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African urban complexities and the governance challenges of urban rivers – a systemic-relational inquiry

ON Odume, CF Nnadozie, FC Akamagwuna and DR Choruma
June 2021 - May 2023

Sponsor: University of Bayreuth – Africa Multiple Cluster of Excellence
Collaborators: Dr Blessing Nonye Onyima, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Nigeria; Mr Omovoh, Gift, Federal Ministry of Environment, Nigeria; Prof. Uchenna Okeja, Department of Philosophy, Rhodes University

The trajectory of urbanisation in Africa is complex, presenting potentially intractable governance challenges of natural resources such as urban rivers. In Africa, urban river systems are often seriously degraded and recent empirical evidence suggests the accumulation of novel pollutants such as macro- and microplastics in such river systems (Grimm et al. 2000). However, healthy urban rivers can contribute to and support sustainable urban development through the supply of desired and valued ecosystem services (MEA 2005; Wangai et al. 2017). We argue that if African urban rivers are to be on an ecologically sustainable path, then a new approach that recognises the complexity of the interconnectedness and dynamic interactions between social and ecological systems within African urban landscapes, is required. Our research in the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro in South Africa and the Federal Capital Territory in Nigeria, which came to an end May 2021, focused on three key components of the notion of urban complexity in relation to urban river ecology and governance challenges: i) the imperative for developing multidimensional (ecological, social and economic) integrative indicators of urban river health; ii) institutional integration failure (i.e. silo operation) as a key governance challenge, and iii) the complex interactions and linkages between urban river health and people’s social-economic well-being in river catchments.

Last Modified: Wed, 14 Aug 2024 12:41:11 SAST