From dams to tanks to jerry cans: Storage as a multi-scalar analytic

This paper examines the socio-technical and socio-ecological dimensions of water storage across scales in Nairobi, Kenya. The city's piped water supply has historically struggled to keep up with growing demand, resulting in a heterogeneous waterscape that features a multitude of storage arrangements, from massive dams to small jerry cans. Using qualitative methods, including household and expert interviews in different neighborhoods, the study unravels multiple scales and types of water storage, tracing water's journey from natural reservoirs in the Aberdares to large dams, intermediary storage tanks, and finally household containers. It identifies storage as a critical yet under-researched component of urban infrastructure, highlighting its role both as an enabler of diverse supply and access, and as a (re)producer of the inherent inequalities of place-specific infrastructure configurations. However, by proposing and applying storage as a multi-scalar analytic , I advocate a non-problematizing, non-normative understanding across scales that recognizes the stabilizing , disrupting , and creating capacities of any storage arrangement. Ultimately, I argue that integrating a pragmatic, multi-scalar recognition of storage into the planning, design, and governance of urban infrastructure offers opportunities to enable more equitable and sustainable waterscapes.