Image sourced from the #commentator254

🌧️ Simulating ‘Room for the River’ in Concrete Jungles 🏙️🏗️🏢🚧

Is the point driven home yet? our rationale would be to blame the government, and talk about drainage systems and how this government is inefficient. But Waititu has claimed it, that we are the ones who built our infrastustures on the route that the river flows, nature ain’t at fault here but we are. Remember when we used to cut trees, nature responded, then came Wangare Mathai (God Rest her soul), and she fought for nature, she heard it’s cry and responded harshly. We all had to adhere to her requests to treat nature with respect.

So again I ask, Is the point driven home yet?

Last night, we all watched and feared for our family members, colleagues, friends and acquaintances, stuck in highways, swimming to safety, or even draining water filled up in living rooms headed for the bedrooms looking for space there (The estate I stay we had such scenarios). We watched videos of Kilimani basements (the jungle of every kind of flat that allows no dim of light in livingrooms or bedrooms), turning into exclusive underground swimming pools and the Expressway pillars looking like a marina. People were stranded on highways until 2 AM. Ain’t that scary, exhausting, frustrating, and devastating for everyone.

But honestly… are we really surprised 😲, and why are we?

History check; Sometime back, Maasais occupied some environs, such as Ongata Rongai, and Nairobi, where they literally named Nairobi as Enkare Nyrobi, meaning “the place of cool waters.” Then came the begining of civilization early 1900s there about, where massive wetland was drained to lay tracks for Uganda Railway. It was “Perfect place for a concrete metropolis!” Fast forward a century, we have paved over the swamp with asphalt with drum trucks or rollers(allow me to call them that) to smoothen it out, then act completely 😕 when the water inevitably wants its living room back. The fact that we confused, but ignore the stakes, we are reminded when the sky opens up and powers the showers down on us.

In Kenya, our flood mitigation strategy is basically vibes, prayers, and complaining about the governor not implementing the ‘good’ drainage system. The gray infrastructure (drainage, walls, pipes, manholes etc), ain’t just it.

So, what are we missing?

In 2024, we still complained about the rains, floods came, a few situations were handled here and there, then we all forgot and sighed 😮‍💨 what a moment then went back to our normal lives. Ironically it was around the same time, between March and May. Well, I think it’s time we handle this differently, Don’t you 🧐?

It’s not about riparian land (clearly, we are in it), or the infrastructures, ask Netherlands, they will tell you, they had the higher walls, but learnt the hard way by evacuating 250,000 people and investing about 2.3 billion to make room for water, mind you this was between 1993 to 1995. We all claim jokingly, that we are headed to Singapore, but did you know, that it faces intense rainfall or worse than Nairobi, that they relied on the canals to flush the waters. In 2006, they had enough and created the Active Beautiful Clean (ABC) Waters Programme. The straight canals, were converted to meandering river channels, as if not enough, commercial, industrial and residential in over 0.2 hectares were forced to control their own peak runoff (meaning coming up with ideas, to ensure water found it’s route back to the sea). Meanwhile, we are still laying down solid concrete in every square inch of the city and wondering why the runoff ends up in our living rooms.

The Best Foot Forward

We are here. We can’t pack up Nairobi and move it to higher grounds, we can’t also pack up and move out of Nairobi. But we can move our mindsets from gray infrastructure, to Green infrastructure. We need to stop seeing heavy rain as an unprecedented crisis.

Green Infrastructure, ain’t about aesthetics, but building with nature in mind. The permeable pavements, bioswales, rain gardens (those basement parking lots could be gardens, while parking is slotted for 1st & 2nd floors), engineers and planners could incorporate them. Roads should have buffers that absorbs water, not surfaces that reject which in turn would mean redirection.

Emergency warnings, are done early enough by the metrological departments, which means either people should stay indoors, or avoid coming out with vehicles. Parking slots in public areas can be used as emergency rooms to redirect water to the river banks.

It’s no longer about who forgot to unclog the drain, or the drainage system that needs to be implemented, it’s about how can we handle the current situation, and learn the routes of the river and incorporate room for it.