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informal settlement upgrading Archives - Page 3 of 4 - SASDI Alliance

Jul 16
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How Sporong community negotiated service delivery in Gauteng

By ISN No Comments

By Kwanele Sibanda (on behalf of CORC)

According to how the Informal Settlment Network (ISN) demarcates Midvaal informal settlements; Sporong informal settlement falls under cluster 3. Sporong is a relatively small informal settlement with 17 households and holds a population of about 70 people. The settlement falls under Boltonwold that is about 10kms out of Meyerton. It is one amongst a number of Midvaal informal settlements located in secluded farm areas with residents living in abject poverty.

Many hands make light work - installing toilets in Sporong.

Many hands make light work – installing toilets in Sporong.

 

The first tenant of Sporong is Ntate Tladi Mokgobo. He has lived in the settlement for over 50years. He settled on the land when he was given permission by the owner to construct a shack and pay a monthly rental fee. The steady growth was experienced as more farm workers from nearby farms needed accommodation. Currently, all tenants pay R100 per month to the landlord, for the informal structures they reside in (shacks). The R100 per month rental fee might be viewed as affordable; however the recent eviction of one of the tenants suggests that affordability is not for all. The provision of informal structures by a private landlord to rent coupled with no basic services was insidious. The first settler expressed an in depth understanding of the alliance and its approach to ameliorating challenges in informal settlements. He furthermore asserted that any community’s failure to cooperate with such interventions makes a folly act.

From each one of the three clusters of Midvaal, one settlement was chosen for a pilot project. Out of the profiling exercise, prioritized projects were identified. The main objective of undertaking the pilots is that of demonstrating to the Municipality what is of interest to the communities and their efforts with the aim of negotiating and scaling up relevant service delivery.

Savings mobilization

Savings mobilization

In the context of Sporong, the prioritized project was that of toilets. The settlement of about 70 residents has been using a nearby bush as their toilet and they describe the situation as demeaning. The two pit toilets that were put up by the Municipality got filled up years back and have never been drained. The sanitation challenge is one that is mirrored in informal settlements across Midvaal.

ISN and FEDUP’s intervention was that of engaging the community leaders and community at large with the aim of motivating them to start working towards self-sustenance. Upon verifying with the leaders that the toilet project is a priority as indicated in the profile; the project was then scheduled. Community participation and resources in form of tools were put to good use and the top structures of the full pit latrines were repositioned. The toilet project ran concurrently with the savings mobilization. The savings team was led by Rosy and Nompi. With the women of Sporong, the two aforementioned; shared the history of the SDI alliance, savings and how they have personally benefitted from being members of savings groups. The FedUp leaders currently await a date for the savings implementation.

Full pit toilet dismantled

Full pit toilet dismantled

Repositioning and assembling the top structure

Repositioning and assembling the top structure

May 05
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Alliance at Human Settlements Learning Exchange in Durban

By CORC, FEDUP, ISN No Comments

By Jeff Thomas (on behalf of CORC)

A SA SDI Alliance team comprising FEDUP and ISN community leaders, regional co-ordinators and CORC representatives was invited to attend the International Human Settlements Learning Exchange in eThekwini Municipality from 15-17 April 2015.

The exchange, a first of its kind, was hosted by the Municipal Institute of Learning (MILE) in partnership with eThekwini’s Human Settlements Department and the Affordable Housing Institute (AHI). It included about 200 local, national and provincial government officials, eThekwini Municipality councillors, private sector housing, NGO and academic representatives.  

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It aimed to “share different organisation’s perspectives and experiences within the human settlements sector to improve housing service delivery” (Reference). The exchange focussed on new funding models for affordable housing finance, effective new housing typologies and guidance for establishing socially inclusive and responsive housing settlements.  For the Alliance it was an opportunity to share concrete experiences in community participation that move beyond infrastructural approaches to human settlements development.The event was billed as an international exchange in that the keynote speaker, Professor Jeremy Gorelick, is a globally acclaimed expert in the area of alternative, more-sustainable funding models for housing finance. Among other things, he is the Managing Director of Capital Markets for the USA-based Affordable Housing Institute, a non-profit and tax exempt pro-poor consulting and research firm which operates in 43 countries.
Community-Based Implementation at Alliance's Namibia Stop 8 Housing Project in eThekwini Municipality

Community-Based Implementation at Alliance’s Namibia Stop 8 Housing Project in eThekwini Municipality

Examining Sustainable Funding Models 

His presentation on the first day examined factors relating to the opportunities and challenges of financing housing development in Sub-Saharan Africa, followed by a brief exploration of “Public-Private Partnerships” and “Municipal Development Funds”. The day also involved presentations by KZN MEC for Human Settlements and Public Works, SALGA’s Sustainable Human Settlements Specialist and the Treasury’s DDG who spoke on the South African Model of Human Settlements Finance. Seated around tables in the audience, participants were given the opportunity to discuss the presentations and share feedback on these at a plenary session.

SA SDI Alliance Team at Exchange

SA SDI Alliance Team at Exchange

Visiting Cornubia housing project 

While the first day focused on a sustainable funding model, the second day comprised two key parts: presentations and a field trip.  The presentations related to a series of existing and proposed human settlement projects while the field trip took us to two of them: KwaMashu Centre where a multi-storey 1000-unit social housing development is planned and Cornubia, a 25000-unit housing project and associated social and light industrial precinct to the north of Durban. At both these projects participants were afforded an opportunity to engage in a question and answer session with municipal officials leading the visit.

Cornubia Housing Project,

Cornubia Housing Project, eThekwini Municipality

 

Cornubia, eThekwini Municipality

Cornubia, eThekwini Municipality

Community-Centred Human Settlement Development

The third day’s focus shifted to issues of community participation in human settlements development discussed by the Project Preparation Trust, the SA SDI Alliance and Habitat for Humanity South Africa. The CEO of Project Preparation Trust examined the meaning of ‘people-centred development’ and its relationship to infrastructural development’. He shared 8 actions that South African cities need to take in order to become more people-centred. Key amongst these were

  • the need to understand local communities and circumstances
  • approaching participation as ‘negotiation’
  • focusing on partnership and trust-building
  • asset not deficit-based thinking
  • understanding informality by working with it not against it
  • and most importantly, focussing on improving livelihoods and quality of life

The SA SDI Alliance team shared its experience in pioneering people-centred development initiatives since 1991. The presentation focussed on the Alliance’s experience in community-driven human settlement upgrading in relation to ‘project preparation’ and ‘project implementation’. While project preparation was explained as comprising community-based savings, data-collection (profiling & enumerations) and planning, implementation looked at upgrading in terms of improved services, re-blocking and housing.

