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Department of Spatial Planning
A wall with barbed wire in the city of Lima in Peru © Nick Nowara​/​TU Dortmund

New publication by Sophie Schramm

Many people queuing at a newly errected free-water point in the Kibera area in Nairobi © Moritz Kasper​/​TU Dortmund
People queuing at a newly errected free-water point in Kibera, Nairobi (2021)
This article examines how COVID-19 has shaped experiences with water supply in the Nairobi neighborhoods of Kibera and Eastleigh. Using qualitative and quantitative data, it shows how the pandemic exacerbated existing infrastructural inequalities and led to further fragmentation of the waterscapes. At the same time, the article emphasizes the importance of solidarity-based, neighborhood-oriented approaches for more equitable urban infrastructures.

Article

Kasper, M., Wamuchiru, E. and Schramm, S. (2025), EXPERIENCING MORE-THAN-PANDEMIC WATERSCAPES: An Intra-urban Comparison of Water Practices and Geographies in Nairobi. Int. J. Urban Reg. Res.. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2427.70038

Keywords

urban waterscapes / Covid-19 / socio-technical infrastructures / solidarities / urban governance

Authors

Moritz Kasper

Elizabeth Wamuchiru

Sophie Schramm

Abstract

While many African cities, such as Nairobi, fared comparatively well during the pandemic years, urban residents still faced compounded uncertainties and an unequal distribution of burdens that were infrastructurally co-mediated, for example, within and through place-specific waterscapes and their socio-technical infrastructures. Approaching Covid-19 as an eye-opening infrastructural event, we unravel its impact on the experiences of waterscapes in two marginalized neighborhoods in Nairobi: Kibera and Eastleigh. Based on an intra-urban comparison using qualitative and quantitative data, we argue for a nuanced view of urban waterscapes during and after times of crisis or rupture. Urban residents’ practices and experiences reveal how the pandemic reinforced an already ongoing fragmentation and individualization of infrastructural responsibilities, further catalyzed by state intervention or a lack thereof. Ultimately, reading our findings as more-than-pandemic, the article urges scholars and practitioners to address micro-fragmentation within neighborhoods and its infrastructural inequalities through plans and policies rooted in broader solidarities.