Implementation scenario. This scenario follows one set of families as their cluster of huts transitions into a new settlement
The key to designing in such socially charged situations is sensitive implementation. This requires both a top- down and bottom-up approach. The government is a sig- nificant actor bringing the main water infrastructure to the site first. A new water tower is then a gathering place where displaced people meet to discuss the planning of each unique block. Designers help them determine the placement of water collection courtyards around which families will cluster. Because the design of the new set- tlement is carried out on the same existing site, the con- struction of berms, basins, troughs and garden plots is broken down into increments to minimise the impact. (scenario, right) As each block’s framework of water in- frastructure is fully realised the displaced people can be- gin to construct permanent dwellings. There is a crucial need to develop strategies for perma- nent settlement that restore displaced people’s relation- ships to land and community. Water infrastructure is well suited to the sensitive process of incremental implemen- tation necessary for repairing severed connections. This design strategy allows for a variation in landscape con- ditions and scales, therefore possible to employ in other countries and situations. This strategy could be also be adopted for newly displaced people, to create a community as an alternative to the camp . An organising system based on water continues to generate social and economic gains well past the completion of the last phase – which is, in fact, when the project really begins. C
the displacement camp (pre-phase 1)
the establishment of water channels and troughs
housing connected to the berm infrastructure
Erica Bright, a recent graduate of the University of Waterloo’s MArch program, has spent almost a year in East Africa designing schools and training centres for local communities in need. The Prospects for Reconstruction in Angola from the Community Perspective . Guelph: Development Workshop, 2001. p15 6 Lancaster, Brad and Joe Marshall. Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands , 1st edition. Tucson: Rainsource Press, 2006. p24 The Gulu berm and basin infiltration system is adapted from this document which highlights a water harvesting project, the Zvishavane Water Resources Project, in Zimbabwe. 3 Franceys, Richard and Esther Gerlach, editors. Regulating Water and Sanitation for the Poor: Economic Regulation for Public and Private Partnerships. London & Sterling, Virginia: Earthscan, 2008. p74 4 The Republic of Uganda Ministry of Health. ‘Health’ p 26 5 Paul Robson, editor. Communities and Reconstruction in Angola: 1 Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre. ‘Internal Displacement in Africa’ http://www.internal-displacement. org/8025708F004CE90B/(httpRegionPages)/B3BA6119B705C145802570A 600546F85?OpenDocument 2 The Republic of Uganda Ministry of Health. ‘Health and mortality survey among internally displaced persons in Gulu, Kitgum and Pader districts, northern Uganda’. World Health Organisation (July 2005), http:// www.who.int/hac/crises/uga/sitreps/ Ugandamortsurvey.pdf: 46
housing clustered into blocks
a completed housing cluster with berms, basins, gardens, housing and community
WAR matters: On Site review 22
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