Planning and management for storm water and sullage in environmentally vulnerable informal low income urban communities
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Date
1996-10Author
Mogeni, John-Suit N
Type
ThesisLanguage
enMetadata
Show full item recordAbstract
This study was carried out in Daraja Mbili within Kisii municipality and concerns environmental consequences of uncontrolled stormwater and sullage in environmentally vulnerable quasi-legal urban low income settlements. These settlements are more often than not found in environmentally vulnerable area like flood plains or steep slopes. In putting up a new dwelling the urban squatter is constrained by income, inaccessibility to sustainable land and urban planning laws. Thus, most policies of development agencies on urban development operate outside the scope of squatter settlement needs.
Severe environmental degradation has accompanied the increasing pressure on such environmentally vulnerable areas, . This situation magnify the vulnerability of -fctve tvrban poor to broad array of environmental problems and natural disasters. In this ■^''Context, there was conclusive evidence derived from the study showing that environmental problems faced by the residents
of Daraja Mbili are
attributable to
three
factors;
the
low socio-
economic status of
the residents,
whose
way of
life
encourage
disposal of sullage
and stormwater
in a
way that
is
harmful to
their own health.
This has come
about
in terms
of
unsanitary
disposal methods and lack of environmental health infrastructure like stormwater drains. The second factor was the nature of the topography in the area. The steep slopes have encouraged soil erosion by the stormwater. This comes about due to increased water runoff velocities caused by steep slopes of Nyanchwa hill that have had their vegetation cover reduced over the years. Poor farming methods on Nyanchwa hill resulted to replacing natural vegetation with pasture crops. The pasture crops do not encourage stormwater infiltration.
Sponsorhip
University of NairobiPublisher
Department of Urban & Regional Planning, University of Nairobi
Subject
Environmental planningLow income communities
Environmental vulnerability
Planning & management
Urban areas
Storm water
Sullage
Kenya