Informal Human Settlements of Cape Town

Cape Town – Informal Human Settlements. Shack towns are very dense settlements comprising communities housed in self constructed shelters under conditions of informal land tenure, a dense proliferation of small, make-shift shelters built from diverse materials, this populace pressure causes degradation of the local ecosystem and produces severe social and health problems.

Water is obtained from communal taps and toilet facilities range from buckets to pit latrines. These areas are prone to flooding & fires; killing 281 people and displacing 220,302 since December 1999 in the Western Cape.

The Western Cape has a Tuberculosis (TB / MDR-TB / XDR-TB) and HIV/AIDS pandemic which is exacerbated by the conditions in these habitat environments. Informal human settlements occur when administration and planning fails.

The improvement of living conditions in informal settlements is imperative to a functional society. "We also have a housing waiting list of about 460,000 and 222 informal settlements around the city (150,000 shacks compared with 28,000 in 1994), and a growing crime rate," Cape Town Mayor - Helen Zille. April 10 2008

The province has a housing shortage of nearly 500 000 units. Western Cape Housing MEC Bonginkhosi Madikizela has warned if something drastic is not done it could take 28 years to address the housing backlog in the province. Oct 14 2009

On Average each shack is home to 3,4 human beings.

Http://www.InternAfrica.org http://InternAfrica.blogspot.com/

A not for profit organisation which aims to educate and ensure Africans the right to dignity and adequate housing through secure ecologically sustainable development and use of natural resources, while promoting justifiable economic and social development.

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