Editorials Opinion and Analysis
Contesting realities
By Simon Gusah
September, 2009
"In these urban spaces social identities collide, collude and accommodate each other... struggles for survival and power are played out in physical spaces and built environments are spatial and organisational expressions of social relations and contesting realities"
-Jo Beall, A City for All
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| Abonnema Wharf Road, which leads to the newly-demolished Njemanze waterfront is to suffer the same fate |
Five years ago, as a novice development practitioner, the quotation above struck a chord and helped clarify for me the complex dynamics of the messy concept of "development" in general, and urban development in particular. Today, a "collision" is taking place at the Port Harcourt waterfronts.
The clash is between a largely well-meaning government, with a lofty vision of a "Greater Port Harcourt" and the poor, untenured inhabitants of the marginal land along the creeks. The Amaechi-led government is looking at the city of tomorrow, as it should. The waterfront slum dwellers on the other hand are preoccupied with today, as they eke out a living servicing their city. One seeks to "get on"; the other is content to get by.
To understand the waterfront contention in these terms is useful, because it frees all those engaged in the process from demonizing, over-simplifying or just disregarding the other's point of view.
The filth and squalor of some waterfront communities needs to be seen (and smelt) to be believed. I was at Okrika Waterside recently at low tide. The water was well out, exposing the muddy flat, strewn with garbage and detritus. The wooden outside toilets stand on stilts at the end of walkways and the residents relieve themselves directly in to the creek through a hole in the floor boards. The stench was pungent, almost tangible.
This is no way for anyone to live. This is no way for children to be brought up. Those constrained to live this way wish, as passionately as the government, for something better.
The contention is more about the "how" than the "what" of the matter. There are no heroes nor villains to this waterfront drama, just contesting ideas about how to change the situation.
From collision to accommodation
The underlying issues are simple. Port Harcourt has grown well beyond its capacity to support the population, and land is scarce. So the roads are congested, services stretched, and nerves frayed by the recent years of unrest. The idea of incentivizing migration to the rural areas (or reversing the rural-urban drift), often mooted by the great and good as the solution, is a non-starter in reality. After all, why would the relatively disempowered poor relocate away from the major markets that support them, when the rich who can afford to commute are crowding the GRAs?
Port Harcourt has one major advantage, however: the possibility of "creating" land. Surrounded by mangrove swamps, the city has the unique opportunity to sand-fill and reclaim thousands of hectares of prime real estate. A costly solution to be sure, but probably one that is feasible. After all the waterfront slum dwellers in most cases did their own sand-filling and reclamation in order to be where they are today. What is to stop them collaborating with government to do the same, and better, again?
And if Mr. Amaechi thinks he has challenges, he should spare a thought for the Lagos State governor, Raji Fashola, who wants to sand-fill the Atlantic Ocean! If the cart (of demolition) were put behind the "horse" of reclamation, a lot of heat would be taken out of the debate over waterfronts. Even if the reclamation were incomplete, the people would have something to pin their hopes on. It would diffuse tension and help create the kind of space needed for planning and dialogue. It would bring all parties currently joined in the battle of ideas and values at the waterfronts, a step closer to the prize of "development"-accommodation.
Gusah is a development planner and architect based in Port Harcourt.
