The efforts of a federation of slum and shanty dwellers to secure land and improve housing in Moratuwa: from savings groups to citywide strategies

Abstract

In Moratuwa, Sri Lanka, the tsunami disaster of 2004 forced new ways of working on both organizations of the urban poor and local authorities. Building on this experience, an emerging federation of the urban poor (built on community savings groups) has been collaborating with local authorities to secure land and adequate housing in two deprived settlements unaffected by the tsunami. This article examines these recent initiatives and their citywide relevance. The federation (the Women’s Development Bank Federation) receives support from a local NGO (Janarukula) and is affiliated with an international confederation (Slum Dwellers International), whose principles are also evident in these improvement efforts. One of the two settlements is located on the periphery of Moratuwa, where land is plentiful and existing plots can be upgraded. The other is a central settlement, where land is scarcer and the federation has opted for multi-storey residences. Securing community control over the multi-storey development has proved difficult and has required far tighter collective action. Success in dense settlements is important, however, if the federation is to meet its goal of creating a citywide strategy.

Keywords

community-based organizations density federations informal settlements land tenure multi-storey SDI slum Sri Lanka

References

Angel, S. and S. Boonyabancha ( 1988), "Land sharing as an alternative to eviction: the Bangkok experience", Third World Planning Review Vol 10, No 2, pages 107-127.

Asian Development Bank (2008), Key Indicators for Asia and the Pacific 2008, Asian Development Bank, Manila.

Boonyabancha, S. ( 2005), "Baan Mankong: going to scale with ‘slum’ and squatter upgrading in Thailand, Environment and Urbanization Vol 17, No 1, April, pages 21-46.

Centre for Housing Rights and Evictions (2006 ), Global Survey on Forced Evictions, The Centre for Housing Rights and Evictions, Geneva , 144 pages.

D’Cruz, Celine and David Satterthwaite ( 2005), Building Homes, Changing Official Approaches: the Work of Urban Poor Federations and their Contributions to Meeting the Millennium Development Goals in Urban Areas, Human Settlements Poverty Reduction in Urban Areas Series, Working Paper 16, IIED, London, 80 pages.

de Soto, Hernando ( 2000), The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else, Bantam Press, London, 276 pages.

Garau, Pietro , Elliott Sclar and Gabriella Y Carolini ( 2005), A Home in the City, Earthscan , London, 224 pages.

Gilbert, Alan ( 2007), "The return of the slum: does language matter? ", International Journal of Urban and Regional Research Vol 31, No 4, pages 697-713.

Hasan, Arif ( 2007), "The new urban development paradigm and the changing landscape of Asian cities", International Society of City and Regional Planners (ISoCaRP) Review No 3, pages 28-41.

10.

Jayaratne, K.A. and M. Sohail ( 2005), "People-centred regulations for urban upgrading in developing countries", ICE Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Municipal Engineers Vol 158, No ME1, pages 53-62.

11.

Klein, Naomi ( 2007), Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism , Metropolitan Books/Henry Holt, New York, 588 pages.

12.

McGranahan, Gordon , Diana Mitlin and David Satterthwaite ( 2008), "Land and services for the urban poor in rapidly urbanizing countries", in George Martine , Gordon McGranahan , Mark Montgomery and Rogelio Fernández-Castilla (editors), The New Global Frontier: Urbanization, Poverty and Environment in the 21st Century, Earthscan, London, pages 77-98.

13.

Mitlin, Diana ( 2008), Urban Poor Funds; Development by the People for the People, Human Settlements Poverty Reduction in Urban Areas Series, Working Paper 18, IIED, London, 82 pages.

14.

Mitlin, Diana and David Satterthwaite (editors) (2004), Empowering Squatter Citizen: Local Government, Civil Society and Urban Poverty Reduction, Earthscan, London, 313 pages.

15.

Mukhija, V. ( 2006), "Property readjustment and a tenants’ cooperative in Mumbai: some lessons and questions", Environment and Planning A Vol 38, No 11, pages 2157-2171.

16.

Patel, S. , S. Burra and C. D’Cruz ( 2001), "Slum/Shack Dwellers International (SDI) - foundations to treetops", Environment and Urbanization Vol 13, No 2, October, pages 45-59.

17.

Patel, Sheela and Diana Mitlin ( 2002), "Grassrootsdriven development: the alliance of SPARC, the National Slum Dwellers Federation and Mahila Milan", in Mitlin, Diana and David Satterthwaite (editors) (2004), Empowering Squatter Citizen: Local Government, Civil Society and Urban Poverty Reduction, Earthscan, London, pages 216-241.

18.

Satterthwaite, David ( 2005 ), Understanding Asian Cities: A Synthesis of the Findings from Eight Case Study Cities, Asian Coalition for Housing Rights , Bangkok.

19.

Sevanatha (2003), "Understanding slums: the case of Colombo", accessible at http://www.ucl.ac.uk/dpu-projects/Global_Report/cities/colombo.htm.

20.

Smolka, Martim O and Adriana Larangeira ( 2008), "Informality and poverty in Latin American urban policies ", in George Martine , Gordon McGranahan , Mark Montgomery and Rogelio Fernández-Castilla (editors), The New Global Frontier: Urbanization, Poverty and Environment in the 21st Century, Earthscan, London, pages 99-114.

21.

UN-Habitat (2003), The Challenge of Slums: Global Report on Human Settlements 2003, United Nations Human Settlements Programme, Nairobi, 310 pages.

22.

www.sdinet.co.za/.

23.

www.sdinet.org/rituals/ritual1.htm.

24.

Yamada, S. , R.P. Gunatilake , T.M. Roytman , S. Gunatilake , T. Fernando and L. Fernando ( 2006), "The Sri Lanka tsunami experience", Disaster Management & Response Vol 4, No 2, pages 38-48.