The urban informal sector and environmental sanitation in Nigeria: The needless conflict

Abstract

In a disjointed planning system, conflicts are resolved through emergency measures, based on ad hoc programmes. Functionally, such emergency programmes are often at cross purposes, and consequently some public interests are invariably frustrated by their execution. An area in which physical planning in Nigeria is disjointed is that of environmental sanitation. The maintenance of minimum standards of environmental sanitation requires that such elements of physical development as the working-and-living areas, circulation, utilities, community services and facilities amongst others must be considered as a package, and related to one another in such a way that the potentials for environmental abuse are minimised. In a planning environment where any of these elements is ignored, or its provision is not responsive to existing need-gaps, informal attempts are often made by those that are disadvantaged, to compensate for their deficiencies. These informal attempts, whether they pertain to the provision of shelter or place of work, are often seen as an abuse of the environment. The almost invariable and prompt reaction of urban authorities to these contraventions is the demolition of the structures affected. However, structures that are seen as polluting the environment are more appropriately, manifestations of the symptoms rather than the causes of the problem that urban authorities seek to solve. The real cause of the apparent degradation of the environment of our cities is the grossly inadequate provision for the urban informal sector in urban development and management programmes. Because the ad hoc Environmental Santitation Task Forces recently set up to enforce environmental discipline in our cities are emergency devices, and because their attention is directed at symptoms rather than causes of environmental pollution, it has become clear that their demolition exercises have created more problems for more people. In other words, as presently conceived and structured, the Task Forces can maintain high standards of environmental sanitation, only at the expense of the urban informal sector which is confirmed in various studies as a major source of growth and vitality, especially to the economy of Third World cities. The pertinent issues here, then, are: can environmental objectives not be pursued side by side with the sustenance of the urban informal sector? How can