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settlers are driven from the countryside by poverty and end up in makeshift houses in unplanned areas. Usually, such places lack clean water, basic sanitation and waste collection and are a low priority for local authorities with limited budgets.
Poor disposal of human and household waste encourages vermin and insects to thrive, resulting in water and food becoming contaminated. Globally, water-related diseases cause the death of 3,4 million people every year. Many children die before the age of five from diseases caused by drinking dirty water and living in unsanitary conditions.
An influx of new residents strains an urban area’s resources. Housing, water and electricity supplies, transportation, telecommunication, environmental hygiene, food supplies and education facilities, all must increase to meet growing needs. Urban planning and construction also have to keep pace.
The crime rate climbs too.
Among the newcomers are criminals who prey on local residents.
In Zimbabwe, the challenging socio-economic environment, which prevailed from 2000-2009 has among other factors, contributed to a deterioration of essential urban services provision. This resulted in weak and under-resourced local authorities leading to poor delivery of urban services. Planning for services by local authorities is characterised by minimum or no involvement at all of the urban residents who also lack knowledge of civic planning and processes.
Despite the enabling provisions enshrined in the Urban Councils Act and the Regional Town and Country Planning Act, there has been a decline in stakeholder interest in the consultative planning and budgeting processes in service delivery. Most local authorities in the country have no adequate structures and systems, and are under-resourced for effective service delivery resulting in residents’ poor living conditions. The centralised planning and governance system currently in place in most local authorities, has limited flexibility in service delivery options limiting innovation on alternatives.
The end result is poor service delivery such as erratic water supplies, failing waste management, poor road infrastructure, chronic sewerage bursts and unresolved tenure issues, among others.
In addition, many local authorities’ annual budgets have experienced delays in approval and more often, there has been a perennial tug of war between local authorities and residents on the rates or service charges to be paid.
In response to these challenges, Practical Action Southern Africa, an international development organisation,through its Improving Access to Infrastructure Services Programme, has since February 2009,been implementing a four-year European Union funded project in Mutare and Epworth. The project is called Promoting Examples of Participatory Local Empowerment in Urban Planning (PEOPLE UP). It seeks to improve the living conditions of poor and marginalised urban and peri-urban residents by accessing sustained basic municipal and infrastructure services.
‘’One of the objectives of the project is to promote new and innovative ways in which local authorities, residents, non-state actors and the private sector can work together in a holistic way and benefit from their combined efforts,” says the Project Manager, Alexio Mubaiwa.
He elaborates that this is being done to empower residents so that they play an active part in urban planning processes, give them a voice and enable them to have a sense of ownership of developments in their areas.
The project is being implemented through a tripartite partnership involving Practical Action Southern Africa, the Mutare Housing Cooperatives District Union (MDU),working in Sakubva,the oldest suburb in the City of Mutare,and the Civic Forum on Housing (CFH),working in Epworth – a peri-urban settlement 12 km south-east of Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare. Primarily, the project will benefit a total of 302 000 residents – from both Sakubva and Epworth.
There is collaboration with the Urban Councils Association of Zimbabwe, which will serve as an influencing and dissemination conduit to other urban local authorities for possible uptake of the participatory planning in urban service provision model. Mike Duru is the chairperson of the MDU. He says the project has so far enhanced the capacity and voices of the local community and their leaders to understand and demand improved service delivery;
Duru points out: “People were sceptical of the project at first. Through community mobilisation and awareness, people understood that this was an empowerment project and was not meant to dish out free food handouts or cash.”
Stenard Mapurisa, Director of Housing and Community Services, Mutare City Council, said the local authority was now more accountable to communities as there was a common understanding between the council and residents.
“Before this approach, we used to have problems during council budgeting time when residents would say they were never consulted,” he said, adding, “the main aim is to improve services for the people, and generate income for small businesses providing that service. By helping residents to work together with local authorities and utility companies, Practical Action Southern Africa has helped to ensure that these agencies understand the needs of the community as a whole.” Cagewell Muzangaza, the Epworth Local Board Building Inspector calls for a multi-pronged approach, starting with the residents themselves: “Already, capacity has been built among the community members. The project’s approach is emphasising on creating effective partnerships. The work therefore starts with a foundation of community capacity building and engagement with the local authority”.
Sam Chaikosa, the Programme Coordinator of the Civic Forum on Housing says his organisation is assisting in community mobilisation, civic education, and community training on participatory methodologies in local urban services.
There is no easy solution to urban poverty. But locally-managed, sustainable and decentralised services offer low-income communities the best hope of satisfying their need for affordable water, sanitation, housing and energy.
Community – Based Planning (CBP), one of the approaches undertaken by the project, has been conducted in all the seven wards of Epworth and in all the five wards of Sakubva in Mutare.
Emma Chitendera is a Treasurer of Ward Two of Sakubva High density suburb in Mutare. She had been experiencing poor service delivery in her area. By participating in the project, she has been involved in community – based planning processes, and has been given a voice in urban planning activities.
She told us about her hopes for an improved clean water supply in her high density suburb: “In the past, the municipality would not dream of coming to this neighbourhood. I’m happy that they now believe it’s safe enough to come and help us. I believe that with the relationship we have with them we can do a lot to improve our livelihoods. Through community-based planning processes, we have been empowered to approach the city council for related services. The process is now bottom-up instead of top-down.”
Now, the future challenge in this sprawling high density suburb is to continue improving the local environment, with better drainage of waste – water and collection of waste.
The Community-Based Planning approach has created space for the community members to articulate their priorities, and has therefore promoted community empowerment and ownership of the planning process culminating in the development of ward plans.
Last Muzamindo, Ward Seven Secretary, in Epworth: “We participated in several workshops to understand the whole project. In the end, we were able to come up with a draft development plan for the ward. A home industry in this ward is a result of our active participation in planning.”
The project is expected to offer an alternative service delivery model that encourages joint-up thinking and collective decision-making.
It will build the capacity of local authorities to plan with the poor and other stakeholders in infrastructure service delivery. An additional 10 local authorities will benefit from project influencing activities. Already, the project has started to enhance community knowledge, skills and understanding to negotiate processes that promote and sustain the delivery of basic infrastructure services as enshrined in the enabling legislation.
However, implementing the project has not been without its own challenges.
“It has been very difficult to challenge traditional planning approaches within the local authorities. The other challenge has been the residents’ high expectations,” says Mubaiwa.
As the project enters into its third year of operation, there are a number of lessons and experiences already emerging.
The more lessons to be learnt and most importantly, the emerging participatory urban planning model, provides for an opportunity for replication and scaling up, not only in other local authorities in Zimbabwe, but in the Southern Africa region as a whole.
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