Evaluating the Localization of Urban Planning Initiatives for Water Infrastructure in Lagos, Nigeria

Abstract

The inability to meet the rising demand for water services is perhaps the most significant threat to rapidly urbanizing cities in the Global South. To address these concerns, African cities like Lagos, Dar es Salaam, and Addis-Ababa have produced ambitious medium to long term development plans to attract private sector investment and reduce dependence on international aid. This paper takes the Lagos State Development Plan 2052 as its unit of analysis to evaluate the epistemic influences of diverse stakeholders involved in its initiatives. I show that the complex nature of water provision in Lagos, requiring the cooperation of many stakeholders, has resulted in a compounded rationality that is neither purely a commitment to the local way of life nor a true embodiment of western modernity. This paper concludes with two arguments: firstly, that localization in the water sector is driven by the negotiation between the epistemologies of formal and informal actors across local and global scales; and secondly, that data science processes are the sites for knowledge transactions with and between stakeholders. Drawing from these insights, I advocate for planners to prioritize local knowledge, conceptualizing it as dynamic and continuously evolving not just through the everyday strategies of the urban poor, but also the integration of global scientific and technical expertise.