KLIPRAND HOUSEHOLD ENUMERATION REPORT
PORT ELIZABETH, DECEMBER 2009
Informal Settlement Network,
Kliprand Community Leadership and
Community Organisation Resource Centre
Preface
This is the report of the community enumeration conducted in November 2009 in the informal settlement called Kliprand, located on the periphery of Port Elizabeth City in the Eastern Cape province, South Africa. The enumeration represents the first comprehensive settlement survey around the living conditions conducted through face to face interviews. This report indicates the social picture of the community, and the data are an essential part of the community processes, both for providing information for action and for assessing change.
Due to maximised urbanisation in the world, provision of water and sanitation services has always been the most pressing and the painfully felt in urban areas. Those who suffer most are the slum dwellers that are often left out and or are given little attention in water and sanitation development schemes. Kliprand is not left out in this situation, water and sanitation has always been a great problem to the inhabitants. After realising the slow rate at which the service is being rendered to the community, the community sought a way of participating and involvement in upping their sanitation issues. A household enumeration was planned and administered with the main objective of promoting a pro-poor approach in the negotiation for better water services.
This settlement is part of the ISN - a network that brings together not only representatives of informal settlements but also different movements of the urban poor (e.g. there is even an alliance with organised backyard dwellers) in a united front in their fight against poverty. This network is promoted by CORC (Community Organisation Resource Centre) a nationwide NGO which supports communities and settlements which are willing to support themselves in their plans of development.
Acknowledgement
The Kliprand enumeration is the result of a joint effort by community members, CORC field workers and volunteers who worked intensely in data collection and capturing period to get as accurate information as possible. Realising the importance of the activity, volunteers from the Informal Settlement Network which is being built across the country, with CORC’s support, fanned out from Kliprand community, and from the Federation of the Urban Poor (FEDUP), whose hard work and determination must be acknowledged here.
Encouraging to the entire participating group was the enthusiasm shown at any time by the community members.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction
Background and Methodology
Summary of Results
Analysis
Appendix: Questionnaire
Introduction
This community enumeration was the first one to be conducted in Kliprand. Seeing the urgent need of community information for some sanitation planning, the community leadership and CORC ran the week-long exercise in November 2009. Despite encountering a number of draw-backs during the preparation and the implementation of the exercise, it was concluded successfully. The Kliprand enumeration learned much from the Manenberg community enumeration in the Western Cape, especially with regards to the methodology.
It was clear from the outset that the exercise had to generate documents with the settlement’s specific information, i.e. demographic information, livelihoods and service provision.
The main objective was getting a comprehensive set of statistics to be used to pursue the developmental plans of the community. In this sense, the compiled information is undoubtedly a useful and influential tool in crafting and providing the baseline for negotiations with different stakeholders and land agencies. Though a community tool, this report is aimed at aiding all the involved parties to reach a workable solution collectively, towards addressing the community’ service delivery issues.
Furthermore, often when decisions are made, many voices of the urban poor {slum dwellers} are left out, yet they account for the biggest majority of the City’s population. In this respect the ISN is in place through the enumeration to assist the slum dwellers to overcome their isolation by giving them a platform upon which they can positively participate in their community issues. The urban poor know their need or concerns and they are the best source of knowledge (solutions) about the problems affecting their community. It is therefore evident that their experiences and knowledge need to be heard and respected by decision makers and service providers in order to improve service delivery in the informal settlements.
This initiative has also equipped the community with survey techniques and should be seen as a training exercise. The whole enumeration exercise, as a step in the development process, provided the community with an invaluable opportunity to obtain greater insight into important procedures, advocacy and capacity of technical planners and different professionals who are involved in planning.
The two-month exercise was aimed at strengthening the community’s capacities and understanding of its demographical structures and main social issues. Finally, a further function was the stimulation of the community to join existing social movements, i.e. networks of communities which participate and drive their development processes.
The survey targeted all the households in this community. All the variables in the questionnaire are represented in this report. They provide a picture of the reality of the community which we consider accurate enough. It is also hoped that the authorities will acknowledge the value and rely on the database as the most updated on this community.
A post-elaboration verification phase will be conducted soon with the intention of controlling the accuracy of the report, and possibly further enriching it with more valuable information.
Background and Methodology
This enumeration was based on the model of a household enumeration which has been widely used in Cape Town and Durban, where the first such projects were undertaken in the Western Cape and KZN. The general guidelines of the SDI Alliance were employed. These guidelines recommend the gathering of household information through a face-to-face interview which provides also the platform for bringing in the daily savings concept during the period of data collection.
As stated above, the enumeration included an in-person interview of every household head. They were conducted using a standardised survey form that was also crafted for KZN and Western Cape enumerations, but the form was modified on the base of the special needs expressed by community members consulted. Several updates were made to the previously established methodology, including the addition of the identity number. The survey questionnaire mainly addressed the socio-economical issues within the poor community staying at Kliprand.
After the first stage of work, there were some additional days of surveying, mainly for the working household heads that were only available during the weekends. The data collecting team went section by section collecting all the necessary data.
The Kliprand enumeration volunteer team was of significant size: this allowed the enumeration to reach all parts of the community with a small number of households left behind. 95% the households were covered by the enumerators. Furthermore, the volunteers were influential in capturing all the collected data for analysis.
