The Environment-Conflict Nexus pp 91-102 | Cite as
Water, Land, and Governance: Environmental Security in Dense Urban Areas in Sub-Saharan Africa
Chapter
First Online:
- 2 Citations
- 713 Downloads
Abstract
As the demographic shift to an urban society continues, there are often extreme limitations in the abilities of formal municipal governments to plan space, infrastructure, and resources. This leads to issues of large-scale unplanned habitations, extreme stress on environmental resources, uncontrolled sprawl, pollution, informal governance structures, and dangerous power conflicts. This chapter will use specific examples from Accra, Ghana and Kampala, Uganda to discuss Environmental Security in sub-Saharan Africa. Both these cities are mid-size cities experiencing rapid urbanization and both cities have a significant proportion of their population living in informal areas. Environmental security in dense urban areas in sub-Saharan Africa is intricately linked to the complex relationship between water, land, and governance.
Keywords
Africa City Governance Health Informal area Land tenure Megacity Non-Governmental Organization Poverty Sanitation Slum Urban WaterLiterature Cited
- International Labor Organization (ILO) (2009) The informal economy in Africa promoting transition to formality challenges and strategies. International Labor Organization, GenevaGoogle Scholar
- Krakowka AR, Heimel N, Galgano FA (2012) Modeling environmental security in Sub-Saharan Africa. Geograph Bull 53(1):21–38Google Scholar
- Myers GA (2016) Urban environments in Africa: a critical analysis of environmental politics. Policy Press, Great BritainGoogle Scholar
- New York and Washington D.C. (2015) U.N. Department of economic and social affairs. World urbanization prospects the revision human settlements program. Situation analysis of informal settlements in Kampala Nairobi Kenya UNHABITAT United Nations Habitat state of African cities reimagining sustainable urban transitions rep the World Bank February the growth challenge can Ugandan cities get to work World Bank Group 2014 SRC-GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar
- Nyametso JK (2012) Resettlement of slum dwellers, land tenure security and improved housing, living and environmental conditions at Madina estate, Accra, Ghana. Urban Forum 23(3):343–365CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- Richmond AK, Arney C, Coronges K, Simonson L (2016a) The role of network science in analyzing slums in rapidly growing urban areas. Small Wars J. August. http://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/the-role-of-network-science-in-analyzing-slums-in-rapidly-growing-urban-areas. Accessed 23 June 2017
- Richmond AK, Link J, Malcomb DW (2016b) Case study 1: the impact of pollution in a multicountry lake: a case study of Lake Victoria in the Ugandan context. In: Gaskin-Reyes C (ed) Water planet: the culture, politics, economics, and sustainability of water on Earth: the culture, politics, economics, and sustainability of water on earth. ABC-CLIO, New YorkGoogle Scholar
- Soto H (2001) The mystery of capital: why capitalism triumphs in the west and fails everywhere else. Black Swan, New YorkGoogle Scholar
- UN Habitat (2003) The challenge of slums: global report on human settlements 2003. https://unhabitat.org/?mbt_book=the-challenge-of-slums-global-report-on-human-settlements-2003. Accessed 23 June 2017
- UN Habitat (2006) Situation analysis of informal settlements in Kampala. http://unhabitat.org/books/situation-analysis-of-informal-settlements-in-kisumu/. Accessed 17 June 2017
- UN HABITAT State of the World Cities (2016) http://mirror.unhabitat.org/documents/media_centre/sowcr2006/SOWCR%205.pdf. Accessed 23 June 2017
- UNDP MDG Report (2014) Assessing progress in Africa toward the millennium development goals. Analysis of the common African position on the post-2015 development agenda. https://www.google.com/search?q=http://www.undp.org/content/dam/rba/docs/Reports/MDG_Africa_Report_2014_ENG.pdf&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8. Accessed 23 June 2017
- UNICEF (2017) Assessment of waste water treatment in Accra. Civil Engineering Department KNUST. https://www.unicef.org/ghana/assessment_of_waste_water_plant_report.pdf. Accessed 26 September 2017
- United Nations (2016) The world’s cities in 2016. http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/population/publications/pdf/urbanization/the_worlds_cities_in_2016_data_booklet.pdf. Accessed 23 Sept 2017
- World Bank Group (2017) Population living in slums (% of Urban Population) | Data. https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/EN.POP.SLUM.UR.ZS?end=2014&locations=GH&start=2013. Accessed 27 Sept 2017
Copyright information
© Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2019