City-Level Decoupling-Case Studies

CITY-LEVEL DECOUPLING: URBAN RESOURCE FLOWS AND THE GOVERNANCE OF INFRASTRUCTURE TRANSITIONS

by poorly regulated municipal solid waste disposal. Furthermore, access to financial support is limited and the full backing of proponents of urban agriculture, such as AWGUPA, who recognise its ecological benefits, is restrained. This has made it difficult to transpose the principle of wastewater for irrigation from rhetoric into policy, albeit supported by practice. The potential contribution of re-using effluent water to urban sustainability is significant, but has yet to be measured quantitatively. Wastewater use can lessen the demand for clean piped water by appropriating the liquid effluent for irrigation purposes, which can in turn reduce the intensity of chemical fertiliser usage. In transforming wastewater into a resource, the overall amount of discharge (or net throughput) in the city’s drainage channels is decreased, reducing the amount of contaminated water that could potentially affect communities and individuals further downstream. Broader benefits of urban agriculture include protecting food prices from increasing transport costs (fuel prices increased by 30% in January 2011 51 ), reducing emissions from ‘food miles' (that is, the distance food is transported from its production site to the consumer), and diversifying sources of agricultural produce to make the food economy more resilient. Composted organic waste materials can be used to enrich the soil and further reduce the demand for fossil fuel derived fertilisers, allowing for land that is generally unsuitable for developments to be put to productive use. The Resource Centres on Urban Agriculture and Food Security estimates that approximately 1,000 farmers are engaged in urban agriculture in Accra, but absolute numbers are unknown given the informal nature of the activity. The reluctance of State and Traditional Authorities to institutionalise urban agricultural activities in Accra has made comprehensive evaluations

Encroachment on the banks of one the city’s drainage channels. (Source: Fong Yee Chan, 2011)

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