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The emphasis in both regards was on how the Alliance approach provides opportunities for people to participate in and drive their own development, leading to self-pride and greater sense of ownership of the final product. It also emphasised the central role of women in driving the process and the need for partnerships between poor communities and government. A series of quotes about the Alliance process from significant national human settlements ministers concluded the presentation, clearly communicating that,

“It’s only a fool who cannot support this process”

(Derek Hanekom, SA Human Settlements Minister, 1999)

Habitat for Humanity SA’s final presentation shared its new strategic direction since 2012 and its use of the 4P model: People-Public-Private Partnerships. Habitat shared its approach to leadership capacity-building workshops, the role of asset-mapping and sustainable livelihoods analysis, the artisan audit towards providing appropriate skills training which is part of a social scoping exercise run in communities that participate in their own development programs.

Outlook

Discussions aimed to broaden thinking and practice by municipal officials and sector practitioners alike. As a result of the presentations and discussion on community-centred participation on Day 3, the concept of ‘Public-Private Partnerships’ introduced on the first day had been broadened out to include People-Public-Private Partnerships, in which communities become central role-players in project preparation (community driven savings, data collection and planning) as well as implementation. As the Alliance continues to seek out a partnership the municipality, the exchange indicated a growing awareness concerning the significance of community-driven process and collaborative partnership between stakeholder sectors.

Mar 07
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Rolling out Lumkani Fire Device: Preventing Fires, Upgrading Communities

By CORC, FEDUP, ISN, News No Comments

By Yolande Hendler (on behalf of CORC)

The last two months bear witness to the devastation fires can cause. At the height of South Africa’s hottest months, fires pose a continuous threat, often breaking out in informal areas, wiping out entire segments of informal settlements, despite the response of fire departments.

Fire in Langrug, Stellenbosch Municipality, February 2014

Fire in Langrug, Stellenbosch Municipality, February 2014

A proactive response to fire?

In January and February 2015, the Alliance was alerted to two fires in ISN/FEDUP settlements alone, with several more breaking out in the City of Cape Town and Stellenbosch Municipality such as in Langrug informal settlement where an estimated 70 structures were razed to the ground. In 2014 the City of Cape Town’s Human Settlements directorate spent R6.5 million on fire aid by issuing 1 186 enhanced emergency kits to victims of 254 separate fires in a period of two months.

How can the response to informal settlement fires become less reactive and more proactive and preventative? Since early 2014 the SA SDI Alliance has partnered with Lumkani, a social enterprise that has designed and co-developed an early warning fire detection device with ISN and FEDUP affiliated communities in Cape Town.

UT Gardens leadership with Lumkani with installed device on wall

UT Gardens leadership with Lumkani with installed device on wall

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Co-developing the Lumkani device

The Lumkani device uses heat detection technology to sense for fires. It accurately measures the incidence of harmful fires alerting the family inside a shack of the danger. Each device is networked to surrounding devices within a 100m radius. In the event of a fire the detecting device sends a signal to surrounding devices within this range. A solid beep means that the device has detected a fire in your own home while a broken beep indicates that the fire is in the nearby surrounding. A wave of sound creates a community-wide alert and response to danger. This buys time for the community to become proactive in rapidly spreading fire risk situations. Through deep engagement with UT Gardens community leadership, the Lumkani team co-developed the device to optimally suit the informal settlement context. Read more about the device and the co-design process here.

The Lumkani device

The Lumkani device

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Co-developing the device – workshop in UT Gardens ahead of rollout and installation.

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Co-developing the device – workshop in UT Gardens ahead of rollout and installation.

Roll-out and Community Contributions: “We are proud of our device”

In November and December 2015 the first Lumkani devices were rolled out in UT Gardens and Siyahlala’s D-section. Currently ISN and FEDUP community leaders have rolled out 650 devices.

On the first day of distribution and roll-out, community leaders and members of the Lumkani team installed about 20 manufactured devices in the homes of community leaders and general community members. The devices need to be installed 1m away from the cooking area, to avoid triggering a false alarm in the event of close proximity to a heat source. The device is therefore positioned as high as possible while still in reachable distance in order to test or silence the alarm.

As the first batch was installed the community leadership collected a 20% contribution of the overall cost of the devices from community members through door-to-door visits. Contributions are an integral part of the Alliance approach of “Vuku’zenzele” – “Wake up and do it for yourself”.

Nokokheli Ncambele, Western Cape ISN co-ordinator explains,

“[Contributions are important because we want] communities to find solutions to their own problems. If a community contributes, they show that they are interested. With our contributions, we leverage more funds”

Communities that expressed interest in the device during initial mobilisation could apply to the Alliance’s Community Upgrading Finance Facility (CUFF) for co-funding, whereby CUFF covered 80% and community members contributed 20% (i.e R20) of the total cost.

Emily Vining, who facilitates Lumkani’s community interaction, reflects on the significance of community contributions,

“It is our hope that the act of purchasing the device is an exercise of freedom whereby people can increase their own safety and security and that of their community through their own agency and choice. Communities don’t have to wait for external actors to bring about change. They can do it for themselves”

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UT Gardens community leader, Vuyani Ntontela and Lumkani engineer Frank Petousis install device

Lumkani with Nozuko

Siyahlala’s FEDUP co-ordinator, Nozuko Fulani, with Lumkani’s Emily Vining & Frank Petousis

Fire prevention record so far

So far the system has prevented the spread of two fires in UT Gardens. The first (9 Dec 2014) occurred in the late morning when a light breeze blew some embers from a cooking fire into the neighbouring home. Although the homeowner was away, the Lumkani device she had installed triggered her neighbours devices who ran outside their homes to see where the danger had come from. The community managed to keep the fire contained with buckets while one community member used the toll-free emergency number 112 to call the fire department. The fire had burnt the community member’s home to the ground but no other structures where affected. The community attributed this to the early alert the Lumkani system provided.

The second incident occurred in the early morning hours of 22 Dec 2014 when UT and Lumkani leadership were alerted by SMS text messages that the system had triggered. Later that day it emerged that some men had left their pot unattended while making food. Their Lumkani device rang when the pot caught fire alerting them to the danger. They quickly put out the fire and shared the story with UT Gardens community leader, Thamara Hela, as they were very impressed with the functionality of the device.

