Upgrading Informal Settlements

By Asia Chapman

An estimated 651 million residents across the world live in informal settlements according to the World Health Organization (WHO).¹ The United Nations Habitat defines the characteristics defining an informal settlement as possessing these three traits,²

1.  Inhabitants have no security of tenure vis-à-vis the land or dwellings they inhabit, with modalities ranging from squatting to informal rental housing
2. The neighbourhoods usually lack, or are cut off from, basic services and city infrastructure
3. The housing may not comply with current planning and building regulations, and is often situated in geographically and environmentally hazardous areas

In some some countries the WHO estimated 95% of urban residents live in these conditions. Residents of informal settlements often do not have rights to the land they live on. As a consequence, they can be kicked off of the land at any time. Despite these challenges these settlements are vibrant communities that some residents are hesitant to leave even when better housing opportunities open up to them.³ Programs to improve informal settlements are plagued by problems. The key to successful upgrading projects is community involvement. Involvement of residents in upgrading projects ensures that the programs address their needs. Residents should be treated as consumers and should have as much economic participation in the project as they can.⁴ Upgrading projects for informal settlements should directly involve the community within the settlement and their collective goal should be to develop projects to improve their neighborhoods.

Community Involvement

The Baan Mankong Community Upgrading Project launched by the Thai government is a model for transforming informal settlements. Since it’s implementation Baan Mankong has increased the land security of participants; improved access to utilities such as water, electricity and sanitation; stimulated economic development in the participating communities; and resulted in greater social cohesion within the community in over 1,800 communities.⁵ In this program the Community Organizations Development Institute (CODI), the government agency implementing the Baan Mankong program, works with the neighborhood, NGOs, and experts to develop a plan to improve the community. The program establishes a joint committee with NGO’s and community leaders that surveys all residents in order to develop a plan to upgrade the neighborhoods in focus.⁶ Then the CODI grants loans to community organized collectives which then loans money out to families to improve their homes. The community fund also collects extra interest on the loans to the residents so that they can build up community savings. The community can then regulate the loans that a specific member takes out and analyze whether that individual will be able to pay it back. The buffer of the community savings also decreases the likelihood that the loan will not be repaid. Overall the average cost of this program is $570 per household because of the loan program. Under this program communities in Thailand have come together to secure leases for the land they are living on, clean the environment and resources around them such as sources of water, educate the community members on how to live in an environmentally friendly fashion, rebuild walkways and house, and create community spaces.⁷ Directly working with the community that needs improvement allows them to identify the problems that outsiders might not always be able to see. Experts can then help come up with solutions for the community to implement. Members of the community itself can then be hired to work on the construction projects, to further benefit residents. Figure 1 shows photographs taken before and after the upgrading of a community. By giving the residents of informal settlements loans and subsidies directly, they can decide what is best for their community and are invested in the outcome of the project.

Figure 1. Bon Kai before and after reconstruction.⁶

Extending Infrastructure

Private companies and governments often refuse to extend water, electricity, sanitation services and other forms of infrastructure to informal communities because they are afraid they will lose their investment if the residents are expelled from the site.⁴ They are also apprehensive that low income families living in informal housing will be unable to pay back loans taken out to build the infrastructure. Upgrading infrastructure in these regions require first that residents that live on the land get reassurance that their homes would not be demolished for a reasonable period of time through a letter from the landlord or a lease. Governments can then work with NGO’s, to subsidize the cost of building infrastructure, while partnering with private companies to offer microloans to residents of informal settlements to shoulder the rest of the cost. Microloans are loans in small amounts so that people in the developing world can improve their life. The pitfalls of microloans are high interest rates and the inability of residents to pay them back. People take out more money in loans than they can afford to pay back and end up worse off than they were before. This low return on investment may make the practice economically unsustainable if continued. The Baan Mankong project dealt with this with a community savings account. In order to mitigate the risks of microfinance, microloans for infrastructure should be paid to a community wide fund, which then loans money to individual households. Upgrading infrastructure is further discussed in Water Policy and Implementation and Universal Energy Access.

