On housing typologies, ways of life and toilet construction in the settlement of Prem Nagar

Transcription

1 On housing typologies, ways of life and toilet construction in the settleent of Pre Nagar In the settleent of Pre Nagar, the NGO Shelter Associates is iproving living conditions of the urban poor by supervising and partly subsidizing the construction of 50 individual toilets in residents hoes. A case study, conducted in 37 randoly selected benefi ciary houses, provides a glipse into the living spaces of Pre Nagar s inhabitants. The study brings to light the ipact construction of an individual toilet has on sall spaces and highlights the creativity and coitent benefi ciaries show in this building process. As will be shown, the construction of an individual toilet in the hoe can be the starting point of any other iproveents to residents living conditions. It is id-orning in the settleent of Pre Nagar. Mr. Kubhar is getting ready for work; he is taking a bucket-bath in the newly-constructed toilet and bathroo, which can be found in the back of the house. An opening fro the kitchen leads into the new roo, which is a spacious 3.7 sq (. ), lit both by natural and artifi cial light. The toilet pan is located towards the back of this space and is separated fro the bathroo area by a sall step. The tiles that line both the interior and exterior of this roo refl ect a shi fro the old to the new in the Kubhar s hoe; older green and yellow tiles are paired with new white and blue tiles on the toilet s walls, while the standard blue-grey diaond-designed tiles given by Shelter Associates decorate the kitchen wall. The door to this roo hasn t yet been installed, but the asons are already there, waiting for Mr. Kubhar to fi nish his bath in order to put the door into place. The brown glassfiber door was ade using on-site easureents and will be installed in the Kubhar s house within 0 inutes. Following the door s installation, the cobined toilet and bathroo will be offi cially coplete, and Shelter Associates sticker will be put on the structure. fi gure for 05, according to Pune Municipal Corporation, 0 3 Shelter Associates, 0 Credits iage page : copyright Shelter Associates, 06 The city of Pune is hoe to nearly illion inhabitants, of which 0% live in slus. Pre Nagar is located in the heart of the city, near the city s central arket place. The boundaries of the settleent are shown in red on the ap above. Established in 973, Pre Nagar has around 3,800 inhabitants, who live in 758 pucca or sei-pucca houses spread over an area of approxiately,000. Like 90% of Pune s slus 3, the settleent is equipped with a sewerage network, a prerequisite for Shelter Associates to start working within the counity. The network has been constructed and is aintained by the Pune Municipal Corporation. The estiated 3,800 inhabitants share counity toilet blocks, which host 35 seats for feales and 9 seats for ales. In the settleent of Pre Nagar, electricity is available every day; running water, however, is available only every other day due to water shortages in the city. Inhabitants ust therefore store water, which they use not only to wash theselves, their clothes, and the dishes, but which they also use to drink.