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UT Gardens community leader, Thamara Hela, with Emily Vining

A broader approach to Upgrading

The Alliance’s partnership with Lumkani is an example of what a proactive community intervention can look like. Its significance lies in the co-design and co-development of the Lumkani device – between community members and Lumkani’s technical team. What sets the Lumkani device apart is the community’s involvement in developing its own technical intervention. Through negotiating additional funds through their own contributions the community expressed its interest in taking the device on as its own – “Vuku’zenzele”.

The partnership is also an example of a broader approach to upgrading, one that reaches beyond housing and basic services. When upgrading includes co-design and relevant co-intervention, communities move from being receptors to actors, taking more control of the development process itself. 

Feb 23
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CORC planner honoured with SAPI Young Planner Award

By CORC, News No Comments
On site in Flamingo Crescent Informal Settlement

On site in Flamingo Crescent Informal Settlement

Sizwe Mxobo, a planner at the Community Organisation Resource Centre (CORC) received  the South African Planning Institute’s (SAPI) Young Planner Award in October 2014. In speaking about his work as a planner with community movements affiliated to the SA SDI Alliance, Sizwe explains,

“An important aspect for me is exploring what public participation means in planning and informal settlement upgrading” (Sizwe Mxobo, CORC Planner).

In early 2014 SAPI released a call for nominations for successful young planners and announced its bi-annual summit in Durban titled “Planning Africa” from 19 – 22 October 2014. Nominations were submitted under various categories, one of which was the Young Planner award – to be made out to a “bright young planner (under the age of 35) for his/ her exemplary achievements and promising for the future in the planning profession as well as his/her contribution to the promotion of the planning profession” (SAPI).

The SAPI Awards

The SAPI National Planning Awards were established in 2008 to recognise and create a strong awareness of the valuable contributions and extraordinary performance in all aspects of the planning profession. The awards are an opportunity to appreciate the efforts and contributions of many planners in shaping the built environment, promoting sustainable development and maintaining the integrity of good planning practice amidst competing development interests and challenging situations.

Sizwe with Langrug commnuity leaders Trevor Masiy and Alfred Ratana

Sizwe with Langrug commnuity leaders Trevor Masiy and Alfred Ratana

Planning in the SA SDI Alliance

Sizwe has been working with CORC since 2011, providing technical support, often in informal settlement upgrading initiatives, ranging from community mobilization, capacity building, assisting settlements with preparing development plans or engaging City officials around service delivery issues.

In 2012, Sizwe project managed the upgrading and re-blocking of Mtshini Wam informal settlement in Cape Town. The project set a precedent for informal settlement upgrading, at local and national level whereby the City of Cape Town used it as a benchmark to deliver a reblocking policy. It was also awarded an Impumelelo Gold Award in 2013. Since then Sizwe has spearheaded 3 other upgrading and re-blocking projects in the City. Sizwe’s work has also focussed on Langrug informal settlement near Franschoek in the Western Cape. Through deep engagement with the community Sizwe assisted CORC and the community in devising a pallette of informal settlement upgrading strategies. The planning of Langrug was awarded the SAPI National Award in the Community Category.

Planning reblcoked Layout in Mtshini Wam informal settlement, Milnerton

Planning reblocked Layout in Mtshini Wam informal settlement, Milnerton

Why Planning?

When tracing his steps as a planner, Sizwe links his interest in participatory, community based planning to his roots.

“I was born and raised in an informal settlement and still live in one. I have always wondered what it would take to transform an informal settlement. When I saw the first housing developments in Samora and Delft I asked myself why people had to move away from their current locations and amenities. Why could changes not happen where people lived?”

Sizwe’s fascination with community development – particularly how informal communities could be transformed to formal settlements – inspired him to study Town and Regional Planning. He remembers that although informality was addressed by the curriculum it largely focussed on how to move from a shack to a house.

“My biggest attraction has always been how planning principles can be used in informal settlements. When I was planning chairperson we took students to Nyanga and explored what in-situ upgrading is about. I learnt that my interest in fighting for people who are generally not considered by planning institutions – landless people in urban areas – is called advocate planning. Others did not always understand my approach to planning. Through working at CORC I found my feet and understood what planning is for me. Winning this award has been a further confirmation. We are no longer talking the language of eradication of informal settlements but of upgrading”

In Nyanga, Cape Town

In Nyanga, Cape Town

In Kuku Town informal settlement with community leader Verona Joseph

In Kuku Town informal settlement with community leader Verona Joseph

A different approach to Planning

“In the ever-changing role of a planner, I think a key element for planners is to ensure the relationship between people and land. Public participation should be more than drawing up plans and asking for a community’s approval. It should be about supporting people to come up with their own development plans for their communities”

(Sizwe Mxobo)

As a profession planning is rapidly transforming. Most urban policies developed in South Africa focus extensively on community participation. Both the National Development Plan (NDP) and Upgrading of Informal Settlements Programme (UISP) talk about community participation as a central tenet for development. However, government has also identified this as a missing link and capacity both within the municipal and private sector. Most recently, the National Upgrading Support Programme (NUSP) has floated tenders in 49 different municipalities to develop community based plans. Clearly, community participation in the planning sector is the need of the hour.

SAPI Award Ceremony in Durban, Oct 2014

SAPI Award Ceremony in Durban, Oct 2014

Discussing Plans with Flamingo Crescent Community Steering Committee

Discussing Plans with Flamingo Crescent Community Steering Committee

With Kuku Town Steering Committee, Kensington

With Kuku Town Steering Committee, Kensington

Feb 17
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Launch of Upgrading at Flamingo Crescent with Cape Town Mayor Patricia de Lille

By CORC, FEDUP, iKhayalami, ISN, Press No Comments

Authored by CORC

“People said Flamingo Crescent [Upgrading] will never happen. But today is here and this is the proof that it has happened – one cannot do it alone we need to work as a collective!”

Melanie Manuel, Informal Settlement Network (ISN) Co-ordinator

Mayor of Cape Town, Patricia de Lille, with Flamingo Crescent Community Members, SA SDI Alliance, PFO's and City Officials

Mayor of Cape Town, Patricia de Lille, with Flamingo Crescent Community Members, SA SDI Alliance, PFO’s and City Officials

Last week’s upgrading launch at Flamingo Crescent informal settlement celebrated the completion of re-blocking, installation of water, sanitation and electricity services for each of Flamingo’s 104 households, the unveiling of Flamingo’s first formal street names and opening of the settlement’s own crèche, Little Paradise. Moreover it marked a milestone in an ongoing upgrading process, showcasing what is possible when communities, intermediaries, governments and stakeholders form partnerships.

