Climate Impacts on Migrants and the Urban Poor in Sub-Saharan African Cities
By Bethany Tietjen and Karen Jacobsen
Kisenyi, Kampala, Uganda. Credit: Flickr, Slum Dwellers International
Cities around the world are confronting the increasing frequency and severity of disasters due to climate change, and it is the urban poor who are most affected. Globally, urban informal settlements (so-called “slum areas”) are expanding rapidly, in part because of rural to urban migration. The environmental and public health challenges these settlements face are exacerbated by climate impacts like flooding and extreme heat. In an article in the Journal of Climate Resilience and Climate Justice, we explore environmental problems in informal settlements in two African cities: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and Kampala, Uganda. Our article reviews the research on environmental vulnerability in informal settlements, particularly in inland African cities, and how city governments have responded to those problems. Informal settlements are inhabited by local people as well as migrants, refugees, and internally displaced people. Africa has the highest rate of urbanization in the world and estimates from the African Cities Research Consortium suggest that nearly 60% of the urban population in Sub-Saharan Africa are living in informal settlements. High in-migration can increase the climate vulnerability of a city, as urban development and informal settlements expand into hazard-prone areas. We found that most city planning does not incorporate the perspectives of migrants and the urban poor, despite their particular vulnerability to climate impacts.
One example of the environmental challenges these settlements face occurred in an informal settlement outside of Addis in 2017, when the Koshe landfill collapsed and caused a landslide, killing at least 115 people. Degraded or nonexistent infrastructure in these settlements and lack of service provision means hazards like flooding and heatwaves impact residents more severely than residents in more formalized housing. As informal settlements expand, over-burdened infrastructure can lead to urban disasters such as the Koshe landfill collapse, but also to frequent health and housing crises like flooded dwellings, impassable roads, and even children drowning. Policy responses at both the national and city levels in Addis and Kampala have been limited. Many settlements have tried to organize themselves to deal with blocked drains and plastic pollution, but they have few resources to scale up their efforts.
Aerial view showing the size of the Koshe Landfill in 2019, as well as its vicinity to informal settlements. Image source: UN-Habitat/Felix Vollmann]
Urban informal settlements are often in areas deemed ‘undesirable’ — they tend to be on steep hillsides, on floodplains, or near landfills where they are vulnerable to mudslides, flash flooding, contamination, or a combination of these risks. Informal settlements also lack risk-reducing infrastructure such as paved roads, drainage infrastructure, piped water, or access to the energy grid. The combination of poverty and lack of services and infrastructure means residents are less able to cope with climate and environmental hazards, and their indirect consequences, such as outbreaks of diseases like malaria.
Kampala, Uganda. 2011 Photo by Slum Dwellers International/Flickr
While city governments like those in Addis and Kampala have developed high-level plans to increase resilience in their cities, the urban poor – including many migrants – are not included in planning processes and rarely experience tangible benefits from these plans. In both Addis and Kampala there are ongoing efforts on the parts of nongovernmental and community-based organizations, like Slumdwellers International, to address the flooding and water scarcity problems in their communities. These efforts could be supported and expanded by city governments, but so far there are few signs that this is happening. Our research suggests that governments should incorporate the urban poor into their resilience plans. Their ongoing exclusion aggravates their problems and poses wider threats to the resilience of the entire city.
We recommend the following:
Improve public trust. Current urban development agendas focus on high-end real estate development projects like golf courses, luxury hotels, and shopping malls. Most residents – especially those living in informal settlements – have little reason to believe their priorities are being heard.
Develop green infrastructure. Both Kampala and Addis can benefit from increased integration of dedicated green spaces with high infiltration capacity for managing storm water and flood control, particularly in informal settlements. Greenscapes can introduce trees that provide shade and mitigate against the urban heat island effect.
Improve water and sewerage management. Both cities need increased drinking water access and professionalization of sewerage management. Successful examples have been documented in urban informal settlements in India and Pakistan; indeed, South Asia has seen significant progress in addressing the public health challenges faced by the residents of informal settlements. Cities like Kampala and Addis could learn from their examples.
These are just some of the ways sub-Saharan African cities such as Kampala and Addis can address the environmental vulnerability of people in informal settlements – local researchers and activists have found many more ways, and their perspectives should be incorporated into planning. All agree that including the voices of the urban poor in planning processes will lead to plans that actually address the challenges these communities face. These solutions can then be integrated into existing climate plans in both Kampala and Addis.
Bethany Tietjen is a Predoctoral Research Fellow at The Climate Policy Lab at The Fletcher School.
Karen Jacobsen is a Professor in Global Migration at The Fletcher School.