February 8, 2006
By Tammy O’Reilly
THE rivers that flow through squatter camps are like liquid gold to the people who live there. Used out of necessity for drinking, bathing and watering small vegetable gardens, it is usually considered their only privilege.
This makes the riverbanks a prime location. Come the rainy season, however, the rivers are likely to swell to dangerous levels, and those living on the banks are vulnerable to flooding.
North of Johannesburg is the sprawling informal settlement of Diepsloot, which has an estimated population of 150 000. Unemployment levels are growing and more than 73 percent of the population lives below the poverty line.
Come the rainy season, those living on river banks are vulnerable to flooding
Like most informal settlements, a river meanders through the area. Many families live on the flood line of the Jukskei River and in January this year, the month that usually records the city’s highest rainfall, 51 of them had to be evacuated because of flash floods.
The City council, in consultation with the Gauteng housing department, also moved 450 families from settlements in Klipspruit, Alexandra, Ennerdale and Kya Sands around the same time. Squatter camps have no drainage system, so heavy rains almost always call for the removal of these people to safer ground.
"The Prevention of Illegal Evictions Act states that if a person has occupied a piece of land for more than 24 hours, we have no right to move them, even if it is in their best interests, unless we have found an alternative location for them," says City spokesperson Nthatisi Modingoane.
With the council’s guidance, 34 of the Diepsloot families have been housed on a safer piece of land in the area.
"The idea was not to compromise their living," Modingoane explains. "We can’t move them too far from their work, so we kept them in Diepsloot, but in a safer part. We assisted them with moving their belongings and the City also provided suitable building materials for them."
Each year the City moves people from the flood lines in settlements across Joburg - but that doesn’t prevent that land from being reoccupied once the floods have subsided.
"This is an ongoing challenge for the City. We are successful in moving people from the flood line to higher ground, but it is only a matter of time before that land is reoccupied. This time the City has engaged the help of the community to warn potential occupants of the hazards of building their homes on the flood line."
Joburg has plans to construct suitable homes in the eastern and southern parts of Diepsloot and through the Breaking New Ground housing plan, it is looking into creating housing that satisfies the needs of all income groups. One such scheme is the neighbouring Cosmo City.
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