Delegates from community organisations and networks, the Mayor of the City of Cape Town, delegates from various government departments, ward and sub-council politicians, NGOs and support organisations gathered in the Lansdowne Civic Centre from 11:00 on Monday 10 February.

The re-blocking project is lauded as a successful demonstration of community-led, participatory planning, collaborative implementation and improvement of informal settlements. The uniqueness of the project was that despite the settlement’s density no one was displaced and grossly inconvenienced during the implementation of upgrading 104 structures.

ISN & FEDUP welcome the Mayor to the launch at Lansdowne Civic Centre

ISN & FEDUP welcome the Mayor to the launch at Lansdowne Civic Centre

First engagements around Flamingo Crescent 

First engagements began in 2012 after the City of Cape Town signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the SA SDI Alliance around joint community-led upgrading of 22 informal settlements, of which Flamingo Crescent is the third, having built on the experiences of Mtshini Wam and Kuku Town. It differs from the previous two in the severity of its socio-economic challenges – high levels of crime, unemployment, violence and poverty. Given these circumstances the Alliance’s Informal Settlement Network (ISN) facilitated implementation and engagement between the City and the community.

Melanie Manuel (Flamingo Crescent ISN facilitator) shared,

“When we started the partnership with the City of Cape Town in 2011 in Vygieskraal it was a day of celebration and no one knew the hardships that would lie ahead. As time went on we realised we fundamentally believe in community participation, a bottom up approach because we know communities understand their settlements best.”

Read more background here.

Flamingo Before Upgrading

Flamingo Before Upgrading

The Launch: Messages on Upgrading and Inclusion in Services

At the launch, the first speaker, Councillor Anthea Green shared,

“Since 2012 I have said that we need to upgrade Flamingo Crescent, despite resistance from the rate payers and residents’ groups. We were committed to work with the community, and now this is a transformed settlement”.

Informal settlements not only face substandard basic services like water, sanitation and electricity but are also cut off from functions of city administration such as receiving a residential address. The re-blocking project allowed the City and the Post Office to give Flamingo Crescent street names and addresses, after the community made this requirement upfront in their development plan.

Gerald Blankenberg, regional director of the Post Office, said that the Post Office Act and other regulations require the post office to expand addresses to underserviced communities.

“Informal communities are often times socially and economically disconnected from basic administrative functions, and therefore a residential address will give the Post Office an opportunity to serve the community with dignity”, he said.

In the keynote address, Mayor Patricia de Lille emphasised the significant role of Flamingo community’s steering committee, the Alliance’s ISN and Community Organisation Resource Centre (CORC) in the success of the project. She, however, expressed concern about the slow pace of project implementation, emphasizing the need to boost municipal and community capacity to ensure the roll out of more projects in the City’s 200 informal settlements.

“The aim of re-blocking is the improvement of informal settlements while people wait for a housing opportunity”, she observed.

In closing of the ceremony, the Mayor handed over certificates of tenure to community members, ensuring formal recognition of residence and tenure security.

Mayor, Patricia de Lille with Flamingo Community Leader, Maria Matthews

Mayor, Patricia de Lille with Flamingo Community Leader, Maria Matthews

The Impact of Upgrading : Before and After

Before re-blocking, the community of 405 residents had access to only 14 chemical toilets (of which 7 were serviced) and 2 water taps. There was no electricity so that contained fires in tin drums dotted the settlement’s dusty pathways. The community was especially concerned about the safety of its children playing in the busy street.

Re-blocking restructured space in the settlement, opening courtyard areas and clearly designated access roads, enabling the City of Cape Town to install individual water, sanitation and electricity services per household. What sets Flamingo apart from previous projects are its paved pathways, with official road names as well as the construction of a crèche.

The community contributed 20% to the cost of its structures through community-based daily savings. During the implementation phase, 20 jobs were created through the Expanded Public Works Programme.

Before upgrading

Before upgrading

After upgrading

After upgrading

Into the Future: Community voices on Partnership and City Fund

“Since 2010 we have been thinking about improvements in our settlement. This is when we got in touch with ISN, who introduced us to CORC, and we then made a partnership with the City [of Cape Town] We explained what we wanted from the city – our own taps, toilets and electricity. But we needed to come together and draft our own plans”.

(Maria Matthews, Flamingo Community Leader)

Through the SA SDI Alliance the community additionally partnered with several organisations. iKhayalami supported the community, ISN/FEDUP and CORC around training community members and top structure construction. The community established the re-blocked layout and community-based maps in partnership with students from Cape Peninsula University of Technology and support staff from CORC. With the support of Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI, USA) the community drew up plans for the crèche. Habitat for Humanity South Africa contributed to construction by supplying the roof sheets and windows. The Centre for Early Childhood Development (CECD) donated funds to build the crèche. CECD will also support around the training and registration of the crèche.

From Melanie’s speech it was clear,

“This project is successful because of the methodologies we use. We allow communities to do their own designs. The community also made a [financial] contribution [in a settlement] where 95% of community members were unemployed. How do we change the mind-sets of people who are still waiting for adequate housing? Let’s change the way we are living now while we are waiting for housing to come.”

(Melanie Manuel, ISN Facilitator)

Melanie Manuel, ISN Co-ordinator in Flamingo

Melanie Manuel, ISN Co-ordinator in Flamingo

As important as settlement improvement is in itself, the methodology is just as significant. Moreover, Flamingo Crescent serves as a precedent for informal settlement upgrading on a larger scale. The day ended with the community leading the Mayor through their settlement, unveiling Flamingo’s new street names and officially opening the Little Paradise crèche together. It is Melanie Manuel’s closing words that speak of the future:

 “We need to look at a holistic plan for the metro. Let’s look at how we can reach basic services much quicker and how we can scale up. The Alliance projects do not only focus on reblocking but on basic services in every form. The Alliance has designed a City Fund with which communities can directly access money for upgrading in Cape Town. In Flamingo the Aliance’s Community Upgrading Finance Facility (CUFF) helped us match the 20% that each community member contributed to their structure. This kind of facility on a city-level will go a long way – we challenge the City to continue partnering with us and match our contributions in the City Fund!”

 

 

Nov 11
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Putting K2 and Green Park on the Map – Mapping Exchange in Cape Town

By FEDUP, ISN, SDI No Comments

By Julia Stricker (on behalf of SDI Secretariat)

***Cross-posted from SDI Blog***

During a very successful learning exchange focused around settlement level data visualisation and mapping, community members from K2 and Green Park, two informal settlements in Cape Town, created digital maps of their neighbourhoods. 

