Zimbabwe Emergency Disaster Relief
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This project, which began in 2011, sees the Federation engaging with issues of climate change and its impact on urban dwellers. This project is aimed at rehabilitating temporary and permanent structures (including houses) in Kariba that were destroyed by rain storms and wild elephants. Areas affected include Mahombekombe, Charara, Quarry, and Nyamhunga. They include a lake shore slum, a greenfield development, a farming compound, and a slum set up by miners within a National Park. Initially the Federation undertook an assessment of the extent of damage and why some houses were destroyed and others remained intact. All roofs of permanent structures that were destroyed were not beam filled. To date, forty eight (48) houses, a resource centre and herbal garden have been rehabilitated. The Federation installed reticulated water and a sanitation system to the area on one hundred and thirty-four (134) residential plots.
This project allowed a relationship to form between the Government Department of National Parks and Wildlife (ZimParks) and the Federation. This drew the Federation’s attention to the slum settlement of quarry miners on Parks land, on the outskirts of Kariba town. The Federation has since enumerated the settlement. The Federation has negotiated with ZimParks for the allocation of land for one hundred and fifty (150) families within the Parks. The Federation’s work has brought people living on National Parks land to the attention of the Government. An MoU was drafted between the Federation and Kariba Municipality concerning the upgrading of the Mahombekombe lakeshore slum. Through this engagement the Central Government drilled two boreholes on site, yet pumps have yet to be installed. This was the first post-disaster reconstruction project.
Although this project is in reaction to an unforeseen disaster, the Alliance has managed to disseminate the lessons to other construction projects across the country. Revision of the Federation construction methods will ensure that all other Federation projects will be protected against rain storms. Linking this reconstruction project to a proactive project on climate change will ensure that learning will emerge that impacts other Federation projects. The Alliance partnered with Zimbabwe Environmental Regional Office (ZERO) to work in three other communities in Harare, Epworth, and Dzivaresekwa on a project raising awareness around climate change and its effects on the urban poor. Challenges encountered have been the Local Authority freezing development when some families were living in the open. There has also been no policy established to resolve the conflict between the communities and wildlife and there are no guarantees that similar destructions will not take place in future.
Location: Mahombekombe, Charara, Quarry and Nyamhunga, Kariba, ZimbabweThis capital project is meant to rehabilitate a total of forty-one (41) temporary and permanent structures in Kariba that were destroyed by rainstroms in December 2010 and wild elephants. In addition to this, the Federation is to draft a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on the upgrading of the Mahombekombe lakeshore slum.
The affected community was allocated a greenfield site with a total of one hundred and thirty-four (134) plots by the Municipality of Kariba, on which the Federation installed reticulated water and sanitation systems. After negotiations with the Municipality of Kariba, the Federation was granted permission to move into temporary strucutres on their allocated stands whilst they constructed permanent houses. Forty-eight (48) houses are complete in addition to the resource centre. The Kariba Federation chapter has one of the strongest health components in the country.
Construction and rehabilitation of all affected structures was complete by June 2014. Over the last six months the focus of the work of the alliance of the Zimbabwe Homeless People's Federation and Dialogue on Shelter Trust in Kariba has been in doing settlement profiles in the remaining slum settlements of Kariba, as well as land preparations for Kasese.
The community participated in this project through savings. Even though the disaster relief was given as a grant, the Zimbabwe Homeless People's Federation agreed that for money that was used for the construction/rehabilitation of the forty-one (41) cores houses in Kariba, the beneficiaries families would repay. The repayments are being used for disaster relief activities. To date US$4,000.00 has been used to finance the reconstruction of houses destroyed/damaged by storms in Tsholotsho. Twenty-six (26) families have benefited from these in Tsholotsho.
There are now four (4) communities saving in and around Kariba in Mahombekombe, Charara, Quarry and Nyamhunga. The are eight hundred and ninety (890) saving families in total, with savings of US$5,645.00. The four (4) saving communities have different circumstances, from a lake shore slum, a greenfield development, a farming compound and a slum set up by miners within a National Park. However, they are networked and meet once a month to plan for work in all the communities and how they can assist each other.
Scale:The project has achieved the following:
• Rehabilitation of 18 houses
• Rehabilitation of resource centre
• Rehabilitation of herbal garden.
