Urban waterscapes and the pandemic – changing water practices, technologies and infrastructures in Nairobi

2019冠状病毒病大流行凸显了获得水作为保护人类健康的基本服务的重要性。经常洗手和保持一般卫生是健康的先决条件，特别是控制传染病的传播。然而，防治传染病和防止这种新型病毒在人与人之间传播的工作可能因供水的地理分布不均而受到阻碍。更具体地说，生活在快速发展的城市贫困地区的人们更容易受到全球大流行病的影响。当前的大流行给供水商和缺水城市地区的居民带来了两难境地，因为他们在缺乏水基础设施的情况下，需要找到满足新的卫生标准和要求的方法。因此，全球各地缺水住区的城市行为者以多种多样的方式调整其与水有关的做法，以适应健康和卫生的新要求。虽然一些关于非洲城市的研究已经讨论了大流行期间对水需求增加的不同应对措施，但城市“水景”在大流行期间发生变化的复杂方式仍有待调查。“水景”一词将人们的注意力引向了“有争议的水地理”，在这里，城市的水流受到网络基础设施系统以及日常实践和技术的调节，从而反映了不平衡的权力关系。我们以肯尼亚首都内罗毕为重点，利用水景的概念，了解1)内罗毕的水景——基础设施系统以及日常做法和技术——在疫情期间发生了怎样的变化；2)这些水景变化如何与健康和卫生的新要求相关联，以及3)它们在多大程度上反映了适应新要求和/或重新产生城市碎片化的创造力。在对大流行期间内罗毕全市社会技术水基础设施系统的变化进行概述之后，我们将把实地研究的重点放在内罗毕两个特定地区（伊斯特利和基贝拉）的水相关做法上。伊斯特利是一个中低收入地区，历史悠久，是（肯尼亚-）索马里社区和商业的中心。伊斯特利的管道供水跟不上通过多层住宅的快速致密化。基贝拉是内罗毕最古老的贫民窟之一。尽管定期尝试升级基贝拉，但它主要是低层建筑，极其密集的住房，大多数没有个人用水和卫生设施。我们将采用混合方法，重点是定性研究，以揭示与环境相关的特征，并深入了解内罗毕缺水地区日常用水做法当前变化的机制、关系和动机。

The Covid-19 pandemic has brought to the fore the importance of water access as an essential service protecting human health. Frequent handwashing and general hygiene are prerequisites for health and particularly for containing the spread of contagious diseases. However, the fight against infectious diseases and the prevention of human-to-human transmission of the novel virus may be hampered by uneven geographies of water access. More particularly, people living in deprived areas of rapidly growing cities risk being more vulnerable to the effects of the global pandemic. The current pandemic has presented a dilemma for water providers as well as residents in water-deprived urban areas as they need to find ways to meet new hygiene standards and requirements despite lacking access to water infrastructure. Thus, urban actors in water-deprived settlements across the globe adapt their water-related practices in manifold heterogeneous ways to new requirements of health and hygiene. While some studies of urban Africa have already discussed different responses to increased water demand during the pandemic, the intricate ways in which urban ‘waterscapes’ have changed during the pandemic are yet to be investigated. The term ‘waterscape’ directs attention to the “contested geographies of water” where urban water flows are mediated by networked infrastructure systems as well as everyday practices and technologies and thereby reflect uneven power relations.Focusing on Nairobi, Kenya’s capital with historically uneven and highly contested geographies of water, we mobilize the concept of waterscapes in order to understand 1) how Nairobi’s waterscapes – the infrastructure system as well as everyday practices and technologies – have changed during the pandemic; 2) how these waterscape changes relate to new requirements of health and hygiene, and 3) in how far they reflect creativity in adapting to new requirements and/or re-produce urban fragmentation. After a city-wide overview over changes of the sociotechnical water infrastructure system of Nairobi during the pandemic, we will focus our field study on water-related practices in two specific areas in Nairobi: Eastleigh and Kibera. Eastleigh is a middle-lower income area with a long history as a hub for the (Kenyan-)Somali community and businesses. Piped water supply in Eastleigh cannot keep up with rapid densification through multi-story housing. Kibera is one of the oldest slums of Nairobi. Despite regular attempts to upgrade Kibera, it is dominated by low-rise, extremely dense housing mostly without individual access to water and sanitation. We will apply a mixed-method approach with an emphasis on qualitative research to reveal context-dependent characteristics and a deep understanding of the mechanisms, relationships and motives underlying current changes of everyday water practices in water-deprived areas of Nairobi.