog the wired world but also rise above persistent social, political, economic barriers. Examples from emerging economies around world illustrate a variety of innovations that hold promise and demonstrate success for improved health in urban centers with the greatest need. Read more.

Submitted by Tracey Grose — Thu, 05/16/2013 – 11:40

‘العلم قوة’ – الحملة الوطنية لمحو الامية

Howaida Kamel, Cairo Community Manager

من أكبر المشاكل التي يواجهها الفقراء في مصر هي مشكلة الامية. تشير الإحصاءات الحكومية على أن هناك إجمالي ١٧ مليون مواطن و مواطنة في مصر، معظمهم إناث في صعيد مصر و منطقة القاهرة الكبرى، لايستطيعون قراءة و كتابة اللغة العربية. في أواخر عام ٢٠١١، قامت مؤسسة فودافون مصر (Vodafone Egypt Foundation) بالاشتراك مع جمعية صناع الحياة (Life Makers Association) و منظمة اليونسكو (UNESCO) لإنشاء حملة مشتركة تحت عنوان ‘العلم قوة.’ والهدف من هذه الحملة هو القضاء على الأمية في مصر بحلول عام ٢٠١٧ من خلال توفير الفصول التي تعلم أساسيات القراءة، و الكتابة، و المهارات الحسابية في تسع محافظات مختلفة.

تتبع مبادرة ‘العلم قوة’ نموذج فريد لتنمية المجتمع من حيث أنها تجمع بين قدرات و جهود كل من الشركات الفاعلة، منظمات المجتمع المدني، المؤسسات الدولية، و غيرها من المنظمات العامة و المجتمعية من أجل تحقيق أهدافها الإنمائية. تعهدت مؤسسة فودافون لتمويل هذه الحملة لمدة خمس سنوات. تقوم جمعية صناع الحياة بمساعدة مؤسسة فودافون على تنفيذ هذه المبادرة، و توفر أيضا التدريب للعاملين المتطوعين بالمنظمات غير الحكومية و منظمات المجتمع المحلي المرتبطة بهذه الحملة. وقد ساهمت منظمة اليونسكو بتطوير المناهج الدراسية للحملة، التي تشمل تكنولوجيات حديثة مثل Java و Android و iOS. و قد وافقا وزارة التربية و التعليم، و الوكالة الوطنية لمحو الامية و تعليم كبار السن على تنفيذ هذه المبادرة، و بفضل الدعم العام للحملة، تتمكن المبادرة من تحقيق اهدافها. علاوة على ذلك، هناك أيضا ٢٠ منظمة غير حكومية (twenty associated NGOs and CBOs) مرتبطة بالحملة، تعمل من أجل مساعدة الأميين في مصر.

تنسيق الجهود بين جميع هذه المؤسسات يشكل عاملاحاسما في ارتقاء فصول محو الأمية من أجل مساعدة العدد الهائل من الأميين في مصر. تم تحديد أهداف سنوية لتعيين عدد كافي من المتطوعين، و توعية عدد مؤثر من الأميين كل عام؛ هذا الجدول يشير إلى الأهداف السنوية للحملة على مدى أول ثلاث سنوات:

يأمل المشروع لتحقيق النمو المتسارع كل عام بحيث يزداد عدد المتعلمين مع زيادة عدد المتطوعين. و قد حققت الحملة التقدم المذهل من خلال تدريب حوالي ٨٠٠٠ متطوع و الاستعانة بما يقرب من ٣٠٠٠٠ متطوع. و يدل هذا العدد الكبير من المتطوعين على مقدار الدعم الذي تلقته هذه الحملة الوطنية من المشتغلين في مجال التنمية في القاهرة ومختلف أنحاء مصر.

اعتبارا من منتصف هذا العام، قامت حملة ‘المعرفة قوة’ بتسجيل ١٢٧،٣١٥ أمي في فصولها التعلمية، بما في ذلك ٩٢،٤١٦ فردا ناجحا في امتحان محو الأمية الابتدائي المجهز من جمعية صانع الحياة. في حين أن هذه الأرقام لا تتطابق الأرقام المستهدفة، هناك نسبة نجاح عالية للغاية للذين يستمروا في البرنامج حتى نهايته. ومع ذلك، فقط حوالي ٣٣٪ من الذين أكملوا البرنامج بنجاح قد نجحوا في إمتحان محو الأمية الرسمي المجهز من وزارة التربية والتعليم.