Although this project is in reaction to an unforeseen disaster, the alliance has managed to disseminate the lessons that emerged to other construction projects across the country. Revision of the Federation construction methods will ensure that all other Federation projects will be protected against rainstorms. Linking this reconstruction project to a proactive project on climate change will ensure that learning will emerge that impacts other Federation projects.
Land has been allocated and the Federation is now working with National Parks to plan the land before the one hundred and fifty (150) families can move onto the site. In addition to the land allocation, two (2) boreholes were drilled on the site by Central Government. What remains is the installation of pumps for the boreholes. The joint project with ZERO was financed by IIED with the alliance receiving US$ 22,000.00 towards climate change activities.
The Kariba Federation chapter was allocated land in Kasese last year by the Municipality of Kariba. It is a greenfield. The Federation chapter in Kariba is part of the consortium that was allocated plots that are an average of one hundred and eighty metres squared (180m2). The challenge though is that there is no off- and on-site services for water and sewer to support this development. The first two housing projects in Kariba are based on the reticulated water and sanitation provision. However, the Kasese project is farther away from existing water and sanitation grid. The Federation has, therefore, led the consortium in finding alternative sources of water and sanitation to service the area. A team went to Harare in March 2014 to learn from the Harare experiences. They decided to construct ecosan toilets as well as drill boreholes in Kasese. They are in the process of negotiating with the Kariba Municipality for acceptable minimum development conditions for Kasese. In the meantime the Federation is continuing to pay for the purchase of the land using their savings to the Municipality of Kariba.
This project is the first post disaster reconstruction project by the Zimbabwe Homeless People’s Federation (ZIHOPFE). Initially, the Federation undertook an assessment of the extent of damage and why some houses were destroyed and others remained intact. All roofs of permanent structures that were destroyed were not beam filled. As a result of this finding, a new method of incremental construction was decided upon and applied to all Federation projects.
Until the disaster the Federation had not engaged seriously around issues of climate change and its impacts on urban dwellers. The alliance partnered with Zimbabwe Environmental Regional Office (ZERO) to work in three other communities in Harare, Epworth and Dzivaresekwa on a project raising awareness around climate change and its effects on the urban poor.
Finance: SDI Contributions:SDI contributed US$45,000.00
Resources Leveraged:The community was given land by the municipality,which they serviced and leveraged to move the insitu upgrading process forward.
State Subsidy:The State subsidy was in the form of land.
| Contact | Telephone | Website | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Patience Mudimu | patiencemudimu@gmail.com | (+263) 4704 027 | View Website |
Project information updated: 22 March 2014
Project in depth
Detailed Information
• Reconstruction and repair of infrastructure and houses destroyed by the disasters.
• Additional land allocation for 150 families
• Draft MoU on upgrading Mahombekombe lakeshore slum.
Community capacity:The community was to participate in this project through their savings group as well as through conducting the enumeration prior to the (re)settlement of the affected families onto the land allocated to them.
The community has been mobilised and are now saving which helps sustainability of the project. Savings groups meet once a month to plan for work in all communities and how they can assist each other. There are four communities saving in and around Kariba in Mahombekombe, Charara, Quarry, and Nyamhunga. The total membership is 890 saving families.
Scale:The intention was that the project would achieve the following:
• rehabilitation of 18 houses
• rehabilitation of resource centre
• rehabilitation of herbal garden.
Impact:Although this project is in reaction to an unforeseen disaster, it was hoped that the alliance would manage to disseminate the lessons that emerged to other construction projects across the country. Revision of the Federation construction methods will ensure that all other Federation projects will be protected against rainstorms. Linking this reconstruction project to a proactive project on climate change will ensure that learning will emerge that impacts other Federation projects.
Finance: SDI Contributions:US$45,000.00
Resources Leveraged:This project opened doors for the Federation with officials from the Government department of National Parks and Wildlife (ZimParks). The relationship allowed Federation members to link up with a slum settlement of quarry miners on Parks land, located at the outskirts of Kariba town. The Federation has since enumerated the settlement. The community has been mobilised and they are now saving. The Federation has negotiated with National Parks for the allocation of land for residential purposes within the park to accommodate the settlers.
State Subsidy:The State subsidy was in the form of land.
Mitlin, D. (2014). Co-learning for Inclusive Cities. [Online]. Available: http://www.iied.org/co-learning-for-inclusive-cities.
Funding Information
Raised: | $45,000.00 |
Implementing Partners