2 A case study on living spaces The Kubhar s house before (le) and aer (right) Shelter Associates intervention. 0.5 The forer bathroo is shown on the le.the newly-built cobined bathroo and toilet is an enclosed space accessible by a door. Mr. and Mrs. Kubhar live with their two children in the 78 sq (6.5 ) house that they rent. Fro the street, their hoe s carved wooden door invites all to enter under the protection of Lakshi, goddess of wealth, whose likeness adorns a tile above the door opening. The first area within the house, which easures 6.5 by 0 (.95 by 3.7 ), is furnished with a single bed, two chairs and a refrigerator. A television, a typical fixture within every household, is surprisingly nowhere to be found.as is coon in the ajority of households in Pre Nagar, furniture is scarce because soe faily ebers sleep on attresses and blankets that they roll out on the tiled floor for the night. They also eat and soeties cook on the floor. The space is also occupied by hoe exercise achines, which Mr. Kubhar repairs. An opening in the corner of the roo leads to a second space, which is both saller and ore crowded. This roo contains the kitchen, which consists of a kitchen platfor, a two-burner cooking stove, as well as storage shelves for dishes and food containers, and the deoghar, a sall faily shrine. Next to the kitchen platfor, the new fiberglass door gives access to the cobined toilet and bathroo. The 5 sq (.3 ) enclosed space - which represents % of the house s total area - was forerly occupied by a sq (. ) bathroo. A case study was conducted in the settleent of Pre Nagar in order to explore the ipact the construction of an individual toilet has on sall living spaces. For this case study, 37 houses were randoly selected fro the total 0 houses in Pre Nagar that have received help fro Shelter Associates to build individual toilets. It was deterined that the houses included in y saple easure, by average, 67 sq ( 5.5 ) and shelters an average of 5 people; this represents a total of around 3 sq (3 ) per person. To be ore precise, the selected houses in Pre Nagar range in size fro 86 to 80 sq (8 to 6 ) and provide shelter to anywhere fro to 9 people. In ost cases, a house in Pre Nagar has a single roo or has two roos connected by a single door opening. Instead of two separated roos, houses oen consist of one single space partitioned by a wall. This wall, which doesn t reach the ceiling, provides the ipression that the house contains two roos, when it is in fact a single space. Most houses have only one floor, but soe have two levels which are connected by a steep and narrow outdoor or indoor staircase. Thus, house typologies aren t very diverse: true variety in the settleent lies in the freedo every household has to adapt interior space to their own needs. When Shelter Associates started working with this counity, all households already had access to a personal bathroo. At first, any inhabitants were reluctant to get an individual toilet in their house because they worried that their houses were too sall or they were afraid of bad sells fro the toilet. In fact, ost of the households who constructed an individual toilet decided to convert their bathroo into a space cobining both a toilet and a bathroo, which was both an econoical and practical solution. The bathroo space usually had to be extended in order to accoodate the bathroo as well Two bathroos and the ceent structure constructed in the street. A typical bathroo in Pre Nagar is a space inside the house, defined by half-length or fulllength brick walls. In order to provide additional privacy, etal containers are soeties stacked on top of the half-length walls or a curtain is hung over the door opening. Residents use the bathroo to wash theselves, as well as to wash clothes and wash the dishes; these two activities oen take place outside as well, as each household usually has an outdoor water connection.a siple ceent structure constructed in the street is used to direct the water to the drainage line. 3

3 as a raised platfor for the toilet pan but soe households decided to construct their toilet within the existing walls and thus only needed to build the interior and add a door. In soe cases, the cobined toilet and bathroo space is as sall as 9.7 sq (0.9 ); in order to use the space as a bathroo, users ust put a board on the toilet pan (see ill. ). Only in very few cases do the bathroo and the toilet occupy two different spaces (see ill. ). In other cases, the organization of the interior space was reodeled in order to accoodate the new toilet, giving way to ore convenient spaces (see ill. 3). At fi rst, soe failies started building new structures for the toilet outside their houses at street level, a practice which was quickly forbidden; construction of toilets outside of hoes was banned because these structures reduced space in Pre Nagar s roads and blocked access for eergency vehicules. Inhabitants use the outdoor space as an extension of the sall houses they live in; as any social activites take place in the street, fro clothes washing to grain sorting, it is a space too valuable to lose. Only in very few cases could the toilet be built outside, on the first fl oor. Fostering creativity and epowering the urban poor As illustrated above, the toilets have different diensions and are equipped differently, according to each space and household s fi nancial eans. One of the undisputed qualities of Shelter Associates schee is to epower inhabitants to actively raise their living standard and develop their counity. Individual toilet construction fosters creativity, as each household ust fi nd a solution adapted to their house and fi nancial condition. When constructing the toilet, soe inhabitants Shelter Associates is a Civil Society Organization which has been working for ore than 0 years with counities in slus and inforal settleents in Pune, Kolhapur and Sangli in order to provide technical support for iproved housing and to provide essential services. Thanks to architects, GIS specialists, social workers, planners and sociologists, Shelter Associates gathers data in the fi eld and aps slus using GIS (Geographic Inforation Syste) technology. The organization currently runs a project called One Hoe, One Toilet, which gives participating households access to an individual toilet inside their hoes. The aterial needed to construct an individual toilet is delivered by Shelter Associates for free; however, it is each household s responsibility to ensure the toilet is constructed within a short period of tie. The work is oen conducted by a ason fro the counity itself. In addition to supervising the construction of the toilet, Shelter Associates is also involved with the counity on a social level. a pipe connection in the wall, so that they ight be able to connect a water tank to their toilet at soe point in the future. The toilet: a starting point to any iproveents in the house On average, Shelter Associates benefi ciaries devoted 9% of their house to the bathroo prior to toilet installation; aer the organization s intervention, the newly-built toilet and bathroo occupies an average of 3% of the total house area. These nubers refl ect inhabitants willingness to lose soe space in their hoes in order to gain an individual toilet. In fact, providing the urban poor Illustration : In this house, 6 people live in 5 sq (0 ) on two fl oors. They needed to extend the existing bathroo structure of (0.3 ) in order to build the toilet and bathroo. In order to use it as a bathroo, inhabitants put a board on the toilet pan, as illustrated in the pictures above. Plan before Shelter Associates intervention Illustration : In this case, the household decided not to transfor the existing bathroo as a cobined toilet and bathroo. The toilet is located in a corner forerly occupied by the faily shrine. The forer bathroo is still in use and the shrine has been shied to a shelf, as illustrated in the pictures above. even take future plans into account. One household with the opportunity to construct an individual Illustration 3: The house s plan, as seen before (on the le) and aer (on the right) Shelter Associates intervention. Prior to intervention, the household had a sall bathroo next to the kitchen at the back of the house and they used the counity toilet block. Now they have constructed constructed a western toilet, thinking about when toilet isn t only about iproving sanitary conditions a proper toilet space, which is also used as a bathroo. The kitchen platfor was extended and the cobined toilet and bathroo is conveniently they are elderly, while another household included in slus; it is also about inspiring residents to located near the drainage line which runs under the street. 5 ground fl oor bathroo toilet Plan aer Shelter Associates intervention ground fl oor 0.5