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Siyaunya puts his head over the GPS device and enters the code for water tap, WT 001. Next he records the geographic coordinates of the location: -34.0289, 18.6731. He and his team repeat this process for every water tap and toilet in K2, the informal settlement in Khayelitsha that Siyaunya calls home. Different codes are used for each type of facility and with regards to their functional status. A broken toilet, for example, gets an N added to its code. These codes together with the coordinates form the raw data for the maps. Apart from the team mapping the basic services there are two other teams on the go to map the settlement boundaries and other interesting features like shops, taverns, and restaurants. Each of the three teams consists of community members, Informal Settlement Network (ISN) and Federation of the Urban Poor (FEDUP) members from across South Africa, and SDI federation members from India, Uganda and Ghana. The latter travelled to Cape Town to support the South African SDI Alliance in refining their digital mapping skills – skills that will help take SDI’s community mapping process to another level, making it easier and quicker, and increasing impact.

Through a hands-on, learning-by-doing approach Siyaunya and his fellow community members, most holding a GPS device for the first time that day, used these devices with confidence by the end of the day. They also understand that the need to stand next to the service or feature you are mapping is about more than getting an accurate reading on the GPS device. It is about the process of gaining intimate knowledge and understanding of one’s settlement and being able to share this knowledge with authority.

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A geographic profile of the settlement consisting of the boundaries and the basic services, at a minimum, is a crucial part of the standardised profile. It is not enough to know the number of toilets – one also has to know their spatial distribution. If all the toilets of a settlement are located on one corner, the numbers alone are a bad indicator for the reality a woman from the other end of the settlement experiences when going to the toilet at night. The spatial dimension adds value to the data and is highly relevant for planning upgrading projects. To put it in a nutshell: Numbers are good – but maps make the numbers come alive. In addition to that John Samuel, from NSDF/SPARC India and part of the data team at SDI, points out that maps are more intuitive to understand than plain numbers and respond better to the variable literacy level of slum dwellers.

There is no perfect map and there never will be one. Maps are by nature abstractions and only a limited inventory of the reality on the ground, a complement of both objectively observable phenomena, as well as the subjective relationships to these. Bearing this in mind they remain highly important as a means to communicate our location in the world and our view on the world. The data used to generate maps of informal settlements must therefore be gathered by the slum dwellers themselves. Maps generated from community-collected data naturally put the emphasis on issues that matter to the community. This in turn is critical for the successful planning and implementation of slum upgrading projects

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When speaking about Know Your City, Sumaya, a young delegate from the National Slum Dwellers Federation of Uganda (NSDFU) puts it like this:

“First you have to know what you have, then you can decide what you need, and only then you can tell somebody what you want. This is what Know(ing) Your City is all about.”

She was part of the team that profiled and mapped 62 settlements in the city of Kampala. The comprehensive report with the maps generated was handed over to the Kampala City Authority in September this year and is a good example how the data can be used to drive communities’ dialogues with government for slum upgrading and development at the city-wide scale. The profiling and mapping of settlements is a powerful tool for promoting active citizenship in communities of the urban poor.

SDI’s focus for the coming years will be to routinize and consolidate the learning around city-wide profiling and mapping for the cities it works with. Concretely, the idea of going city-wide is to push the federations to think beyond their existing network so as to include the voices of other settlements in the city, meet new leaders and together create concrete alternative plans with which they can begin to talk to their cities. Community mobilisation and mobilising city-wide federations are then also among the first goals Celine D’Cruz, SDI co-ordinator anchoring and supporting the data collection process for the SDI network, mentions when she talks about the Know Your City process. It is about the creation of a momentum of inclusion and of identity making for the community of the urban poor. Furthermore, the data collected supports the development of alternative participatory plans for slum upgrading strategies based on prioritised needs; it offers federations and communities at large the ability to monitor their own settlements and, last but not least, grounded and consolidated data at the local level, once aggregated, opens up the space for advocacy at the national and global level.

The maps of K2 and Green Park were visualised the same weekend and brought back to the respective settlements. They are as different as the settlements themselves are. Spread out Green Park contrasts with dense K2. In the latter, all the toilets are located on one site, leading to a situation mentioned above, where a map paints a clearer picture of reality then just numbers.

The learning exchange made clear that settlement profiling and mapping is an essential tool to leverage upgrading, monitor settlements and for regional and global advocacy. The young leaders from K2 and Green Park definitely seemed eager to continue the work and make the realities and needs of the city’s urban poor majority visible through maps.

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Sep 12
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Co-producing Ideas: Denver community and University of Johannesburg Studio

By CORC, ISN No Comments

By Motebang Matsela and Yolande Hendler (on behalf of CORC)

Over the years, the SA SDI Alliance has been involved in several architecture and planning studios in which university students and community members co-produce ideas and scenarios around housing and upgrading. The most recent of these studios took place from July to August 2014 in Johannesburg’s Denver informal settlement together with community members, students from the University of Johannesburg’s (UJ) Department of Architecture, the Informal Settlement Network (ISN) and Community Organisation Resource Centre (CORC) who offered technical and social support and facilitation.

UJ students and community members in Denver informal settlement

UJ students and community members in Denver informal settlement

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Motebang Matsela (CORC technical support and CORC studio facilitator) (centre), with community members and students

Denver informal settlement

Denver informal settlement is situated in a light industrial zone that spans the southern section of Johannesburg’s central business district. It was formed in response to Denver hostel, an inner city accommodation, established around 1946 by the government of the time to house rural labour migrants. As the hostel operated for men-only, Denver informal settlement sprang up as an accommodation option for the wives of men living in the hostel. Over the years the settlement has continued to grow along with an increasing demand for housing by its residents.

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Aerial view of Denver

The studio: co-producing training for students and communities

The studio developed out of a longer engagement between UJ’s Department of Architecture, CORC and ISN, who had already collaborated on past studios in Ruimsig (2011) and Marlboro South (2012) informal settlements in Gauteng. The Denver Studio, however, differed from past studios because it introduced the first of a series of project management modules.

For the SA SDI Alliance, studios lay a foundation for productive discussions with local government that voice communities’ views, opinions and requirements. They also introduce students to the necessity and value of planning with communities, which contributes to a focus that shifts away from traditional ‘top down’ product and ‘delivery’ approaches towards ‘responsive’, community-orientated approaches.

