Power and Politics of Kampala’s Informal Sanitation Infrastructures

Abstract

Over the last two decades, research has drawn attention to the fragmented sanitation infrastructures and governing practices behind the associated geographies, particularly in African cities. Informal sanitation infrastructures, which the majority of poor urban residents in cities such as Kampala, Uganda, depend on, are underpinned by various social, spatial, technological and environmental challenges that substantially contribute to (re)producing sanitation inequalities. However, research into how the power relations and politics behind these infrastructures are implicated in these processes is substantially deficient. This paper employs Situated Urban Political Ecology (SUPE) theory to augment existing research into these power relational geometries through an in-depth examination of Kampala’s informal sanitation infrastructures or Heterogeneous Sanitation Infrastructures (HSIs). Using mainly qualitative data, including in-depth key informant interviews (KIIs), participant observation, actor mapping and review of relevant documents, evidence reveals a polycentric power choreography underpinning these infrastructures. Power is diffuse and dispersed, operating through recursive asymmetric, informal-formal collaborative interactions among state, non-state and transnational actors, rather than formal structures. Entrenched socio-cultural patriarchy, transactional bargaining, collaboration, compliance seeking operating in conjunction with selective and strict bureaucratic enforcement or outright evasion of regulations are implicated in reducing or exacerbating sanitation inequalities. Therefore, power and politics substantially influence sanitation access of the urban poor through HSIs. More holistic strategies that fully account for such complex HSI power choreographies are needed to better understand how we engage with the complex urbanisation processes unfolding in African cities and engender more effective solutions to reduce pervasive challenges such as sanitation inequalities.