Super-Positions (LAB, UCLouvain) and LoUIsE (ULB) organised a participative cartography workshop (Urbanism) in the frame of the PhD ‘Living wetlands: Unfolding artificial water geographies in Dakar’ and research project ‘Water Drainage and Sanitation Co-production in African Cities’ from January 11 to 13, 2025 in Dakar, Senegal. This workshop was held in collaboration with the Institut de la Gouvernance territoriale et du Développement local (IGT) of Université Cheikh Anta Diop (Dakar) and UrbaSen. The workshop was carried out with the support of FNRS and framed in the research project WaSCoT (Urban services under transition. Wastewater and stormwater service co-production over time), supervised by Luisa Moretto and Chiara Cavalieri. The workshop aimed to discuss the close link between urban transformations and service co-production, understood as practices amongst actors who are not in the same organisation and amongst which citizens play a central role intending to improve a public service. Inhabitants from three different neighborhoods in the urbanized lowlands of Dakar were invited to share their knowledge and living experiences on this topic and engage in an open discussion with researchers from UCAD, UCLouvain, and ULB. The workshop aimed to map spatial changes in wastewater and stormwater drainage systems, pointing out the neighborhood activities that facilitate the functioning of stormwater and wastewater drainage systems. The workshop started with an exploratory walk on the field, during which participants collectively traced and followed the neighborhood’s (artificialized) watercourses. This process fostered sharing personal experiences and deepening the connection to the terrain. It also provided an opportunity to reflect on the alignment between flooding issues, institutional wastewater and stormwater management programs, and neighborhood initiatives. A cartographic reconstruction of the neighborhood’s history was done while creating a picture of hydrogeographic and urban challenges, the disappeared and new drainage structures, and the actors involved.

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