Sanitation Upgrading as Climate Action: Lessons for Local Government from a Community Informal Settlement Project in Cape Town

Abstract

In light of the increasing call for climate action, there is a growing body of literature studying the ways in which informal settlements in the Global South are adapting to the impacts of climate change. In these particularly vulnerable communities where the existing infrastructural vulnerabilities faced by residents are exacerbated by the hazards of climate change, multi-level approaches involving more inclusive forms of governance are needed for the implementation of climate action. Drawing from the case of a sanitation upgrading project in the informal settlement of Murray, located in Philippi, Cape Town, this paper adds to current understandings of multi-level rapid climate action in informal settlements by endeavouring to address two gaps in this body of literature. Firstly, this paper demonstrates a link between climate change and sanitation which has received little attention by showing that improving sanitation infrastructure makes communities more resilient to extreme weather events associated with climate change. Secondly, the paper addresses how and by whom rapid climate action can be implemented in complex socio-institutional contexts such as informal settlements where the impacts of climate change are felt particularly strongly. This paper identifies what enabled and constrained climate action in the Murray informal settlement in an attempt to provide lessons for local government from the case of the sanitation upgrading project. Bottom-up initiation of multi-level climate action is dependent on fragile partnerships which require the support and involvement of a skilled and dedicated local government. Nevertheless, co-operative and transparent engagements across levels hold the potential to contribute to transformative adaptation through the establishment of new partnerships and forms of governance which recognise community groups as legitimate stakeholders and acknowledge the importance of lived experiences and mentalities.

Sustainable development in São Paulo's Green Belt Biosphere Reserve: between the void of municipal environmental policies and the ecosystem management of the territory

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Urban Climate Justice, Human Health, and Citizen Science in Nairobi’s Informal Settlements

“…One implication of urban climate justice is that science policy will need to prioritize reducing poverty, disrupting colonial models of land and resource control, addressing the traumas from multi-generational environmental health vulnerabilities and/or redistributing resources as a form of 'climate reparations' [18]. In this paper, we explore how residents in one informal settlement partnered with NGOs and others to initially guarantee access to high quality basic services but expanded their partnership to gather new evidence and co-create an innovative climate justice plan [19].…”