Community Plumbing Challenge improves Diepsloot living conditions
The Community Plumbing Challenge, which was held in Diepsloot, north of Johannesburg, recently, was inspired by the concept that "focused design" can drastically improve even the poorest of living environments.
Dave Donald (Healthabitat) addressing international and local community teams at the 2016 Community Plumbing Challenge held in Diepsloot, Johannesburg, South Africa in July. Image credit: Gallo Images/ Lefty Shivambu
Communal toilets have long been problematic for Diepsloot residents because of overcrowding, being dysfunctional and poorly designed, compromising the health and dignity of people.
During the week of 9 - 15 July 2016, eight defunct communal toilets were plucked out of the ground in Diepsloot Extension 1, where four international student teams (representing Australia, India, United States and South Africa) collaborated to develop the most effective and sustainable new upgrade solutions. Teams assembled and tested their new designs, supporting WASSUP to reinstall and reconnect these communal toilets for local Diepsloot residents.
“Focused design” to improve residents’ immediate environments goes a long way in improving health and alleviating the factors that create abject poverty and deepening inequality. While a number of factors need to align for real social change to occur, the assertion is that small amendments to the environment make a difference.
The late Paul Pholeros, architect and co-founder of Healthabitat, a key instigator of the Community Plumbing Challenge (CPC), believed that closing the gap in health involved good design, working with local communities, and always starting a project with skilled trades and tools.
Pholeros believed overwhelmingly that “people are in fact the solution.” And that to fix health hardware doesn’t require any grand plans or large sums of money “when we work with local teams, skills and labour ready on day one of any project to make real improvements”.
Since 2013, Healthabitat has worked with local Diepsloot plumbing organisation WASSUP, Sticky Situations and the International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials (IAPMO) to repair and upgrade over 50 existing toilets in Diepsloot. This month, Healthabitat were once again the design and advocacy partners in the CPC2016 and guided teams through their design and implementation efforts.
The recent CPC2016 collaboration is an example of the power and potential of participatory decision-making and monitoring in a community. Says Sean Kearney of IAPMO, “We worked hard to tailor this programme to local contexts with the aim of responding to the real needs of the community. While the problems may seem complex, we have no doubt that together we will find innovative ways to solve them.”
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