Upgrading Makoko: a water-based approach to sustainable urban development

(Iwan Baan 2015)

Jimmy Laycock & the Lagos regeneration program

Problem statement & needs statement

Lagos, Nigeria is one of the fastest growing cities in the world and the second largest city in Africa. The city’s population has exploded in recent years at a growth rate of 5.7% per year since the 1970s (UN Habitat 2008). Over the next 30 years, the population of Lagos is expected to double due to high birth rates and rapid urbanization (World Population Review 2016). Much of this ever-increasing population seek refuge in one of Lagos’s many informal housing settlements where development faces an uphill battle to match the speed of urbanisation. ‘By 2015, Lagos will be the third largest city in the world but it has less infrastructure than any of the world’s other largest cities,’ said Francisco Bolaji Abosede, Lagos Commissioner for Town Planning and Urbanisation. Lagos represents a site ripe for urban development, the city undergoing an obstacle-ridden path to become a becoming a global city. Mass inequality and disparities in development across the city represent significant stumbling blocks in this quest; while there are many millionaires in Lagos, roughly two-thirds of its population reside in informal housing settlements (World Population Review 2016). One of these settlements within Lagos is Makoko, where roughly half of its residents live below the official poverty line on less than 1.25 US$ per day. The majority of Makoko’s 50,000-100,000 population live above a lagoon on floating informal housing structures making this area a unique case study. Consequently, its residents have learnt to live with water, rather than fight it. Despite their adaptation to the terrain they live above, Makoko’s residents still require infrastructure, education and innovation, which would allow them to exploit the uniqueness of their settlement and prove its worth as an economic hub in the face of threats of clearance.

The project’s goal is aiming match the rapid rate of urbanization with sustainable

development. It will do this by providing innovative initiatives to improve the economic sustainability of the informal housing settlement of Makoko, Lagos. Community-based and locally-operated initiatives represent the heart of our action plan to improve the lives of Makoko’s residents. Community funds are deemed the only rational instrument out of demand-led approaches that maintain the potential to reach the marginalised poor. The action-plan will adopt an ‘acupuncture’ approach to development by encompassing small-scale infrastructures that can have a large impact upon an area. The centre-piece for this project is the construction of a biogas plant with its profits feeding back into the community in a capacity-building approach to development. These profits will be used to improve community development and urban sustainability in Makoko with a particular focus on encouraging employment opportunities. As human occupation is sustained at the most basic level, it is the hope that residents become empowered to work, which would thus allow markets to grow and prosper. Our plan offers economic prosperity to Makoko in an attempt to try and counteract the Nigerian governments frequent ‘slash and burn’ technique of raising and re-building informal housing settlements. The successful project can be utilised as a future model for sustainable development in informal housing settlements. Makoko will represent a case study for vouching for sustainability and flood resistant lifestyles in deprived areas. However, the model of Makoko must be aired with caution, what is effective at this unique settlement, may not produce the same results in a different context; it is about trying what works and what doesn’t at each site. Makoko will serve as a first testing ground for our innovative project, it is our hope that the settlement will become a world leader in sustainable development of deprived urban areas.

Goal, Objectives & Approach GOAL: to upgrade the informal housing settlement of Makoko, Lagos through practices of sustainable development Slum-upgrading is not only a social and human act but the economic inclusion of millions of people. OBJECTIVE 1: To provide a site for converting waste into energy in Makoko Hypothesis: It is expected that a floating biogas plant will be constructed on the outskirts of Makoko. The plant will be used as a site for sustainable waste disposal for the residents of Makoko, providing them with the opportunity to recycle.

Rationale: The biogas plant will encourage residents to dispose of their waste in a sustainable manner, thus improving the cleanliness of Makoko and reducing the risk of problems associated with waste (health, sanitation, environment). If these risks are reduced through the proposed means, Makoko can be sustainably upgraded. The waste will then be converted into energy that will be used to develop capacity-building projects within the community. Method: The floating biogas plant will be constructed upon the successful identification of a site and the granting of planning permission. The floating platform will be constructed using locally sourced bamboo, after this assembly a flood defence team will also be contracted to provide stable and long-term defence from rising waters due to natural disasters and extended periods of bad weather. The plant will be assembled by a specialist team of engineers and construction workers. Post-construction, the plant and its platform will be maintained and serviced every month by a team of engineers.

