Version 1
: Received: 31 May 2022 / Approved: 10 June 2022 / Online: 10 June 2022 (08:10:25 CEST)
How to cite:
Schramm, S.; Kasper, M.; Mwenje, E.; Bohlen, S.; Wamuchiru, E. Governing Pandemic Waterscapes: Covid-19 and Nairobi Metropolitan Services as Co-Catalysts of Waterscape Changes. Preprints2022, 2022060153. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202206.0153.v1
Schramm, S.; Kasper, M.; Mwenje, E.; Bohlen, S.; Wamuchiru, E. Governing Pandemic Waterscapes: Covid-19 and Nairobi Metropolitan Services as Co-Catalysts of Waterscape Changes. Preprints 2022, 2022060153. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202206.0153.v1
Schramm, S.; Kasper, M.; Mwenje, E.; Bohlen, S.; Wamuchiru, E. Governing Pandemic Waterscapes: Covid-19 and Nairobi Metropolitan Services as Co-Catalysts of Waterscape Changes. Preprints2022, 2022060153. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202206.0153.v1
APA Style
Schramm, S., Kasper, M., Mwenje, E., Bohlen, S., & Wamuchiru, E. (2022). Governing Pandemic Waterscapes: Covid-19 and Nairobi Metropolitan Services as Co-Catalysts of Waterscape Changes. Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202206.0153.v1
Chicago/Turabian Style
Schramm, S., Simon Bohlen and Elizabeth Wamuchiru. 2022 "Governing Pandemic Waterscapes: Covid-19 and Nairobi Metropolitan Services as Co-Catalysts of Waterscape Changes" Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202206.0153.v1
Abstract
The Covid-19 pandemic and the initial focus on handwashing measures have again highlighted the importance of water access as an essential service in protecting human health. Yet, especially in southern cities, uneven geographies of water access – often mediated by fragmented and unequal infrastructure systems – may hamper the fight against infectious diseases. The spread of SARS-CoV-2 presented a dilemma for water providers as well as residents in water-deprived urban areas as they had to adhere to new hygiene standards and requirements, despite limited access to basic water infrastructure. Therefore, a deeper understanding of pandemic urban waterscapes – the infrastructure and governance systems as well as everyday practices and technologies – is necessary for ongoing debates on (post-) pandemic or zoonotic cities. In our paper, we focus on changes in urban (water) governance and government water projects in Nairobi since early 2020. We show that Covid-19 has contributed to changes in Nairobi’s waterscape but only in conjunction with recent changes in the city’s overall governance structure. However, if these waterscape changes lead to greater equity in water access, and if they have helped to curb the spread of SARS-CoV-2, is more than questionable.
Social Sciences, Geography, Planning and Development
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