4 ake other positive iproveents to their lives and their hoes. Prior to Shelter Associates intervention, for exaple, soe residents had cooked on the floor of their hoes. The construction of an individual toilet in their house offered these failies the perfect opportunity to build a kitchen platfor next to their new toilet. In soe cases, the household could extend the kitchen platfor by destroying the bathroo or by reorganizing the space. Furtherore, in soe other houses, the construction of the toilet sparked the renovation of the whole house (see ill. and 5). The inhabitants spend on average Rs. 5,300 for the asonry work - which includes the construction of the toilet walls, the laying of the toilet seat and the pipe connection to the drainage line, as well as the tiling work. In total, the residents said that they paid an average of Rs. 0,700 for labor charges and extra aterial. Even if these nubers should be taken with a grain of salt, it shows inhabitants willingness to spend oney in order to iprove their hoes. Considering that the declared average onthly incoe of the randoly selected households in Pre Nagar aounts to Rs.,00, this total cost represents indeed a large su for these failies. To conclude, this case study deonstrates the willingness of the inhabitants of Pre Nagar to devote ore space within their hoes to an individual toilet; despite the sall size of the average hoe in Pre Nagar, the residents recognize that they have uch to gain with the construction of an individual toilet. It also illustrates the creativity soe inhabitants show in reodeling their hoes in order to use the space ore efficiently. Moreover, this study shows how the installation of an individual toilet can be the starting point of other iproveents to the living conditions of the inhabitants of the settleent. Plan before Shelter Associates intervention Plan aer Shelter Associates intervention Illustration : In this house, the construction of the toilet was the starting point for the renovation of the whole house. The inhabitants replaced old wallpaper with brand new pink and orange ones. Moreover, the kitchen space is uch ore convenient to use aer the construction of the cobined toilet and bathroo The study of Pre Nagar in nubers Average area of a house 67 sq (5.5 ) Average nuber of inhabitants in one house 5 people Average percentage of total house area devoted to bathroo forerly Plan before Shelter Associates intervention 9% (6 sq /.5 ) Average percentage of total house area currently devoted to cobined toilet and bathroo 3% ( sq / ) Average cost for the ason Rs. 5,300 Average total cost Study, text and pictures: Laurence Beuchat Text review: Moira McCrave-Carragee Thanks to Resha Pagnis and Aishwarya Brahe Rs. 0,700 Average onthly household incoe Rs.,00 Plan aer Shelter Associates intervention Illustration 5: This exaple shows the creativity of the inhabitants in the design process.this household decided to construct two separated spaces for the bathroo (on the right) and for the toilet (on the le).the two spaces are accessible fro a space equipped with a sall washing basin. 7

