Gardening and garbage

Special Issue | Rapid and unplanned growth means a basic problem for cities like Lusaka: Who will take out the trash? | Priya Abraham

Lusaka was a humble town when it became Zambia's capital in 1935. Three decades later one colonial observer said it looked like it had been "dumped in the middle of the African bush." That was right before independence from Great Britain in 1964; even then, Lusaka was a backwater compared to other African capitals like Nairobi.

Today the city named for a local village headman is the size of Detroit, but the original city plan has changed little. The city center still has the same north-south design with two roundabouts built along Cairo Road, the main street. The once-gleaming buildings just look older and more tired, while dirt and rush-hour traffic clog the once-calm street grid. Lusaka was a "Garden City" in its early days, named for the British colonial design that favored open green spaces. Now, residents joke, it's the Garbage City.