DAY 15 - 23 Oct Wits Architecture,Planning and the Built Environment

I tried to go back to Alex to speak to more people about the sanitation problems.Yesterday, I spoke to people in Sjwetla.Today I wanted to get another view from the people in Alex Eastbank(ie the RDP houses).The people living there seemed mostly satisfied with the sanitation system-they used mainly the flush type toilets.

I visited Joburg water ( the Zandfontein branch) that deals with the Alex sanitation mainly and interviewed the depot manager,Tshediso Motlatla,a civil engineer from Wits. I briefly asked him about the present sytem and the newer technologies in the pipeline.

I need to interview him on Monday again for more information as he needed to be at a meeting later that day.

Dr Daniel Irurah from Wits Architecture was quite pessimistic about the future of better sanitation in any informal settlement.He has done extensive research on the urbanisation of informal settlements in Nairobi,Kenya,with Prof Marie Huchzermeyer from the Wits Architecture department.

He had become a bit despondent from some of the projects that did not work in Kibera,Kenya.However, he said there were some fanatastic eco-friendly methods that people in informal settlements do not appreciate,beacuse they are faced with a choice of : Do we want better housing first or better toilets first? And usually the common response is better housing.

DAY 14 - 22 Oct Visit to Joburg Water in Jhb CBD

Interview with persons from Joburg water & sanitation facilities(for Alex) in Harrison Street- Bonginkosi Xaba.
Baldwin Matsimela,the communications officer was not available.
Later in the afternoon we went to Sjwetla to speak to the people who live there and their view on the sanitation problems.

One man,Perry Njodyi explained the stench quite well.He said since his arrival at the settlement, he has lost his appetite due to the reek of the river. He prefers to eat anywhere else but not in Alex.

Many people spoke about their fears of going to the portaloos at night due to criminals lurking as well as rats that tend to bite the people.

DAY 13 - 21Oct Urbanisation of Informal Settlements by Architecture,Planning & Built Environment

I met up with persons from Architecture and the Built Environment,who had previously worked on the Global studio project in 2007. The project involved the urbanisation of informal settlements, in particular sanitation facilities.

Persons involved in this project was Dr Garth Klein,Prof Marie Huchzermeyer and Dr Daniel Irurah. Irurah was mainly involved in sustainable ecofriendly development of sanitation facilities in Kibera,Nairobi,Kenya.In South Africa,they are working on eco-friendly facilities in the Ekhuruleni(Johannesburg) area and some informal settlements in Natal.

DAY 12 - 20Oct Group meeting with supervisors

We had a short group meeting with supervisors,Margaret and Jo-anne.We confirmed the media we wanted to use and the direction of our stories that we had pitched earlier.

So far so good.

DAY 11- 19Oct : Visit to Sandton Fire Station and Disaster Management Sites in Alex

We visited the Sandton Fire Station. I was quite excited about that.
We had an interview with Fency Nkoele and Godfrey Sigudu.They are based at the Sandton Fire Station and are part of the National Disaster Management Forum.They took us on a short tour of Alex to show us structures in place to help assist with managing or controlling floods.

At the fire station they have a weather station(connected to the weather bureau),which monitors levels of the water and if levels rise very high during rainy season the emergency services are alerted,thereafter the trained volunteers that live by the banks of the river are notified to be on standby for help.

They showed us the telemetric structures,the Memeza(Call for Help) structures and the Alex Transit Villages (ATV).The former two are measures used to call for help but they have been vandalised and misused.They have cost over millions to be fitted in.

The latter (ATV) has about over 400 units,with about 15 left for emergencies.The flood victims are the first to be allocated housing,many of which are foreigners.This has left to xenophobic violence in the past because locals complain about waiting for houses for over 10years according to Fency and Godfrey from the Sandton Fire Station.

DAY 10 - 16Oct: Visiting Silvertown & the creche in Sjwetla,speaking to flood victims

We visited Silvertown and the Pikitup truck was there,doing their weekly garbage pick up. I spoke to Elin a little about the sanitation problems in Sjwetla and took some pictures to show the few portaloos,which was used for about 84 families.For Silvertown residents however sanitation seemed to be the least of their problems. They were promised by the housing department to be moved to proper housing within a year. They were more frustrated with living in their shacks for over 3 years.

We then went to the creche in Sjwetla.The principal at the school explained what the children knew about water and the river.We then walked randomly through narrow alley-ways to meet people who lived by the banks of the river and people who were victims of flooding.

DAY 9 - 16Oct: Plenary Meeting

DAY 9 - 16Oct

We had a class meeting between the four groups to discuss our ideas.
Group 3:

1)Silvertown(outskirts of Sjwetla)

2) Childrens creche in Sjwetla

3) Flood Victims

4) Church groups by the river

5) Flood Management

6) Sanitation (Present & Future)

7) Siyakana Food Garden