و من المهم في الفترة الانتقالية التي تمر بها مصر الأن، أن تقوم الشركات الفاعلة والمؤسسات الأخرى بإتخاذ المبادرات الفعالة لتحقيق أهداف التنمية الوطنية. لم تعد الحكومة قادرة على مواجهة مشكلة الامية بمفردها. ترى مؤسسة فودافون مصر أن الامية إحدى المشاكل الأساسية في المجتمع المصري، خاصة في سياق تحول البلد لدولة ديمقراطية. قال حاتم دويدار، الرئيس التنفيذي لشركة فودافون مصر، في حوار له عن هذه المبادرة الوطنية : ” نحقق أمرين من خلال محو الأمية و هما التنمية و الديمقراطية.”

Submitted by Howaida Kamel — Mon, 09/02/2013 – 00:00

Olatunbosun Obayomi, Lagos Guest Contributor

Rapid urbanization through natural growth and rural-to-urban migration is overwhelming cities in the emerging world — cities which are already struggling to develop their infrastructure. Lagos, where I have lived all my life, is no exception. The United Nations estimates that the population of my city will hit 16 million by 2015, making it the world’s 11th-largest urban system. Its population density has already reached an extreme level at 4,193 people per square kilometer. Meanwhile, a combination of official neglect, corruption, extreme poverty, and rapid, largely uncontrolled population growth has led to the decay of the existing urban infrastructure — a key determinant of how livable my city will be.

One glaring example is the infrastructure in Lagos city for handling human waste (sewage), sanitation, and drinking water — which is poorly organized and uncontrolled where it exists at all, and utterly inhumane in its effects on Lagos residents. It is common to see pipes for drinking water passing through open drains — drains that periodically receive human waste when locals open their septic tanks into them or when waste leaks into them directly. In fact, Lagos city does not treat all the human waste generated by its millions of residents each day; instead, it is emptied directly into the Lagos lagoon — with serious health consequences, especially for the city’s poorer neighborhoods.

Infrastructure for drinking water is generally very poor, and in many areas is entirely lacking. As a consequence, many Lagosians depend on bottled water, local water vendors, private boreholes, or expensive water filtration units for their daily domestic and sanitation needs. Infrastructure for managing storm water is not properly planned, with no specifications in place and no coordination of urban drainage.

The rain is a nightmare for Lagosians, as frequent floods destroy roads and other infrastructure. The commute into the city during the rainy season — which combines the effects of flooding with the city’s already lengthy traffic jams — must be seen to be believed.

On 10 July 2011, for example, Lagos state experienced 24 hours of heavy rainfall. The storm water overwhelmed the poorly designed drains and canals, which were already filled and choked with refuse. Twenty-five people lost their lives, and the existing urban infrastructure was grounded; the government was even forced to declare a public holiday for students. Both rich and poor were affected, as both lacked the basic infrastructure needed to deal with the effects of the storm. One can only imagine the contamination that occurred between storm water, drinking water, human sewage, and the body of water receiving the overflow, and the effects on public health are simply unthinkable.

These challenges, great though they are, should impel us to take the necessary steps to make Lagos a greater and more livable city.

Infrastructure, governance, and the role of civil society

Globalization has changed traditional governance to a tremendous degree. The world is becoming a village faced with a host of urgent issues, and we must work in concert to tackle them. Clearly, the action or inaction of an economic or political actor in the developed world can have a profound effect on the lives of people in developing countries; clearly, one need not be an elected official to have a significant impact on our shared future. On the contrary: in a globalized world, non-state actors within the international architecture have proven that they can build the political will for a new approach to development that integrates environmental and social goals.

Through campaigns and broad outreach, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) can alert the public about the urgent issues our cities face. NGOs also can help vocalize the interests of the urban poor, who are not well-represented in policymaking — a fact made obvious by the kind of infrastructure they get.

More specifically, I believe that civil society — especially NGOs — can help to ameliorate the infrastructure for sewage, water, and sanitation in Lagos city and the emerging world at large.

I see a city as a combination of systems, a network of infrastructures. By combining these infrastructures in appropriate ways, we enable that city to move, produce, and become sustainable. I believe that going back to the basics of urban design can help us solve these challenges. A good place to start is the idea of planning and managing the city to limit resource consumption and carbon emissions, and to ensure that core services like potable water, sanitation, and waste management will be delivered efficiently and inclusively throughout the city.

Waste water treatment linked to clean water provision

In my work as an inventor, I have retrofitted the conventional septic tank — the infrastructure for handling human sewage — into a biogas plant: a means of producing biogas, a combustible mixture of methane and carbon dioxide that provides a source of green energy.

By leveraging this invention in combination with city infrastructures, I envision a scenario whereby we can combine the street grid system, water management system, and energy systems to solve these pressing issues. I call this combination “waste water treatment linked to clean water provision.”