Building Sustainable Low Cost Housing

Informal settlements should be upgraded in as sustainable of a manner as possible in order to reduce growing neighborhood’s impact on the environment. Certain methods can be employed to decrease the environmental impact of a building as well as bring down the cost of building and maintaining a structure. Professor Waleed Hussein of Fayoum University names some suggestions for designing low cost housing.⁸ He recognizes that the first step to improving housing in informal settlements is securing a lease for the land residents live on. Once residents know that will not be kicked off the property their homes are on, they will begin to improve their houses. When more people move into informal settlements, the neighborhood begins to grow vertically upwards because the demand for space incentivizes households to add extra stories to their homes so they can take in money from boarders. Hussein also outlines ways to save on energy when building low cost housing by recommending putting at least two windows in every room to let in natural light and and to build a courtyard which allow natural light to filter through the building. Openings in buildings should be in the direction of prevailing winds in the area to allow the building to be ventilated. Roofs can be designed in a curvy manner in order to provide shade to the building and cool it down. Hussein also delinates how to decrease construction costs. Mechanized equipment should not be used at all if possible because it raises the cost of a project considerably. Construction materials should be reused or recycled if possible. Building new homes in a way that decreases energy consumption can make homes more affordable in the long term.

Innovative Construction Techniques

In the future, cheaper and more sustainable materials may become available to upgrade houses with. Concrete is an essential material to make homes more resilient and expand vertically. In Dharavi, India a company named Lafarge, has developed a method to bring concrete to residents through the narrow streets of the neighborhood.⁹ They deploy motorized rickshaws to carry concrete-containing buckets to residents who want to build concrete foundations for their homes. Meanwhile, researchers in Singapore’s Future Cities Laboratory are looking into transforming bamboo into a reliable construction material to replace steel rebar in reinforced concrete.¹⁰ Steel rebar is an expensive construction material, especially in developing countries without much industry. Bamboo, a renewable resource that can be grown quickly, in large amounts, presents a replacement for steel rebar. This light, strong material is flexible enough to withstand forces of tension and can reduce carbon emissions by acting as a carbon sink. Despite these advantages bamboo cannot be widely used yet because of its weaknesses as a biological material. Water can damage bamboo and lead to degradation of the material. If bamboo is developed into a viable replacement for steel rebar in the future, cities in environments viable to growing the crop, such as the regions depicted in Figure 2, could build plantations dedicated to growing bamboo outside their major cities, but further industry to manufacture this product would still have to develop. Evolving technology makes safe and comfortable homes increasingly available to those who need them most.

Figure 2. Global natural habitat of bamboo.¹⁰

Growing Cities

The improvement of transportation in cities is necessary to prevent the further deterioration of conditions in informal settlements. Extending transportation networks addresses the cause of why informal settlements arise. Informal settlements grow because people from less urbanized areas are willing to move into neighborhoods with poor amenities in order to be close to economic opportunities present in cities.¹¹ Extending the transportation networks in cities to outlying neighborhoods will reduce the population pressure on informal settlements by expanding economic opportunities to those who live outside of neighborhoods. But expanding the transportation network will only stop the tide of people moving into informal settlements if fares to reach economic centers are affordable. Transportation systems come with a variety of problems including upfront cost and an increase in carbon emissions so while necessary for future growth of a city, the UN recommends trying to reduce the need for transport throughout the city by increasing density of resources.¹² Jobs, schools, hospitals, shopping, and other services should be placed within neighborhoods in order to decrease the need for people to travel long distances to access resources. Roads and transportation networks still need to be constructed in developing countries but increasing services and resources in the areas people live in will ensure that low-income citizens will not be disconnected from the opportunities that a city provides.

Conclusion

More and more people will be moving into cities in the future. As the populations of city centers grow, the demand for space will increase. Upgrading informal settlements can lead to land being used more efficiently. Informal settlements need to adjust to the upcoming influx of people by building upward.¹³ If the problem of informal settlements is ignored, they will only become worse. Informal settlements can be transformed into vibrant communities integrated into the economic and social fabric of cities. The process of upgrading informal settlements provides jobs for members of communities and the addition of utilities to the neighborhood such as water, sanitation, and electricity can make tasks such as cooking and cleaning less time consuming freeing up people’s time for income generating activities. Increased economic activity can lead to new businesses being started in informal settlements such as an initiative to start a floating market in one of the communities revived by the Baan Mankong program. Overall the goal of upgrading informal settlements is to increase housing equity in cities and improve the living conditions of people who live there.