While these outcomes are valuable aspects of collaborative work, Gauteng’s ISN leaders highlighted a current gap: community members need to gain tangible skills through the studio and upgrading process, just as the students do. Each module therefore couples practical participation in the studio with project management skills. Upon completion of every module, community residents will receive a certificate of participation. The vision is that these modules will run as an ongoing series throughout future studios and that they will incrementally build on the content of past studios, creating continuity and ongoing engagement between past and future studios.

Community members receive certificates of participation

Community members receive certificates of participation

 

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The Studio: co-producing ideas

The course engaged eighty 3rd and 5th year students in a site-specific situation that used joint mapping and data to generate community action plans (CAPs). These investigated short, medium and long term planning scenarios that would encourage short-term community initiatives and support further productive discussion with local government around incremental upgrading

The students were divided into ten groups, each of which partnered with two or more residents from Denver settlement who took the lead as designated community planners and explained the community’s various concerns to the students. One of the community leaders, Chief Mbata shared his views on the studio as a platform to commence a dialogue about the urban poor and their conditions of living. He went on to speak about the over crowdedness and the illegal electrical connections that have claimed a lot of shacks and their contents in and around Denver.

“I wish to see these dangerously exposed cables go, and better connections made by the municipality, but when shall that happen?”

(Chief Mbata, Community leader at Denver informal settlement)

Students and community members then investigated the following key themes for ten areas in the settlement:

  • Spatial Justice
  • Humane Environments
  • Scenario Planning
  • Context
  • Spatial / Physical / Social
  • Systems / Networks
  • Interfaces / Thresholds
  • Undercurrents / Threats
  • Aspirations / Perceptions
Students and community members in Denver informal settlement

Students and community members in Denver informal settlement

Final Student Presentations in August 2014

Final Student Presentations in August 2014

While they engaged with these themes, the community, supported by ISN and CORC, also undertook an enumeration of its settlement with the support of iSN – in a combined effort to collect comprehensive information.

As a community member, Daphne Ntombenhle Mabuso used her in-depth knowledge of the community and its history to compile the studio’s data in a collective documentation of Denver that represents the settlement as accurately as possible. Some of the studio’s content includes figure-ground drawings, actual land-use maps and various other maps that identify needs, constraints, observations and possibilities within Denver. This documentation can serve as the basis for continuing discussions between the community of Denver and the City of Johannesburg. (Click here to access the students’ documentation of the studio).

In the last week of August, the students presented their socio-spatial analyses of courtyards, pathways, open spaces,permanent vs. temporary structures and rental vs. owned units to Denver community. These open up a space to begin small-scale projects and a discussion with the local authorities. During this time community members also received their certificates signalling their participation in the studio and the project management skills they acquired. In this way community residents are becoming formally skilled participants and drivers of their own development in a collaborative, co-productive training space.

(Photos: Motebang Matsela, CORC)

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Sep 09
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Building the Siphumelele WaSH facility / Innovation Centre in Langrug, Stellenbosch

By CORC, FEDUP, ISN No Comments

By Aditya Kumar and Yolande Hendler (on behalf of CORC)

Zwelitsha is a section of Langrug informal settlement, located on the rocky ground of a mountain slope that overlooks the lush valleys and nearby town of Franschoek in Stellenbosch Municipality. Zwelitsha’s residents make up 604 people who reside in 318 structures. Langrug as a whole is home to 4700 people who live in 2118 structures. While Langrug’s other sections have access to water and sanitation facilities – including the Langrug Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WaSH) facility – Zwelitsha’s steep incline and rocky terrain have made it extremely difficult to build water and sanitation points. To this end, Zwelitsha currently has only one tap and no toilets.

Zwelitsha community members developing plans for the Siphumelele WaSH facility

Zwelitsha community members developing plans for the Siphumelele WaSH facility

Yet this situation is about to change, as community members began work on the foundations of the Siphumelele WaSH Facility and Innovation Centre last week in partnership with the Informal Settlement Network (ISN), Federation of the Urban Poor (FEDUP), Community Organisation Resource Centre (CORC), Touching the Earth Lightly (TEL), Sculpt the Future Foundation, Stellenbosch Municipality, Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) and Enviro Loo (a waterless sanitation provider).

Site of Siphumelele WaSH facility in Zwelitsha section of Langrug informal settlement

Site of Siphumelele WaSH facility in Zwelitsha section of Langrug informal settlement

Building on Experience: Learning from the Langrug WaSH facility

Based on the monitoring, evaluation and learning around the existing WaSH facility (read more here) in Langrug, Zwelitsha’s residents initiated a discussion about the possibility of a second WaSH facility. They approached ISN and CORC, WPI and Stellenbosch Municipality, all of whom had partnered with the community in building the existing WaSH facility in 2011.

Learning from the existing WaSH facility in Langrug

Learning from the existing WaSH facility in Langrug

The discussion related to the outcomes of a sample survey that was conducted over 12 days in July and August 2013. This survey looked at the benefits of data collection, the various uses of the existing WaSH facility (economic and small enterprise, health and food security, educational, organisational meeting point) and its upkeep and maintenance.

More specifically the outcomes of the survey of the Langrug WaSH facility included:

  • The collection of inception data for Siphumelele WaSH facility
  • Current data collection for usage at both WaSH facilities from July 2014
  • Increased use of the Langrug facility by crèches in Langrug. (An estimated 40 children served per day at the facility around issues related to basic hygiene)
  • A fully functioning post-office hosted in the Langrug WaSH facility, based on previously collected enumeration (socio-demographic) data
  • Support for HIV / AIDS awareness in Langrug WaSH facility
  • Potential for small businesses selling health and hygiene products in Langrug facility
  • Increased food security through the greening of the existing facility in partnership with Touching the Earth Lightly
  • Langrug WaSH facility as a space for youth education, workshops and meetings
  • Dramatic increase in usage of Langrug facility due to consistent cleanliness and ancillary functions within the facility
  • Comparatively low maintenance and upkeep of Langrug facility
  • Success in preventing vandalism
  • Significantly, the community expressed a higher degree of ownership in relation to the Langrug WaSH facility as it was community designed, built and maintained

The challenges that emerged around the facility enhanced the monitoring, evaluation and learning around the delivery and maintenance of services, and assisted in conceptualising the Siphumelele WaSH facility.

