Rethinking Urban Infrastructure

You flush a toilet, turn on a tap, or throw something in the bin… and then you stop thinking about it completely.

For many people, infrastructure is invisible. Water disappears down pipes. Waste gets taken away. Electricity arrives with the flick of a switch.

Cities are designed to make all of this feel effortless.

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Transcript

Rethinking Urban Infrastructure

Modern versus Modest Infrastructure

Picture this.

You flush a toilet, turn on a tap, or throw something in the bin… and then you stop thinking about it completely.

For many people, infrastructure is invisible. Water disappears down pipes. Waste gets taken away. Electricity arrives with the flick of a switch.

Cities are designed to make all of this feel effortless.

But here’s the question:

What happens when that system doesn’t reach everyone?

Today, more than half of the world’s population lives in cities — and that number is still growing fast.

So cities everywhere face the same challenge:

How do you provide water, sanitation, waste systems, and energy for millions of people… sustainably, affordably, and fairly?

For decades, the answer seemed obvious.

Build bigger systems.

More pipes. Bigger sewer networks. Huge treatment plants. Massive infrastructure grids designed to serve entire cities at once.

It became the image of the “modern” city.

But what if that model isn’t always the best one?

The Modern Ideal

The modern infrastructure model is based on one central idea:

Everyone should be connected to one large, reliable network.

In theory, it sounds perfect.

Waste is flushed away through underground pipes. Water arrives through a citywide system. Large facilities process everything somewhere out of sight.

Clean. Efficient. Organised.

And in many high-income countries, that model became normal.

But there’s a catch.

These systems are incredibly expensive to build… and even more expensive to maintain.

They depend on stable governments, long-term investment, technical expertise, and constant upkeep.

And historically, many cities around the world never developed this infrastructure equally.

In some places — especially under colonial rule — infrastructure was built unevenly from the beginning.

Wealthier districts received paved roads, sewer connections, and water systems.

Other neighbourhoods were excluded entirely.

So even today, many cities are shaped by that uneven history.

And that raises an uncomfortable question:

If one giant central system cannot realistically serve everyone… what comes next?

A Different Way of Thinking

Some urban geographers use a phrase you may not have heard before:

Modest infrastructure.

And honestly, it changes the whole conversation.

Instead of relying on one massive sewer network stretching across an entire city, modest infrastructure focuses on smaller, local, adaptable systems.

Systems designed for the specific neighbourhood they serve.

That could mean community-scale waste treatment.

It could mean composting systems.

Bio-toilets.

Local water recycling.

Even turning waste into fuel or fertiliser.

At first glance, it may sound less advanced than giant underground sewer tunnels.

But in many cases, it’s actually more practical — and more sustainable.

Because instead of treating waste as something to simply remove from the city…

These systems ask:

What if waste could become a resource?

Nairobi: A City of Many Systems

Take Nairobi, in Kenya.

What’s fascinating about Nairobi is that there isn’t one single sanitation system.

There are many different systems operating side by side.

Some households use flushing toilets connected to sewer lines.

But even then, the story doesn’t always end neatly. In some cases, untreated waste still finds its way into rivers.

So the problem disappears for one neighbourhood… but reappears downstream for another.

Elsewhere in the city, people use bio-toilets.

These systems capture methane gas produced by human waste — and that gas can then be used for cooking.

Think about that for a second.

Something usually treated purely as a sanitation problem becomes a source of energy.

In other areas, waste is collected and composted locally, often mixed with materials like sawdust to support decomposition.

Different neighbourhoods.

Different conditions.

Different solutions.

And that diversity is important.

Because cities are not uniform.

Density changes. Water access changes. Income levels change. Climate conditions change.

Why should infrastructure be identical everywhere?

Why Smaller Systems May Matter More

There’s another reason these local systems matter.

Climate change.

Many large centralised sewer systems were designed decades ago for very different environmental conditions.

Today, cities face heavier rainfall, flooding, droughts, overheating infrastructure, and rapid population growth.

And huge central systems can struggle under that pressure.

But smaller systems often adapt more easily.

They can be repaired locally.

Modified locally.

Managed locally.

They don’t always require endless kilometres of pipes, giant pumping stations, or massive treatment plants.

So modest infrastructure isn’t just a temporary substitute for “real” modern infrastructure.

Increasingly, it may represent a smarter vision of the future city itself.

A Lesson Beyond the Global South

And this conversation isn’t only relevant for lower-income countries.

Cities in the UK, Europe, and North America are also dealing with ageing infrastructure and climate stress.

Sewer systems overflow.

Water systems leak.

Energy grids struggle under rising demand.

The idea that one giant central system can solve everything is becoming harder to sustain everywhere.

So maybe the future city is not one enormous machine operating from the centre outward.

Maybe it’s something more flexible.

A network of smaller systems.

Different technologies working together.

Neighbourhoods sharing responsibility for water, waste, energy, and survival.

Urban infrastructure is never just about pipes, drains, or toilets.

It’s about power.

About inequality.

About who gets served — and who gets left behind.

And maybe the challenge of urbanisation is not simply copying the traditional modern model everywhere.

Maybe it’s about rethinking what “modern” even means.

Because the most sustainable city in the future may not be the one with the biggest sewer network…

…but the one that understands local needs, local limits, and local solutions.

Thank you for listening to this episode of the Geography Expert podcast, you can find more of Ritchie's resources on his website at www.ritchiecunningham.com