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Approach for sustainable urban storm water management in the context of developing countries
Approches pour une gestion durable des eaux pluviales urbaines dans le contexte des pays en dveloppement. Dr. WONDIMU Abeje*, Dr. ALFAKIH Elham**
* Faculty of technology, ECSC P.O.Box 1023 Addis Ababa, Ethiopia ** URGC- Hydrologie Urbaine, INSA de Lyon 20 Avenue A. Einstein, 69621 Villeurbanne Cedex, France

RESUME
Les villes de ce sicle doivent faire face lamlioration de la disponibilit et de la qualit de la ressource en eau mais aussi la gestion des risques dinondation et de pollution dus aux ruissellements pluviaux. La tche est plus dlicate dans les pays en dveloppement o les conditions dfavorables sont runies, notamment un tissu urbain existant non structur et une expansion peu contrle. Cet article souligne et argumente la ncessit daborder la question en se basant sur les ralits locales et non pas sur les modles imports. Il propose galement des approches spatialises pour mieux comprendre les problmes et adopter des stratgies pertinentes.

ABSTRACT
One of the challenges of cities in this new century is meeting the need for water resources while, on the other hand, minimising water-related risks. This task is more complicated in the case of developing countries where unfavourable conditions are gathered. One of the main constraints comes from the unplanned existing urban pattern and the relatively uncontrolled urban development. This paper first argues the need to consider water management on the basis of local reality rather than ready-made models and approaches. Secondly, it recommends spatially based approaches as a means to better understand problems and define strategies.

KEYWORDS
Land management, Organisation, Resource, Risk, Urban typology

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1. INTRODUCTION : SPECIFICITY OF DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

Storm water management has been a delicate issue in human history. With the growth of cities, this task has become more and more complicated, especially in developing countries, which are characterised by: - urban explosion over a short period of time - unplanned urban patterns, - severe poverty - accumulation of problems. In the cities of these countries, sewer systems are inadequate in coverage and in performance, especially because of inadequate waste management. Most of the urban area is dominated by unplanned urban patterns, which constitute a major obstacle for urban drainage. Flood plain and flood-prone areas are used for human settlement and business activities, both legally (with building permit) and illegally (squatter settlement). The local authorities most often lack the skilled manpower and budget to cope with the magnitude of the problem. There is, however, also a lack of commitment, awareness and good organisation, which would not need considerable amounts of money. There are fortunately high degrees of socialisation, solidarity and community spirit and, recently, of active citizen involvement. These sociological and organisational aspects constitute key elements for achieving sustainable development The above-mentioned conditions clearly distinguish the nature of storm water management in the developing countries from the developed ones. Storm water management systems (technical as well as institutional) should be formulated in such a way as to respond to the real problems of these cities. In reality most solutions have been formulated on the basis of models and concepts belonging to developed countries, without going into local specificities. Such blind transfer, which has been broadly discussed and condemned by several authors, results more in a waste of time and money than in providing any applicable solutions. On the one hand, studies not based on real socio-economic and cultural conditions cannot be implemented. And, on the other, there is a failure of appropriation, commitment and know-how, since local actors (including inhabitants) are not involved in the planning process. It is high time to begin thinking of pertinent methods and concepts based on local realities, and to share experience with a view to achieving the best management performance. For this, a spatially based approach is of great interest on both analytical and planning grounds.

2. SEVERITY OF STORM WATER RELATED PROBLEMS IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

One of the challenges of third world countries in this new century concerns the management of cities, where there is a trend to uncontrollable urban explosion and the accumulation of problems. In this challenge, the question of water management constitutes one of the burning issues on two grounds: resources and risks. Flooding in Niger caused losses estimated at 15.4 billion CFA francs during the winter of 1998 (Le Sahel, 29 October 1998). The event of 24 August 1998 alone 138 NOVATECH2001

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made 2,000 people homeless in Niamey (Le Sahel 28 August 1998). In Addis Ababa, in each of 3 cyclical events in the last two decades, flooding affected 7,000 inhabitants, with loss of human life (12 fatalities in 1978, 9 in 1995). In the case of Addis Ababa, where the site presents favourable topographic conditions, two factors aggravated the risks: precarious housing and river-bank occupation. The events of April 1989 in Djibouti left 150,000 homeless (1/3 of the entire national population). The impact was even more severe in Venezuela, where 30,000 deaths and 150,000 people made homeless were recorded in December 1999 1. In the world it is estimated that 60% of deaths and 30% of economic loss due to natural disasters is caused by flooding (Freeman 1999) In fact most of these phenomena were caused by exceptional events which cannot be managed by a classical approach and sewer system. The most appropriate way to deal with the whims of water is to have good organisation. The question of organisation in the case of water management concerns two aspects: spatial and institutional. Account should also be taken of economic loss and worsening of health indicators found in low-income communities. Observations for the city of Conakry show that rates of death and of intestinal infection double (to 10.3% and 14% respectively) in the rainy season, aggravated by runoff which becomes a vector for diseases (Morel lHuissier, 1998). The other and most crucial problem of cities is resource scarcity, with a doubling of the world population forecast for the coming 50 years. The question of resources above all concerns land and water, two fundamental elements for human subsistence. The future of cities is determined by integrated management of land and water in order to ensure the necessary water resources for consumption and to avoid (or at least minimise) water-related problems.

