Toilets top slum dwellers' wish list

The Maltese are known for their generosity and this is certainly true when it comes to donations to charities and missions, with hundreds of thousands of liri raised every year. But do we ever stop to think about how the money is used and whether it is what the recipients want most?

During a recent visit to Nairobi, aid workers lamented that, sometimes, western ideals were attracting funds needed for projects that are all too often spurned by charities.

Aid is often sent to rural areas, overlooking the fact that these were being rapidly depleted as millions moved to cities.

"Until recently, both development programmes and research efforts were focused on rural poverty. This is just starting to change with recent studies that show that poverty is not entirely a rural phenomenon, even in a region such as Sub-Saharan Africa, and that in some countries, such as Kenya, urban poverty has been rising faster than rural poverty," a recent World Bank report notes.

The Millennium Development Goals aim to alleviate the plight of slum dwellers, estimating that there will be 1.43 billion by 2020. There are an estimated 800,000 people living in about 200 slums in Nairobi.

Kariuki Mugo, from an organisation called Maji Na Ufanisi (Water and Development), said the problems in urban areas were reaching crisis point.

"Urban areas are a lot worse than rural areas where you have a community structure and people help each other. In these slum areas, there is nothing at all."

And there is no doubt that donors can associate with some projects more than with others.

"The problem is that donors like to feel they have helped to build a school or a church. It is not as satisfying to say that you have paid for a toilet," one aid worker said.

A World Bank report found that 73 per cent of the Nairobi slum dwellers live on less than $42 per month per adult, with 26 per cent unemployed, 19 per cent working in household microenterprises and only 49 per cent holding regular or casual jobs.

"In the morning, you get a stream of people trudging out to find day work - usually manual labour," Mr Mugo explained. Workers at all levels must wait to be chosen each day.

One woman I spoke to had spent years as a secretary working on a casual basis at one company, in spite of the fact that she is well educated.

"Everyday for five years I had to wait patiently at the gate to be chosen," she said, with a bitter shrug.

However, the poverty is not merely the result of unemployment. Their living conditions are dire. The World Bank report, presented in Nairobi by its author Sumila Gulyani, found that their access to basic services such as water, sanitation, electricity and transportation was worse than anticipated. Only 22 per cent of households have an electricity connection and fewer than 19 per cent have access to piped water.

So what do people want? The World Bank survey found that toilets were the top priority for 23.8 per cent of the slum dwellers, with water supply topping the list of 18.9 per cent, health clinics and services of 13.4 per cent and electricity at home of 12.3 per cent.

The problems become even more pressing when you realise that the average dweller lives in the slum for about nine years, 48 per cent of them moving to towns from rural areas. It is not easy to escape the poverty trap.

The World Bank report coincided with a major conference on poverty in Africa. The results were not, however, presented at the delegates-only conference but at the Hilton Hotel, resulting in a standing-room only audience that included a considerable number of slum dwellers.

They are finding a voice and people power could force the government to sit up and take notice. In all, 82 per cent of slum dwellers voted in the 2002 presidential elections.

"Leaders should worry as the dwellers know they have a powerful tool in their hands," she said.

Dr Gulyani, though, believes that there is hope, "not least because slum dwellers are educated, entrepreneurial, enfranchised and seemingly able to enhance their economic welfare over time".

"Not only is there need for developmental action in these settlements but also the economic and social returns to well-chosen and well-designed programmes are potentially very high."

It would be wonderful if money could solve everything. Dr Gulyani stressed that the only way to get serious and sustainable improvements is through a multi-sector and area-wide approach.

In Nairobi, the whole issue is complicated by the fact that 92 per cent of slum dwellers are rent-paying tenants, rather than squatters. Unit owners are mostly absentee landlords who seem to be operating a highly profitable business in providing shelter to the poor, she said.

Dr Gulyani believes that the first step should be to give tenure to the dwellers so that their homes and rents would be protected from speculators. "Only then should there be investment in the infrastructure," she said.

A Nairobi city councillor, who attended the presentation at the Hilton, explained the city's fear of the consequences of any changes to tenancy laws.

"The main fear is that the rent will go up if the informal settlements become formal ones. The tenants also fear that they might be evicted in favour of other families who might be able to pay more - if the services improve," he said.

He listed some of the initiatives the council had tried to take, like set up five bins for waste on the periphery of one of the slums. "But there are no roads and so there is no way to collect the waste from the households," he shrugged.

As for paving the roads... "We cannot afford it. And, in any case, is it that important? The poor don't have that much waste and they re-use and re-cycle most things."

When he stood up to make an intervention during the presentation, he was jeered by dozens of people in the audience.

The World Bank report shows that only 0.9 per cent of the households have a rubbish collection service.

The council also tried to solve the tenancy issue by registering the land to a trustee but the problem was to find a group of trustees that could be trusted. The Church was suggested for one parcel of land but was rejected by the tenants; now people from the community are being sought.

"Look, you know, we have tried so many schemes but nothing worked."

The slum dwellers are getting increasingly angry at the excuses.

"KS70 million were allocated in the last budget to solve housing but they built three-bedroom houses in the Kibera slum. Who is going to be able to afford them," one shouted from the audience.

"The authorities should not be afraid to admit they made the wrong decision. Let us stop what we are doing now and do it the right way."

The director of housing, Julius Malombe, admitted that Nairobi was not keeping up with urbanisation and that a priority had to be to prevent further slum formation. He complained, however, that the policies of aid-recipient countries were heavily influenced by donors like the World Bank.

"Things are changing, I can tell you, but it takes time to change people's way of thinking," he said.

"Infrastructure plans do exist and we are going to go through with them."

World Bank country director Colin Bruce did not take too kindly to Mr Malombe's attempt to shift the blame. He said that in the 1980s and 1990s the money lost through corruption far surpassed the aid from the World Bank or any other development agency.

"The problems of Kenya are problems that the Kenyans have to solve. The World Bank does not have the resources or the mandate to solve them.

"... There is a big debate about whether the World Bank should be engaged when there is no governance. We will remain engaged and we will help but we cannot take responsibility. What is the other option? We cannot set up an alternative government ourselves.

"The destiny of this country is in your hands. Think about who you vote for. Ask of your politician: 'What have you done for me lately?'"

Ms Macdonald's visit to Nairobi was made possible by Echos Communications, a Brussels-based NGO.