Nairobi: Compost creates income for park maintenance 
    




    







    
    
    
    














  
  
  
        
    
Published on Sustainable Cities (http://sustainablecities.dk)

    

    

    

    
    

    
19-08-2008

    			

								
Nairobi: Compost creates income for park maintenance 

				
Lack of toilet facilities and waste dominating public places is a reality in many places all over the world. A slum in Nairobi, Kenya, has come up with a possible answer to the challenge by creating parks that contain toilets and compost facilities. The compostable waste of the area is used to produce compost, which is sold locally as fertilizer and generates income used to maintain the park and toilets. The case may inspire others to bring sustainable economy into waste management systems and parks.

				

			


    
Kibera, a slum of Nairobi, Kenya, has found a solution to huge waste management problems by creating a new type of public space – so called productive parks. In Kibera trash is usually deposited in the nearby river and swept away during seasonal flooding. There is approximately one toilet for every 500 people. Residents use plastic bags as their primary mean of disposing faeces. Filled bags are tossed along the road or into the river and lead to significant health problems. About 700.000 to 1 million inhabitants live in Kibera. The area is 2550km², roughly two-thirds the size of Manhattan’s Central Park. 


The new productive parks will provide open space, generate income and systemize waste collection. Divided into three sections, the parks offer an open community area with playground, agricultural zones to support the cottage industry of water hyacinth cultivation and a third area with a fenced area to hold compost barrels and a bank of toilets. Within the system, composting becomes integral. Not only will it alleviate Kibera’s urgent waste problem by providing places designated for refuse (80% of its waste is compostable), but the resulting compost can also be sold on the market as fertilizer. Revenue can fund park and toilet maintenance. Kibera Nairobi children in trash 29 July 2007 By hris1Johnson, Flickr, Creative Commons The idea to create productive parks was born in the summer of 2006 where landscape architecture and urban planning students from the Harvard Design School paired up with students from the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT), the University of Nairobi, and community members to research the needs and physical conditions in Kibera. Based on the findings of this research, they started working in the realisation of the parks in July 2007. 

Parks are planned to serve roughly 250 of their immediate neighbours, which will keep them at scales small enough to encourage local involvement and large enough to be sufficiently productive. The parks cost 10.000 US dollars (2007 dollars) to construct. One park is underway and many more scheduled for the future. Local inhabitants are employed to do some of the construction work. 


 


”Existing models usually solve one problem but exacerbate another” according to Odbert. “They may put in a bank of toilets or a public park, but when the toilets fill up and the park needs maintenance, there are no funds to address these conditions” (Gendall 2008:68).     




 


 



    
Key Learning Points
It is possible to solve waste problems in urban slum by creating parks, which at the same time produces organic compost and provides the slum with toilet facilities
It is possible to establish parks, which are economically sustainable by creating parks, which generate income and use them for maintaining the park and toilet facilities
 
City Facts
Inhabitants (Nairobi): 2.9 million (2007)
Inhabitants (Kibera): 700.00 to 1 million
Size (Nairobi): 4,230 km² (2007)
Size (Kibera): 2550 km²
Country: Kenya
Continent: Africa
GDP Kenya: 1,700 USD (2007 est.)  
Project Facts
Parks are planned to serve roughly 250 of their immediate neighbours, which will keep them at scales small enough to encourage local involvement and large enough to be sufficiently productive. 
80 % of the waste produced in Kibera is compostable
The parks cost 10.000 USD to construct
 
 
 
 
 
 
Facts for Thought
Please help us with more details on this project 
We consider the project an innovative and interesting one. We have however not been able to gather so many details on the project. We would be happy if you could provide us with more information on this case. 
Please contact Malene Freudendal-Pedersen at: mfp@dac.dk
 
Related Facts
In Dhaka, Bangladesh, organic waste is composted and sold as bio-rich fertilizer at city level. This project reduces emissions, generates jobs and cleans up the city. Read more about the Dhaka case at C40.  
By 2000, 90.000 tonnes of organic waste was composted in Vienna, which was more than half of the available organic waste. The overall saving achieved was more than 10.000.000 USD per year. Girardet, 2004 (:207) 
References
Main article about the project. John Gendall (2008)” Co-designing Productive Parks with the Poorest of Kibera, Kenya” in Harvard Design Magazine Spring/Summer 2008, number28. 
Kounkuey Design Initiative describing the project
Kibera Public Space Blogspot 
 
Partners
Kounkuey Design Initiative (KDI)
KDI is an initiative from Harvard University Graduate School of Design. The KDI mission is to generate and implement entrepreneurial landscape strategies in degraded physical environments. KDI believe in an iterative community process that provokes dialogue between residents, designers, technical consultants, government officials and the private sector. KDI seeks to mobilize resources to quickly activate scaleable and sustainable projects in the client community. Read more at Kounkuey
Eco Build Africa
Nairobi-based architecture firm Eco Build Africa that coordinates the project. Read more at http://www.ecobuild-africa.com/index.html

    

    

    

    
Source URL: http://sustainablecities.dk/en/city-projects/cases/nairobi-compost-creates-income-for-park-maintenance

    
Links:
[1] mailto:jaz@dac.dk

[2] http://www.c40cities.org/docs/casestudies/waste/dhaka_fertiliser.pdf

[3] http://www.gsd.harvard.edu/admissions/global/kdi_kibera.html

[4] http://kiberapublicspace.blogspot.com/2008/01/election-update.html

[5] http://www.ecobuild-africa.com/index.html

[6] http://kiberapublicspace.blogspot.com/2007_11_01_archive.html