3. THE INTEREST OF A SPATIALLY BASED APPROACH

The above arguments show that water management cannot be isolated from land management. This is true for both developed and developing countries. In the former, sewer line congestion, specially in the down-town, has over the last 2 decades raised the question of alternative solutions involving the spatial aspect of storm-water drainage. In the case of developing countries, one of the main constraints of urban drainage relates to the urban development pattern. It is thus clear that a sustainable solution can be obtained by prior understanding of and intervention on urban spatial organisation and morphology. For this, the spatial approach as developed and applied in Wondimu A. (2000) is of particular interest. This work proposes an integrated approach called three poles, and applies a typological approach. The former more particularly addresses planning and conceptual issues whereas the latter concerns the operational aspect of water management.

3.1Three-pole approach: Water-Space-Man

This approach (fig. 1) deals, in an integrated manner, with the three pillars of the storm water management system: water, space, and man. Space integrates the hydrological and urban (structure, equipment, sanitation, etc.) features of the watershed. Man covers the activity of human beings and their passivity in face of risk. The Water pole represents resources and risks related to storm-water.
1

Le Monde 11 April 1989 and CNN 21 Dec. 1999 (Wondimu A., 2000)

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Figure 1: Three-pole water management approach, after Wondimu A. (2000)

The functioning of a drainage system depends on the spatial organisation of its watershed. This organisation derives from intentional or unintentional, planned or archaic, direct or indirect human actions. The principal cause of water-related problems comes from ignorance of these spatial and human dimensions of water management. The risk, which results from the conjunction of vulnerability and hazard, occurs in three types of phenomenon: pollution, flooding and scarcity. In the last two cases, the hazard comes from precipitation whereas in the first two cases it comes mainly from land management. This implies that storm-water management needs to be integrated in holistic water management, comprising both risk and resource. The principle benefits of this approach, which allows integrated management, lie in: - taking preventive and sustainable measures rather than suffering catastrophic phenomena; - early compensation of the urban management deficiencies induced by sectorial approaches and their spiralling consequences vis--vis water management; - emphasising the need to take into consideration the perception, activities and day-to-day experience of the inhabitants, and not only the classical partners; - highlighting the reciprocity of vulnerability and hazard whereby hazards may arise not only from water but also from land use.

3.2 Urban typology approach

This approach consists in classifying the various zones of a city according to morphological and socio-economic criteria such as urban pattern, density, accessibility and the living standard of the inhabitants. This classification, which can also be used for almost all urban management issues (garbage collection, wastewater management, housing, etc.), is of the greatest interest for storm-water management specially in low income unplanned cities. From the technical standpoint, it is neither efficient nor even possible to solve drainage and sanitation problems without prior examination of the question of 140 NOVATECH2001

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accessibility and restructuring. The other salient point of this approach concerns the formulation of intervention strategies: zoning, exchange of experiences, etc. The application of this approach in the case of Addis Ababa helped to answer the following fundamental question: What should be done to have a clear and overall image of the citys problem(s) so as to be able to define pertinent procedures for technical intervention and institutional organisation? (Wondimu, 2000). Classifying homogenous urban neighbourhoods allows identification of intervention strategies: solutions at different levels for each typical urban space. This approach thus enables simplification without loss of specificity. Neighbourhoods having the same urban typology can share experiences and look for more pertinent solutions (technical, organisational, financial and managerial).

4. CONCLUSION
As severity of the problems shows, storm-water management should no longer be considered as a secondary or occasional issue. The key way to resolve most of these problems is to undertake an integrated planning and management approach so as to ensure, in advance and continuously, sustainable urban development, with rational use of the two primary need resources: land and water. In this regard, the two spatially based approaches allow storm-water management to be integrated within the water-system as well as within the urban system. The other point of interest concerns the organisational aspect of all active and passive actors. This could compensate for lack of financial resources, by means of participatory schemes and decentralised institutional set-ups.

5. REFERENCES
CEREVE and KRB (2000). Matrise des eaux pluviales, communaut urbaine de Niamey : tude de base. Rapport dfinitif, 2000, 173p. Freeman P (1999). Gambling on catastrophe. Urban Age, 1999, Vol. 7, n 1, Summer, p 18-19. Frish D. (1992). Nous nhritons pas de la terre de nos parents, nous lempruntons nos enfants. Le Courrier : Afrique - Carabe - Pacifique - Communaut europenne, N 13, May - June 1992, p. 44-47. Morel lHuissier A. (1998). Matriser le ruissellement urbain dans les villes africaines : pour une nouvelle approche de lassainissement pluvial. Acte du IXme Congrs de lUnion Africaine des Distributeurs dEau (UADE), Casablanca (Morocco), 1998. Wondimu A. (2000). La gestion durable des eaux pluviales urbaines par la gestion de lespace et la subsidiarit : le cas dAddis Abba (Ethiopie). Ph.D thesis, INSA de LYON, 2000, 394p.

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