Potts, in 'Challenging the Myths of Urban Dynamics in Sub-Saharan Africa', has questioned existing literature in providing an adequate picture of urbanization in Africa. In recent years, the dynamics of African urban populations and economies have gone in two directions: positive economic growth fuelled by in-migration, or rapid urbanization which has not been followed up by sufficient urban-based investment (Potts, 2011: 1382).
This study was focused on Nigeria due to its "population size and varied indigenous traditions of urbanization"(Potts, 2011: 1386). The misrepresentation of current figures is alarming. The UN, estimated that in 2008, 69 million Nigerians were living in towns. However, compared to Africapolis, which is regarded as the "most comprehensive and comparable data on urbanization in West Africa" by the OECD (OECD), only 42 million Nigerians resided in towns - a difference of 27 million people.
Reference List:
OECD (2015) 'Africapolis, a comprehensive and comparable dataset on urbanisation in
West Africa' (WWW; http://www.oecd.org/swac/ourwork/africapolis.htm;
20 October 2015)
Potts, D. (2012) 'Challenging the Myths of Urban Dynamics in Sub-Saharan Africa: The Evidence from Nigeria', World Development, 40, 7, 1382-1393
This blog does a good job in setting out the problematics that you will be exploring in future posts, from the challenges of water and sanitation provision, to some of the strategies that have been employed to help alleviate this. You have done a good job introducing and explaining new terminologies from the literature.
ReplyDeleteBe careful how you use the term ‘holistic’ in blog2 – many ‘top-down’ approaches have been criticized in the past for not being holistic in fact, so it might be useful for you to take one of your posts to explore what a holistic approach to water management might entail.
As you move forward I think it is very useful that you have decided to ground your debates using the particular example of Nigeria – however, I would encourage you even when you are setting out the background of its urbanization (blog 3) that you spend a little more time connecting these facts with its implications for wat and san supply. Finally, keep in mind the nature of a critical review – especially as you start to review more contested ideas, it will be helpful to hear your own analysis of these approaches, not only a summary of the author’s ideas!