Informal Settlement Upgrading

EThekwini Interim Services Programme:

EThekwini Interim Services Programme is a large programme which will provide interim services to (77,000 households residing in 166 prioritised informal settlements within the City. PPT has played an advisory and support role on this ground-breaking initiative. It is significant as it is the first systematic programme of its nature in South Africa. It has also been instrumental in the release of the new Urban Settlement Development Grant which for the first time provides infrastructure funding to provide interim basic services to informal settlements. The use of precinct level master plans for roads and footpaths will help bring about spatial restructuring and enable investment in a prioritized and spatially coherent fashion. The programme reflects a growing recognition that conventional upgrading and housing delivery are inherently slow and costly processes and that more rapid responses are necessary to address the day to day challenges of the urban poor such as shack fires, poor sanitation and poor road access. The programme therefore seeks to rapidly rollout the provision of a range of basic infrastructural services such as:

• Basic road and footpath access based on a prioritised road hierarchy and informed by basic master-plans for the 15 precincts in which the bulk of informal settlements are concentrated.
• Sanitation via communal sanitation blocks which are connected to water and sewer mains .
• Electrical supply to individual homes.
• Standpipes for water supply (the norm is one standpipe within 200m of every dwelling).

These will be augmented with additional interventions such as:

• Key social facilities based on plans currently under formulation (e.g. police and fire stations, clinics, schools, sports fields, community halls).
• Participative local economic action plans.
• Livelihoods interventions to empower residents to better optimise their existing assets and resources and become more resilient in the face of external shocks and stresses (and focussed on such issues as HIV/AIDS, food security, and fire protection).
• Fruit tree planting and vegetable gardens.

Kenville Urban Restructuring Pilot Project:

PPT has played an extensive role in the conceptualization and preparation of this innovative and important project. The project is a good illustration of how systematic project preparation can enable better and more innovative developmental solutions such as better integrated planning, alternative (more pedestrianised) planning layouts and alternative housing typologies (in the form of low cost double story units arranged in spatially efficient yet people-friendly ‘superblocks’). The project will upgrade several informal settlements located within the Kenville precinct which has a prime location within eThekwini (Durban), being located approximately 7km north of city’s CBD. It is home to a population of approximately 7,500 households of which over 2,500 reside in six ‘infill’ informal (shack) settlements. The area is predominantly a low-middle income residential suburb and abuts the Springfield Park light commercial and light industrial precinct. It is however characterized by steep slopes, challenging geotechnical conditions and limited developable land relative to the existing informal settlement population.

Preparation of the Kenville Project was undertaken at precinct level in order to enable more integrated development and to optimize the resultant urban form. This was especially important given the prime location of the site within the City and its close access to job opportunities and other amenities. This integrated precinct level approach is in contrast to the usual trend in South Africa in terms of which informal settlements tend to be dealt with from a narrow housing perspective and in isolation from the greater urban environment in which they are located.

Informal settlement policy:

Significant progress has been made in terms of promoting more effective and appropriate responses to the challenges posed by informal settlements.

For more information please refer to the Knowledge Resources section of this website.