Urban waterscapes and the pandemic – changing water practices, technologies and infrastructures in Nairobi

The Covid-19 pandemic has brought to the fore the importance of water access as an essential service protecting human health. Yet, the prevention of human-to-human transmission of the novel virus may be impacted by uneven geographies of water access. The current pandemic presents a dilemma in water-deprived urban areas as residents need to find ways to adapt to new hygiene standards and local Covid-19 responses.

Focusing on Nairobi, Kenya’s capital with historically uneven and highly contested geographies of water, we mobilize the concept of waterscapes in order to understand how Nairobi’s waterscapes have changed during the pandemic; how these waterscape changes relate to new requirements; and in how far they reflect adaptive creativity or re-produce urban fragmentation. Funded by DFG, the project is a 12-month long collaboration between IPS, the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Nairobi, and the British Institute for Eastern Africa.

For "Urban waterscapes and the pandemic", IPS collaborates with:

• Department of Urban and Regional Planning (University of Nairobi)
• British Institute for Eastern Africa, Nairobi, Kenya