Unfathomable

I hadn’t done it in a while, so I thought I should take a walk through Keneta today. Usually, most of my time is spent in the small section where our project is focused, so it is not often that I see the rest of the area. So, today I took a walk.

I walked down the gravel roads, and over the small wooden bridges straddling the open sewers. I was sprayed a couple of times by mud from the tires of passing cars and by water shooting from punctured pipes. I petted a dog and a couple of sheep. And I was overwhelmed, all over again, by the size of the situation.

Keneta is an 850-acre area with over 5,000 homes. (More houses than my hometown of Abilene, Kansas.) No sewer system. No potable water system. No proper electrical system. Just homes and buildings. With more being added every day. The Latter Day Saints have just built a big new church, and there is a 10-storey shoe factory in the first stages of development. And all without legal title to any of the land!

Sometimes I almost understand it. I understand the push and pull of migration and the rapid urbanization happening throughout the developing world. I understand parents’ desires for their kids to have access to better schools, and I understand the desire to find work and a better salary.

However, as an urban planner, I simply cannot understand how people expect to build a city first and then worry about infrastructure later. It simply goes against every rational, logical understand of city planning. And then they have the gall complain about the smell, mosquitoes, and lack of electricity and water! My compassion for the area’s residents certainly ebbs and flows.

Granted, the local government has done little, if anything, to address any of the area’s problems, but even if they had the plans and the will to make changes, the cost to retrofit the area with proper infrastructure is infeasible. It has been estimated that to fit our project area of 150 acres with a closed sewer system is 1.5 million euros.

I supposed I am rambling, but like I said before, it is all a bit overwhelming. Perhaps I shouldn’t take any more walks.