Wastewater irrigation empowers Kenya's urban farmers

Walking through the backstreets of Nairobi after sunset, when the city council law enforcers have gone home to rest, you might think you are in a large greengrocer's shop. There are meticulously arranged tomatoes, oranges, leafy vegetables and potatoes. This is the market organized and dominated by poor women from the informal settlements of Nairobi.

Florence comes from Maili Saba, an informal settlement 12km from the city centre. With her one year old grandchild strapped on her back, she not only sells indigenous vegetables and arrowroot but also rears pigs, local chicken and a calf at her home. She belongs to a street-mothers self- help group and supports women in situations similar to her own.

Another seller, Mary, has a plot next to Kibera, the largest slum in Africa, which she has farmed for the last 20 years. She has supported and educated her family by selling amaranthus, black nightshade, kale and spinach to the 750,000 slum dwellers next door, employing up to 11 casual labourers during peak periods.

Mary, Florence and other farmers in Maili Saba and Kibera use untreated sewage water to irrigate their vegetable crops, a practice they continue without the use of protective clothing. In this way they are able to maintain production throughout the year, except when there is a shortage of water in Nairobi and the middle income households do not flush their toilets or throw away waste water.

Indigenous African leafy vegetables are currently experiencing a boom in popularity in Kenya's urban areas, with over 600 tonnes valued at $107,000 per month selling in Nairobi markets alone. In the formal produce markets vegetables are sourced from rural districts; negative attitudes towards waste water irrigation prevent urban growers from selling there. Instead they sell to brokers, who take their produce to informal street or neighbourhood markets.

This, combined with the perishability of indigenous leafy vegetables, ensures that the prices fetched for waste water produce are low, with brokers sometimes forced to sell at giveaway prices. Thus, while the use of waste water for irrigation provides a valuable source of food and fodder for urban households, and an affordable source of fresh vegetables to slum dwellers, they are currently operating without recognition or support from Kenya's policy-makers.

This appears to be changing. Studies on market opportunities have revealed positive changes in attitude towards African indigenous vegetables among farmers and consumers in urban and peri-urban situations. And the Kenyan government has recognized the reality of urban agriculture by setting up agriculture and livestock offices in the city of Nairobi.

The International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates that 47 per cent of all unemployed people globally are young women. Yet it has also been shown that 60-70% of low-income women in urban areas are involved in urban agriculture and livestock keeping. Furthermore, 70-80% of African indigenous vegetable producers and traders in Nairobi comprise of women. For them, access to the free resource of sewage water for crop and fodder production has brought about renewed hope, dignity and empowerment.

There are many urban dwellers in Kenya who would like to benefit by harvesting closer to their kitchens, but are not sure how to go about it and fear legal prosecution. Stakeholders involved in urban agriculture, marketing and waste water treatment acknowledge that a policy framework covering urban agriculture, market opportunities, value addition, livelihoods, and mitigation of health risks is important not only for the waste water sector, but also for the future viability and competitiveness of urban agriculture and livestock keeping.

New Agriculturalist