Assume that the city of Lagos has 80 streets. Those streets can be divided into units of eight blocks of streets each. The septic tanks of eight streets are linked to a central waste system (biogas plant). The biogas produced is then used in running gas engine pumps for water generation from water boreholes and circulation back to consumers in the streets. So we have ten units — in a decentralized and closed system — each independently treating its own waste water, generating green energy, and providing clean water to the people living there.

Storm water will be properly harvested through well-designed and coordinated drains and used for non-domestic purposes.

Using very conservative figures and taking into consideration the amount of water required for domestic and miscellaneous use by a family of five people, and estimating that a street in Lagos, Nigeria is has an average of 50 houses with a family of five in each, we see that one street block will produce 187.5Kg of sewerage per day, which is far above the required 172Kg per day. There thus will be adequate sewage production for the generation of 1,720 liters of biogas per day — the amount required to run a pump of 1BHP that will produce 31,250 liters of clean water in four hours — enough for domestic and miscellaneous use by 250 people.

Using this model of compact urban development will also help to pave the way for proper road construction planning that will facilitate the collection of refuse from the streets — refuse that currently chokes up the the drains and canals.

The role of NGOs in the development of urban infrastructure

NGOs can facilitate social and environmental change by giving politicians access to competing ideas from outside the normal bureaucratic channels. NGOs also can garner support for knowledge-generating institutions in developing countries — for example, research stations and specialized universities that are dedicated to developing innovative solutions to such urgent problems — and can fund pilot projects based on innovations developed from these establishments. Universities are key generators of knowledge, yet they are among the most under-funded institutions in emerging countries. NGOs are especially well positioned to help spot local innovations that are suited for local conditions, since technology is not globally given. In addition, NGOs often have much better analytical and technical skills and the capacity to respond to these ideas more quickly than government officials. For instance, my work has been recognized by LEAP Africa, a local NGO, and TED, an international NGO.

Since May 2009, the Lagos state government, led by Governor Babatunde Fashola, has aggressively pursued the construction of drains in all areas of Lagos and has cleared many canals. But despite these efforts, which should be applauded, there is still flooding in Lagos streets and roads, not only in the coastal areas but in all parts of Lagos — both mainland and island, slums and wealthy neighborhoods. There are no specifications and no coordination of these urban drains, and the construction contracts might be awarded to upwards of 20 different contractors — which then must figure out how to build systems that are supposed to function together, wasting precious resources in the process.

NGOs have a role to play here as well — for instance, spotting realistic ideas and helping to formulate pro-people policies. NGOs can also help to monitor construction projects and ensure compliance with standards, thus making the state accountable for the limited resources available and acting as a watchdog for the urban poor and for Lagosians in general.

The concerted efforts of everyone within the international architecture can help to bring about the social and environmental changes we want to see in the urban centers of the emerging world. All hands must be on deck.

Finally, in an ideal scenario, civil society would work with international organizations and state actors to help mitigate global climate change while providing locally tailored infrastructure for waste water treatment, energy generation, and drinkable water provision. For example, within the climate change governance circle, it is possible to combine the efforts of Lagos state government (LASG), providing concessions and a conducive working environment; the UN Fund for International Partnerships (UNFIP), which would provide financing; Energy Cities (EC), contributing information and networking; Carbon Rationing Action Groups (CRAGs), to input standards and commitments; and Connected Urban Development (CUD), taking on the construction of retrofitted septic tanks that will treat waste water and generate the green energy needed to pump water to homes around the streets of Lagos.

Olatunbosun Obayomi is a microbiologist and inventor from Lagos, Nigeria. Obayomi’s research spans hydrogen biogas reactors, ecological engines, and microbial fuel cells. He is the founder of Bio Applications Initiative in Lagos, which focuses on the production of energy from organic waste, using green biogas technology to solve pressing needs related to energy supply, food production, and sanitation in the developing world. Obayomi has produced simple biogas plants for converting paper, animal, and human waste into energy. He has also retrofitted a conventional septic tank into a biogas plant. A graduate of microbiology from Olabisi Onabanjo University in Nigeria, Obayomi is a member of the American Society for Microbiology (ASM). He was a TED Global Fellow in 2010 and a BMW Guggenheim Lab Team Member for New York City 2011. His efforts have been celebrated in Nigeria as well: in 2008 he was honored with the Nigerian Youth Leadership Award, presented by LEAP Africa.

