Makoko 2035: An Encyclopedia

Plumbing and Sanitation

Plumbing and disposal of sewage was not an easy problem to solve for Makoko's citizen engineers. Historically, the constant runoff from the Ogun and the Osun rivers, as well as the temporary, bricolage nature of many of Makoko's buildings, has meant that permanent plumbing systems like those found in most developed cities were both impractical to install and nearly impossible to maintain. Once the local hackerspaces began establishing ad hoc trade systems with the recycling and sanitation workers of the mainland, however, they quickly realized that there were as many—if not more—opportunities for bringing building materials like PVC and copper pipe into Makoko as there were for the acquisition of discarded electronics. As they gathered material, they discovered that a fully functional plumbing infrastructure for Makoko would be unworkable, but that smaller, more flexible systems could be developed that would effectively provide fresh water from storage tanks and divert solid waste into compost systems for later use in food production. These light-weight systems, which leverage the basic principles of any plumbing system only at a much smaller scale are have done much to improve both the quality of life for Makokoans and the sanitation of the lagoon upon which they are so reliant. 

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