Some of these challenges and learning points related to:

  • The low usage of communal showers
  • The slow inception of the hair salon

Building the Concept: Co-Designing the Siphumelele WaSH facility

Given the cost of maintenance and operations, the community and partners involved explored the idea of a livelihood-linked wash facility where a portion of the facility would generate revenue (through a kiosk, crèche, health and educational programme) to reduce the burden on municipal funds for maintenance. Given the community’s experience of struggling for a space of safety and dignity, the Zwelitsha design and construction team named the wash facility “Siphumelele” – “We have achieved it”.

From March to April 2014 the community, together with TEL, began co-designing the facility. The designs include toilets for men and women, a wash area and a kiosk on the ground floor. The second floor will contain a crèche and soup kitchen that will be managed by the community. After conducting a survey with Zwelitsha’s families about amenities to be included in the facility, community leaders chose to exclude showers due to their infrequent use in the Langrug WaSH facility. The community also chose to make use of Enviro Loo toilets after they visited Enviro Loo in November 2013 and received detailed explanations on how the toilets are maintained and operated. The Enviro Loo is a waterless toilet system that provides a safe, non-polluting, cost-effective solution to sanitation.

Co-designing with Touching the Earth Lightly

Co-designing with Touching the Earth Lightly

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Co-designing the WaSH facility

Model of Siphumelele WaSH facility

Model of Siphumelele WaSH facility

Building the Team: Community-led Implementation

Apart from the partners already mentioned, the community has put together different teams to lead the implementation process. These include a leadership committee, a savings group and an Informal Settlement Upgrading Team (ISUT). This team is led by 8 women and includes a Community Liaison Officer, a storekeeper and a project manager who spearhead the construction process. After an exchange to a savings scheme linked to the Federation of the Urban Poor (FEDUP), the community set up their own savings group in July 2014 so as to manage finances to maintain and operate Siphumelele WaSH facility.

Building a voice of the urban poor in Langrug

The foundations for both WaSH facilities were laid when Stellenbosch Municipality signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the community and ISN / CORC in 2011. Since this date Langrug’s community leaders have been developing a formal relationship with the Municipality and are making a strong case for how urban poor communities successfully organise themselves to lead their own upgrading processes, and how co-design and co-planning is a step towards a more tangible ‘inclusive city’.

(Photographs: Stephen Lamb, TEL)

Phase 1 of construction

Phase 1 of construction

The construction team

The construction team

Jul 25
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How Community Construction Management Teams (CCMT) can lead upgrading projects

By CORC, FEDUP, ISN, uTshani Fund No Comments

By Yolande Hendler (on behalf of CORC)

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The venue : Makhaza Day Care Centre in Khayelitsha Cape Town

If designing and planning with communities are key aspects of people-led projects then people-led implementation and -construction are too. The SA Alliance – through the Federation of the Urban Poor (FEDUP) – has pioneered this people-led approach since 1994. By lobbying government, FEDUP strongly influenced low-income housing policy that came to be known as “the People’s Housing Process” (PHP), a special housing subsidy that allowed for much greater involvement of communities in the construction of their houses. Since then, FEDUP members have successfully implemented the construction of their houses through Community Construction Management Teams (CCMTs).

Although CCMTs have for the most part been linked to housing projects in the Alliance, setting them up is just as relevant to the Alliance’s more recent involvement in informal settlement upgrading. During this week’s three day CCMT workshop, experienced CCMT members introduced Cape Town community leaders to the CCMT model of community-led construction and explored how it could function in informal settlement upgrading.

The Exchange

Over three days Hasane Khoza (Abi) and Maureen Skepu from Gauteng shared their experiences in community construction with about 30 leaders from 6 settlements in Cape Town. With a background in construction management, Abi has helped to train and set up CCMTs and monitor housing projects. Maureen has a rich experience in CCMTs – she became a member of FEDUP in the early 2000s, accepted a volunteer position with a local CCMT five years later, and in 2011, moved into her own CCMT constructed house in Orange Farm, Gauteng. Read more about Maureen’s story here.

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Day 1 of exchange: background and formation of CCMTs

During the exchange, Abi and Maureen provided some background on the formation and strcuture of CCMTs, roles and responsibilities of each CCMT member and how to introduce the model of CCMTs to informal settlement upgrading.

The group also spent an afternoon in Flamingo informal settlement, which is currently upgrading and re-blocking. The visit offered an ideal opportunity for Flamingo’s steering committee to explain the way in which they have organised themselves so far and to explore the potential for them to form a CCMT to further streamline and ease the overall management of re-blocking. For the other communities present the site visit offered a first hand impression of what to consider for managing an upgrading project.

Terence Johnson, who has been involved in Flamingo from the outset on behalf of the Informal Settlement Network (ISN) explained,

“There are so many challenges and things you need to consider during upgrading. Some people don’t want to be moved, the rain causes flooding and leakages…. but we need to see these things not as a problem but as a challenge. And we can overcome challenges, especially if we work in a group like a CCMT. ”

Flamingo steering committee putting during on-site construction

Flamingo steering committee putting during on-site construction

How CCMTs work

On the first day Maureen explained,

 “The idea behind CCMTs is that communities oversee and implement projects themselves. In this way the community can make sure that the job is done properly. Because of this you need dedicated and thorough people on the team. The benefit of CCMTs compared to general steering committees are that each member has clear roles and responsibilities”

(Maureen Skepu, FEDUP housing project coordinator, Gauteng)

Within FEDUP, the CCMT process includes all the stages of house building: from drawing plans (which are formalised by qualified architects and engineers) to the construction process, which is contracted out to community members. The construction team consists of five members who each have a specific task: the technical officer requests specific items and provides quality control, the bookkeeper sources the best and cheapest materials, the storekeeper controls the inflow and outflow of stock, the loan and savings officer looks after the community’s finances, and the project manager oversees the whole process. And, unlike in the private and public building sector, most of the construction team’s members are women.

“The idea is to capacitate a community to move from being just employed in a project to driving the project themselves. Project management is a skill that can be learnt. Everyone can be taught and everything we know we have learnt. Managing a project leads to empowering a community.”

(Abi / Hasane Khoza, CCMT Construction Manager)

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Abi answering questions about CCMTs

Community Questions, Discussions and Insights

The workshop was a space of many questions and lively discussions. These were about how to break down the budget at community level so each person knows exact quantities and costs of materials to expect, at what stage in a project process a CCMT could be formed, or that women’s strength, resilience and thoroughness are good qualities for CCMT members. The communities present also liked the idea that CCMTs share the overall responsibility of an upgrading project – a shift from one person to a team of people.