Banjir adalah peristiwa rutin setiap tahun bagi warga Jakarta., tidak peduli bagi yang kaya atau yang miskin. Bedanya, warga Jakarta sekarang memiliki gubernur dan wakil gubernur yang memiliki komitmen untuk memecahkan masalah banjir. Banjir sendiri merupakan masalah yang harus dipecahkan, selain itu pemerintah kota juga harus memecahkan dampak banjir itu. Salah satu masalah yang merupakan dampak banjir adalah penyediaan perumahan untuk penduduk yang tinggal secara liar di areal waduk yang berfungsi sebagai penampung air di musim hujan. Selama bulan Januari-Februari tahun ini banjir besar melanda pemukiman liar di berbagai tempat di Jakarta, termasuk di areal waduk Pluit di Jakarta Utara.

Waduk Pluit adalah semacam danau buatan yang berfungsi untuk menampung air di kala banjir. Pada awalnya waduk Pluit mencakup areal tanah seluas 80 hektar dengan kedalaman antara 7-8 meter. Sebagai akibat dari tidak berfungsinya kontrol pemerintah kota untuk memelihara waduk sebagai penampung air penduduk mulai menjadikan tanah waduk itu sebagai tempat pemukiman sehingga dam berubah menjadi perkampungan dimana penduduk tinggal. Sekitar seperempat luas areal waduk akhirnya menjadi tempat pemukiman liar dan waduk mengalami pendakalan hingga kedalamannya hanya menjadi 1-3 meter saja.

Pada Januari 2013 diperkirakan 9200 keluarga tinggal di tanah negara yang merupakan areal dari waduk Pluit. Tidak terkendalikannya volume air akibat hujan yang terus menerus dalam bulan Januari-Februari mengakibatkan banjir besar di sekitar waduk Pluit. Pemukiman liar yang dibangun di areal yang lembek karena merupakan timbunan sampah kawasan itu praktis terendam air saat banjir. Banyak rumah-rumah penduduk di waduk Pluit yang terendam air dan penghuninya harus diungsikan. Apa yang terjadi di Pluit menjadi semacam skandal besar karena kebetulan rumah wakil gubernur, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, terletak tidak jauh dari situ. Kawasan sekitar waduk Pluit, dimana sebagian merupakan perumahan elit, terlanda banjir secara dahsyat. Tidak mengherankan kalau kemudian wakil gubernur segera turun tangan untuk mengatasi penyebab banjir yaitu pemukiman penduduk secara liar di areal waduk Pluit.

Sangat jelas, seperti kata wakil gubernur, bahwa letak persoalan adalah pada penyediaan perumahan yang layak bagi para pemukim liar yang menenpati areal pertanahan di waduk Pluit. Tanpa menunggu terlalu lama pemerintah kota segera melakukan investigasi terhadap kebijakan dan program pembangunan rumah yang ada bagi pemukim liar di waduk Pluit. Wakil gubernur Basuki menginspeksi kondisi yang ada dan dengan cepat membuka sumbat yang mengakibatkan penyediaan rumah murah bagi penduduk mengalami stagnasi. Setelah dilakukan pemeriksaan ditemukan adanya salah urus dalam pengelolaan penyediaan rumah untuk merelokasi para pemukim liar dari waduk Pluit. Salah urus ini memang berakibat pada rendahnya kualitas perumahan yang membuat para pemukim liar enggan untuk pindah ke apartemen yang dipersiapkan bagi mereka. Setelah dilakukan pemecatan oleh gubernur terhadap kepala proyek pembangunan apartemen karena terbukti melakukan pelanggaran proses relokasi berjalan dengan cepat.

Untuk menarik minat para pemukim liar agar mau pindah ke apartemen pemerintah kota memutuskan untuk membebaskan mereka dari membayar uang sewa selama tiga bulan, memberikan air dan listrik gratis, disamping memberikan lemari es, kompor gas, TV dan meja-kursi secara gratis. Kepada para pemukim liar wakil gubernur menjamin bahwa kehidupan mereka di apartemen akan lebih baik dari tempat tinggal mereka sekarang. Pemerintah kota juga memberikan bantuan saat perpindahan dan membangun fasilitas umum yang baru, seperti pusat kesehatan, tempat ibadah dan sekolah. Langkah yang cepat dari pemerintah dalam menyediakan perumahan yang layak bagi pemukim liar di waduk Pluit sebagaimana dilaporkan oleh media-masa pada pertengahan Mei tercatat telah berhasil merelokasi sekitar 1200 keluarga. Namun demikian, upaya pemerintah ini harus ditingkatkan karena tercatat masih sekitar 8000 keluarga lagi yang masih menunggu untuk direlokasi dari waduk Pluit.