5 A sall inventory: 37 houses of the settleent of Pre Nagar In the for of a sall inventory, all the houses easured are depicted below. They are classifi ed according to their housing typology and are ordered by decreasing house area. Inforation is given for each house in the following order: Nuber of inhabitants/ House area/ percentage of the house which is occupied by the toilet and bathroo. One roo houses (3) Depicted here are the houses that are organized in one single roo and whose toilet has been constructed near the street, where the drainage line is laid. It is the ost frequent solution in the case of a single roo house. 7/ 00. sq (8.6 )/ 0.7 % / 53.9 sq (.3 )/ 0.5 % Here are the houses which are organized in one single space, with toilets at the rear. In ost cases, the cobined toilet and bathroo is built where the bathroo was before. As stated above, inhabitants constructed the toilet near the street, where the drainage line is located; as the sewage pipe provided by Shelter Associates is only long enough to reach the front of the house, it akes the ost econoic sense for residents to build their toilets at the front of their hoes, close to the sewage pipe. If a household wishes to construct a toilet in the rear of their hoe, extra pipes ust be laid at the inhabitants own cost. / 35.6 sq (.6 )/ 5. % shop house / 83.0 sq (7.0 )/.3 % 6/ 85.8 sq (. )/ 5.5 % / 5. sq (. )/ 8. % /. sq (3. )/.5 % 5/ 3.3 sq (. )/ 5.6 % 5/ 5.9 sq (.7 )/.5 % / 7.3 sq (0.9 )/ 5.6 % Two story houses (3) Only a sall percentage of the houses easured have two stories. Here are the two cases in which the toilets were constructed on the ground fl oor of the house. 6/ 07.7 sq (9.3 )/.6 % 6/ 5.3 sq (0.0 )/ 6.0 % ground fl oor 7/. sq (0.6 )/ 7.0 % / 9.6 sq (8.6 )/ 6.7 % 3/ 87. sq (8. )/ 7.3 % 5/ 78.7 sq (6.6 )/ 9.6 % Here is the plan of the house whose toilet was built on the. ground fl oor 8 Note A. For the calculations, the house area - or living space - is defined as the whole area contained between the exterior walls. B. In order to calculate the percentage of the house which is occupied by the toilet and bathroo, the toilet partition walls - between the toilet and the rest of the house - are included as part of the toilet area. 8 9

6 Two roo houses (6) Out of 37 houses, 6 houses were coposed of two roos, ore or less clearly defi ned. Here are the houses in which the cobined toilet and bathroo is located at the back of the house. 7/ 7. sq (0. )/ 6.3 % 5/ 3. sq (9.8 )/ 6 % In the houses below, the toilet has been built in the front roo, near the street. It is interesting to note that in the case of a one roo house, the toilet was ost frequently constructed near the street, whereas in the case of a two roo house, the toilet is usually located in the back. No explanation has been found; it is in ost cases due to the bathroo s forer location. / 78.8 sq (5.9 )/.0 % 5/ 76.6 sq (5.7 )/ 8.6 % 6/ 99. sq (8.5 )/ 3.5 % / 93.8 sq (8.0 )/ 5 % 7/ 76.5 sq (6. )/ 5. % / 75.5 sq (6.3 )/.0 % /.8 sq (0.7 )/. % 6/ 83.0 sq (7.0 )/.7 % / 8.5 sq (5.9 )/ 3.8 % / 77.6 sq (6.5 )/ 3.9 % Others (5) 8/ 70. sq (5.8 )/ 9.5 % A few houses didn t fi t into any of the previous categories. This is, for exaple, because the toilet was constructed outside of the house or because the house has two ain entrances. 9/ 0.3 sq (8.7 )/ 3.9 % / 79.8 sq (6.7 )/ 9.6 % 8/ 58. sq (.7 )/ 5.0 % 5/ 0. sq (8.8 )/ 0.6 % 3/ 3. sq (3.3 )/ 3.5 % 6/ 5.3 sq (3.5 )/ 7.0 % / 0.0 sq (3.0 )/ N.A. 3/ 86.0 sq (8.0 )/ N.A. 8 0

7 Fro bathroo to cobined toilet and bathroo. The process of housing iproveents in Pre Nagar. SANITATION copyright Shelter Associates, 06 For ore inforation, please visit our website: