Acute Housing Shortage

On a tiny crumbling concrete floor sits a raised makeshift building with stairs of half-baked bricks. With the upper part screened off by old rusty iron sheets, metal tins and plastic materials, this is what passes for a house.

This is where twenty-five year old Sarah Katogo lives with her family and her three children, all under the age of ten, in Namuwongo, the second biggest slum in Uganda and home to between 15 000 and 20 000 people. Many of the dwellers are internally displaced people from areas of violence. Others are refugees who fled neighbouring countries such as DR Congo and South Sudan.

“I came to Kampala to search for a job,” says Katogo. “But it was not easy, and I had to spend much money on buying food. So I decided to look for a cheap house to rent near Kampala where transport is relatively cheaper.”

At the same time, students of a collaborative architecture Master’s programme in urban transformation and sustainable development have gathered at Uganda’s Makerere University to share information and knowledge about how to solve the housing problems facing Sub-Saharan Africa.

BASIC NEEDS | "Some days I have to skip meals in order to be able to pay for rent and basic needs for the children," Sarah Katogo (left) explains.

Mass Housing

“The students have chosen research topics such as environmental quality, sustainable human settlement design and urban sprawl,” says Dr. Barnabas Nawangwe, acting principal of the College of Engineering, Design, Art and Technology at Makerere University.

The Oslo School of Architecture and Design partnered with five East African universities to offer the advanced academic programme, giving students the opportunity to gain international experience, tie bonds with fellow students in other countries and benefit from the academic capacity of universities in Norway and East Africa.

“This Master’s programme is arranged in such a way that the students move from one university to another. In all, the students have studied at five different universities, gathering knowledge and being exposed to different cultures. This will greatly enrich their experiences,” Dr. Nawangwe says.

“Uganda’s population is growing rapidly at a rate of 3.6 per cent a year – the second highest population growth rate in the world. This is in a situation where there is already an acute shortage of housing, not only in urban
areas, but also in rural areas,” he explains.

“The main challenge is therefore to explore appropriate housing construction methods and technologies for mass housing. Equipped with the rich knowledge from the course, the students will contribute in solving these teething problems.”

In the slum, the problems are highly visible. 90 per cent of the households live below the absolute poverty line. Residents face numerous problems such as unemployment, low quality housing, high crime rates, drug abuse, poor and insufficient infrastructure and low literacy levels. But Sarah Katogo, like any single mother living in a slum, has to pay for waste management, rent, water and toilet facilities. Families rely on cheap food stuffs such as Matooke, cassava, beans and maize. Meat, fish, eggs and fruit are food for the rich.

“Some days I have to skip meals in order to be able to pay for rent and basic needs for the children,” Katogo explains. “The rent is usually overpriced, considering the state of the shelter, and my ‘house’ consists of six family members sharing a one-room home.”

Added Value

There are many challenges ahead, Dr. Nawangwe warns, including insufficient number of planning professionals, a poor planning culture among local authorities, and a lack of political will to implement serious reforms. He emphasises that the Master’s programme involves country-specific knowledge development, a comprehensive learning programme and knowledge exchange.

“Our students are exposed to critical issues affecting urban development, and they get involved in creating frameworks for
addressing poverty in urban areas. This makes them fit to help solve the urban poverty problems. With this Master’s programme we are opening doors. Students and staff come together and meet people from neighbouring countries who are facing similar challenges. This gives added value.”

DESIRED CHANGE | "The desired change will come from educating young African architects to address the challenges through home-based policy and programmatic approaches," says Dr. Cyriacus Lwamayanga, the head of the architecture department at Ardhi University, Tanzania.

Agents of Change

“Architects could make big contributions to urban development by building sustainably, which means considering ecology, environment, finance and energy,” says Edward Robbins, professor at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design.

“This Master’s programme promotes South-South-North cooperation and building sustainable capacity of institutions in the
South to provide a national workforce with adequate qualifications.” Robbins emphasises that regional cooperation between different universities is very important.

“We are working in a field where there does not exist large universities and academic centres. But through this cooperation we come together to build strong networks and academic ties. Collaborative academic programmes respond to the need for practitioners to become agents of change through engaging in dialogue about both challenges and good practices and by creating an action plan and communications strategy to include various stakeholders.”

Congested with People

In Namuwongo, the hardest thing to find is a toilet. This is because they are too few and they are closed at night.
The local council chairman in the Namuwongo area, Emmanuel Masengere, says unsafe toilets were demolished because floods easily wash the faeces into the houses.

“This place is congested with people. The water table is high and the pit latrines are floating on water. So we constructed public latrines, which are safer, but too few.”

Residents in Namuwongo complain that the rain creates flooding, and dirty water seeps into the spring water wells, contaminating the drinking water. The occupants of this slum count themselves lucky if the rainy season passes without cholera striking.

Asked whether their cries have been heard, Masengere replies: “Government officials only come here when there is a crisis, or for votes. They never attend to issues affecting the population until it becomes a full-blown crisis. The problem with Namuwongo is that the people who have constructed houses in the slums never stay there,” Masengere points out.

Regional Integration

“The desired change will come from educating young African architects to address the challenges through home-based policy and programmatic approaches,” says Dr. Cyriacus Lwamayanga, the head of the architecture department at Ardhi University, Tanzania, also a partner in the Master’s programme.

“Through this cooperation the lecturers in the region are able to meet and to teach effectively with the resources available. We teach students from various universities, and this is the first step in regional integration.”

Decent Jobs

Katogo also knows that education means better standards of living and is fundamental to human rights. Her only hope is in the Universal Primary and Secondary Education that offers free education in government schools.

“Before free education was introduced it was very difficult to pay school fees,” she explains.

Her main dream is that her children complete education up to university level so that they can get decent jobs.

“I know that they will be able to build good standard homes. I don’t want them to stay in a shack like me. It is degrading.”

 

Ibrahim Kasita is a journalist living in Uganda.

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