Sacramento Sustainability Action Group

Connecting Sacramento's Sustainability Movement

This page came from the desire to harness some of the energy raised at the Sacramento Sustainability Symposium May 2008. This page is a tool for organizing future sustainability-related events. We subsequently are part of the Rising Tide North America network, which works to confront the root causes of climate change.

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Created: Jun 06, 2008

Updated: Oct 21, 2009

Membership: Open To Apply

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Created: Jan 05, 2007
Updated: May 31, 2007
Viewed: 1232 times

All Areas of Focus » Poverty Eradication »

Squatter Communities

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In many developing nations, "sustainable" building is a long-range goal. In squatter towns, with no property rights, homes are first built with any materials available (e.g. scrap wood, mud, pieces of tin, cloth) and then upgraded as the homeowner finds better materials or earns enough to purchase building materials. The goal may be to build using cinder block with rebar and cement. At first, there is no sanitation with open sewers and no piped water in squatter communities. As the communities grow, neighborhood latrines are built and water is pirated from the city water mains for a neighborhood of homes. The eventual goal is to have plumbing for individual homes with inside-the-house toilets. Over a billion humans live in squatter homes (one out of every six people). These homes are considered "sustainable" by the squatters as they keep them sheltered in the city (in nations where there is little government or donor help) until they can improve upon their dwellings.

Tags/Keywords

Squatter town, favelas (Brazil), colonias (Mexico), kijiji (Kenya), johpadpatti (India), gecekondu (Turkey), aashiwa'i (Egypt), barriadas (Peru), kampongs (Indonesia), mudukku (Sri Lanka), penghu (Shanghai), shantytown, slum, common property, evictions, sanitation, pirated water, rebar, open sewer, sewer lines, self-building, cinder block, brick, squatter homes, corrugated plastic, tin, bamboo, tile, caulk, neighborhood latrine, communal water source

FEATURED ORGANIZATIONS

Lumanti Support Group for Shelter is a non-government organisation dedicated to the alleviation of urban poverty in Nepal through the improvement of shelter conditions.

Experiments in Rural Advancement strives to develop latent synergy of the poor and marginalised people so that they are able to manage their depleting resources in a meaningful and sustainable manner

FEATURED RESOURCES

Poverty Environment Net capture and share knowledge on poverty-environment linkages and good practices for addressing the environmental dimensions of poverty.

The End of Poverty "Extreme poverty can be ended, not in the time of our grandchildren, but our time.", a book by Jeffrey D. Sachs

Did You Know...

...that you can join the community and help build the Squatter Communities portal

...It is free, editable and belongs to you.

...this is a great opportunity to share your resources, ideas and projects to like minded people

RELATED PORTALS

Poverty Eradication
Microcredit
Economic Development
Social Development
Microfinance

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