OBJECTIVE 2: Invest profits from the converted waste back into the community; turning vulnerability into strength by combining existing local knowledge with a new resource-based economy based on the unique spatial and social challenges of Makoko. Hypothesis: profits from the sale of biogas energy and the energy itself will be fed back into the community through a capacity-building approach. A variety of local-scale initiatives will be implemented throughout Makoko. Rationale: The implementation of small, decentralized biogas plant on water, which uses the locally accruing organic waste as feedstock, operated and owned by the locals creates a resource-based and therefore sustainable local economy. Method: Organic waste and human excrete are no longer discharged into the lagoon, but processed into biogas for charging batteries that can provide a household with two full days' worth of electricity. The byproduct, manure, can be used in the cultivation of tomatoes and peppers. The production of biogas is technologically straightforward: the waste goes into rubber sacks, which are then placed in the blazing sun. Synthetic waste like plastic is collected and recycled into new products or sold for reuse, for example to companies like Coca-Cola. The biogas will be distributed to the community through through rechargeable car batteries, waste recycling converted to handmade products, fertilizer to grow food, creation of sanitary facilities (human waste collection, shower as rainwater). A neighbourhood hotspot will be located in close proximity to the biogas plant. This hotspot will act as a knowledge and information centre for the community. It will contain among other things: a bio-gas cooking restaurant, a community gardening center, a fish market, a community sanitary facility and a doctor’s room.

Planningpermission

Informlocal

community

Platformandflood

defencs

Erectbiogasplant

Operational&monthlyservicing

OBJECTIVE 3: Develop knowledge and resources, empower citizens to encourage participation in the community of Makoko. Hypothesis: Empowered residents armed with knowledge and resources related to economic and environmental sustainability will promote a thriving resource-based community economy in Makoko. Rationale: The community-based initiatives will boost knowledge, training and awareness through participation. A rise in economic activity will encourage more residents to participate in the community through the project’s and also their own initiatives, thus creating a decentralized supply system. Method: As the infrastructure and supply system is de-centralized and operated by members of the community become empowered through innovative activities and access to facilities. The empowerment will emerge from participation through the proposed initiatives and the distribution of leaflets (in 3 different languages) on how to use and the importance of the biogas plant, construction advice, flood defense advice and the benefits of acting in a sustainable manner. It is also hope that significant knowledge transfer will occur between residents and entrepreneurism will be fostered significantly throughout the community.

Logic Model

Timelines Biogasplant Year1 Year2 Year3

Tasks Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4Staffing:recruiting,hiring,training

Equipmentacquisition

Securingsite&Designing

Promotion

Constructionofplant

Operational

Servicing/upgradingplant

Evaluation/gaugingthesuccess

Capacity-buildinginitiatives Year2 Year3

Tasks Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4Syntheticwaste

convertedandsoldforre-use

Carbatteriesdispenseelectricity

Constructionofcommunitycentre

Publicshowers&toilets

Healthclinic

Biogascookingcanteen

Gardencentre

Knowledgetransfer/entrepreneurship

Impact/Evaluation The overall impact of the project will have created a significant upgrade of the informal

housing settlement of Makoko through sustainable practices, most notably via the construction of a floating biogas plant. The community-driven action plan will adopt an ‘acupuncture’ approach to development by encompassing small-scale infrastructures that can have a large impact upon an area. The plan, which can be put in place due to the predicted success of the biogas plant, will offer economic prosperity to Makoko in a poignant attempt to counteract the Nigerian governments frequent ‘slash and burn’ technique of raising and re-building informal housing settlements. The impact of the project will therefore not only empower the residents of Makoko, but also present the economic worthiness and sustainability of the settlement to the government. Makoko’s residents will directly benefit substantially from their involvement in the community centre and the use of the biogas plant, notably in: higher rates of employment, empowerment through community activities, less floating waste in their community, improved health and sanitation.

It is the hope that this project will inspire other community-driven decentralized projects that focus upon sustainability and that Makoko becomes a world leader in innovative urban development of deprived areas. Although Makoko can provide a template for this development, mimicking the exact methods that have been presented in this context should not necessarily be encouraged, informal housing settlements vary across a broad range of contexts across the world, this should be recognized and thus sustainable practices should be adjusted accordingly. This project should act as an inspiration to inspire innovative thoughts of sustainable practices, not as a rhetoric model that guarantees success.