Summary of results
The table below summarises the settlement profile established through the enumeration exercise.
“Slum” Name / KliprandAge of Settlement / More than 30 years
Status at the time of the survey at the date of drafting this report / No eviction threat to the settlement
Structures / Informal residential units
Population / 1209 (plus few households who did not provide information)
Toilet services / 230 individual pit toilets
40 community toilet
Most urgent needs / Electricity, water, toilets
Brief Settlement profile
The settlement is dominated by shack structures which are constructed mainly on low and cheap quality material. It was established mainly as a result of ever growing urbanisation process and the natural urban population growth. Due to highly increasing housing rates and expensive accommodation in cities, low income earners and unemployed had no choice but to occupy a relatively small strip of land adjacent to Klein Skool settlement also on the periphery of Port Elizabeth city. This strip of land was transformed into a settlement in more than thirty years ago by a group of people who had identified it as the only realistic alternative for them in relation to their low incomes in a way of curbing their housing needs.
From the enumerated households, there is a sizable number of unemployed individuals, among these unemployed people there are some who posses some much use full skills like building and carpentry. However, there are some who are managing to work despite the fact that they don’t have any decent and permanent housing.
Rural to urban migration among other factors has grossly fuelled the growth of this settlement due to high hopes of employment in the city. This inward migration has been active phenomena for a number of years; moreover, it is still going on.
From the enumeration exercise, it was established that the community’s demographic statistics are mainly dominated by the 18 - 64 age group, this hence translates to the other related finding that there are more economically active people in the community who are involved in some form of employment. These economically active people have a diversified source of income where most of them occupy the part time employment category. This informal settlement also follows the trend of other informal settlements of having a sizable number of people who run some small businesses as a source of income. It was established that the bulk of the community’s income covers food and transport expenses. For the employed population, the average income is spent on transport and food
In terms of sanitation and water supply, the community has one main type of toilet, thus; pit toilet. For this particular service delivery, there are no rates paid for the service this therefore translates to a sanitation expense free community.
From the history of the community, there is no community enumeration which was ever conducted, the enumeration was not finalised hence there is no clear highlighter about the community’s demographic statistics from that particular enumeration. Since the data contained in this document is to be used in diversified ways, the data is therefore presented with all the confidence of all the people who took part in the whole process.
To ensure the correctness of the data compiled in this document, a post enumeration verification exercise will be conducted; this will remain a critical aspect because there is a hope of referencing to this data for different dimensions of social development and service planning and delivery for this community. Though the enumeration has generated very detailed information, it has to be realised that the data in this report are not necessarily applicable to every informal settlement in the country. The informal and poor communities are, by definition, a changeable and mobile population, and no single report or project can describe them exhaustively, moreover, informal settlements may demonstrate some similarities but they are and will never be the same. Rather, this report should be regarded as an outline or guide to the characteristics of Kliprand and its population.
Analysis
In the enumeration exercise conducted in Port Elizabeth, it was realised that the community is dominated by shacks as the main form of shelter. Kliprand will never be defined good, a permanent solution to this situation has to be worked out, probably through the government and the community through its active social and positive participation.
The community leadership garnered more support from CORC and ISN on this exercise with a main hope that the resulting community information contained in this report will stimulate a discussion between the community and other active parties in trying to bring out any possible solution to this community’s long standing problems.
As highlighted above this enumeration as tool has further more built confidence and facilitated the empowerment of this slum who used to believe that demand for improved service delivery in their informal settlements is almost impossible. The project is enabling the urban poor to influence service delivery by participating in advocacy. They define their own advocacy issues, objectives and strategies based on their needs and wants. This enumeration exercise was coupled with community resource mapping used to generate information they use as their advocacy tool. This being a practical exercise, slum dwellers are given an opportunity to learn by doing; from both mistakes and successes. Overtime, they have developed the necessary skills, discipline and deep understanding of the complex often mysterious ways in which they can influence political processes to bring about pro- poor and responsive service delivery.
All actors involved fully acknowledge that the substantial growth in slum dwelling is a direct consequence of the daily notion of economically motivated rural – urban migration; this is further worsened by the exorbitant urban land prices which the poor can hardly afford as individuals.
In the enumeration it was realised that the community shelters a total of 365 shacks. These shacks house 1209 inhabitants. The general living conditions in this community are indeed very poor especially the structures and the water supply facilities. Through a strong participation of all the parties involved, a possible permanent solution to these issues is within reach if a possible genuine partnership between the Port Elizabeth city authorities and this particular community through the relationship with ISN and CORC can be fabricated. Where in turn: the Kliprand community members will develop a full understanding of their entitlements to water and sanitation, their current water and sanitation service situation and the people to partner with in terms of policy and service delivery.
This enumeration was undertaken as the first major step in trying to positively draw in the community members in their water, sanitation and other social issues involving their settlement. Apart from being the first major step, the enumeration was also aimed at bringing forth the most reliable statistics of the community for most of the reference.
In terms of basic services, there are 230 informal pit toilets and 40 community toilets. These are the only ablution services in the community, meaning that there are only two options in terms of bathing: in the house or open space. Prioritising the toilet services will need to be considered in social service plan for this settlement. Moreover, the sanitation problem is not really limited to toilet issues; instead it spreads to water services as well.