In reflecting on the three days that passed, the community members expressed their value for exploring how the CCMT process can work in informal settings and upgrading projects. The suggested next steps are to establish guiding templates for establishing CCMTs as well as monitoring and documenting project processes on the ground, so that these can be shared with others as well.

“What we can learn from the CCMT workshop is that we need to continue learning, especially from the mistakes we make. Let’s not only make a habit of learning but actually do something with what we learn”

(Lindiwe Ralarala, Masilunge community leader)

Discussing the role of slopes and gradients on the upgrading site.

A discussion on the role of slopes and gradients on the upgrading site.

Jul 18
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Durban and Port Elizabeth Leaders on Sanitation Exchange

By CORC, iKhayalami, ISN, SDI No Comments

By Stefanie Holzwarth and Yolande Hendler (on behalf of CORC)

Over the past years, the communities of Midrand in Port Elizabeth and Havelock in Durban have been upgrading their settlements, step by step. Last week’s exchange (8-11 July 2014) – in which community leaders visited Cape Town settlements – formed the next step in activating solutions to their specific needs for water and sanitation upgrading.

Site visit in Kuku Town

Site visit in Kuku Town

 

Midrand and Havelock

Midrand is located on municipal land but is not yet listed on the municipality’s database and therefore experiences great difficulty in accessing services. The community consistently experiences severe flooding. Havelock, on the other hand, is built on privately owned land and has been earmarked for “interim services” by eThekwini Municipality, indicating a willingness to deliver basic services in the short term and habitation in the long term. It is built against a hill with high shack densities that have led to shack fires, flooding and torrents of water flushes in the rainy seasons. Read more background on Havelock and Midrand.

The exchange

During the four-day exchange about ten community leaders visited five settlements in and around Cape Town. The exchange was linked to the SHARE Program (Sanitation and Hygiene Applied Research for Equity) linked to Shack Dwellers International (SDI). Read more about SHARE here. It was facilitated by the Informal Settlement Network (ISN), Community Organisation Resource Centre (CORC) and iKhayalami. It centrally focussed on how communities can use sanitation as a tool for upgrading and mobilisation, particularly in response to ever present and severe flooding.

Midrand community leaders, for example, spent time investigating the most suitable and relevant options for sanitation upgrading in their settlement:

  • Communal toilets and wash facility at the edge of the settlement (ablution blocks) without re-blocking
  • Sanitation and wash facility in the centre of the settlement with partial re-blocking
  • Individual sanitation facilities in courtyard (one-on-one sanitation) with settlement wide re-blocking

These would all require engagement with local government institutions.

Havelock’s central challenge is drainage. The settlement has already engaged with local government about constructing a sanitation unit as well as providing more sanitation units in the centre of the settlement. This would coincide with the communities’ already existing plans to re-block its settlement. Midrand and Havelock’s leaders therefore visited upgrading sites that provided an example of different options available to them.

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Example of sanitation in a community-run Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WaSH) facility

One-on-One Sanitation in Kuku Town

The visitors spent the first day in Kuku Town where the community recently completed re-blocking with individual sanitation per upgraded structure. They were particularly interested in how Kuku Town managed to re-block without having to relocate people to other areas. Other questions focused on why the community chose individual toilets. Kuku Town’s leaders explained that

“single toilets are manageable because the owner is responsible for their own toilet and because there are no conflicts within the community with regards to hygiene.”

The leaders also reflected on Kuku Town’s successes and challenges throughout planning and implementation. The visitors learned how Kuku Town approached the municipality for support in terms of infrastructure services. Both Midrand and Havelock were impressed by the Council´s successful involvement in providing water and sanitation.

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Sanitation and water services per upgraded structure in Kuku Town

Sanitation facility in Langrug, Stellenbosch & BM Section, Khayelitsha

In Langrug, Franschoek. the visitors saw an example of upgrading that included relocating 16 families, the construction of a second access road and grey-water and drainage channels, and a community designed, multi-purpose Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WaSH) Facility. The visit offered insight into the WaSH facility, the drainage project and the local playground. The subsequent discussion facilitated an exciting learning environment with questions about the maintenance of the WaSH facility and funding. They also discovered the opportunity of hot water provision via solar heating systems in summer. The afternoon centred on projects in BM section, Khayelitsha. Its similarity (due to an uneven slope) to Havelock made it an ideal site for the exchange and delivered an essential input for its visitors.

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Interior view of Langrug’s WaSH facility

 

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Courtyard in BM section

Shared Sanitation in Mtshini Wam & ongoing re-blocking in Flamingo

The visit to Mshini Wam provided valuable lessons for the visitors – particularly in the field of funding and engaging the local authority. The visitors took special interest in understanding how Mtshini Wam managed to convince some residents to share toilets on a cluster basis while others had single toilets. The challenges relating to communal toilets were thoroughly discussed.

“The main idea was to have single toilets but due to the number of shacks and the limited space, the plan was diverted in order to accommodate communal toilets. The maintenance and cleaning of the toilets depends on the cluster groups.”

The visitors concluded their site visits in Flamingo Crescent, an ongoing re-blocking project. During a walkabout the visitors observed how shacks were broken down, how ground works were installed and how the new structures were erected.

Site visit in Flamingo during re-blocking

Site visit in Flamingo during re-blocking

Midrand community discusses the way forward

On the last day, Midrand leaders and iKhayalami discussed the sanitation options available to the community and the future steps each would imply. Community leaders agreed that re-blocking with one-on-one services would be the most realistic and feasible option.

“The ablution block won´t work for us because there is lots of friction. No one wants to wait for a long time when using the facility. Community blocks won´t work because some of the people are not responsible. They leave it without taking care.” (Community Leader, Midrand)

Midrand’s leaders agreed to start saving to upgrade their structures instead of solely blocking out. They hoped to convince the municipality to come on board. Re-blocking would be conducted in phases – identifying clusters for incremental re-blocking.

One major challenge in Midrand is the lack of space. Part of the settlement land is still in private hands – which causes major tenure insecurity. Together with iKhayalami the leaders discussed various solutions. While the community leaders resolved their questions, the next step is to share these with the rest of their communities when they return.

The exchange not only offered a learning space but also enabled leaders to grow their ability in community-driven upgrading,

“I have learned a lot by being a community leader and by being part of this exchange. It has built up my confidence and my professional experience. I was a very shy person before – now I can stand up and work for our development goals.” (Midrand community leader)

Midrand Consultation

Andy Bolnick (iKhayalami) discusses sanitation options with Midrand community leaders