Inclusive neighbourhoods across urban waters

Abstract

The world is urbanising rapidly, with the Global South as the part of the world with the most rapid urbanisation. The urban population of Ethiopia is predicted to nearly triple in 25 years. The swiftness of urbanisation is resulting in extreme challenges. It causes, reinforced by climate change, that Addis Ababa is increasingly affected by flooding. The urban poor are forced to settle in the least desirable areas, such as areas around rivers which are most vulnerable to flooding. The rivers of Addis Ababa are polluted with all kinds of waste because of inadequate services. Around half the population has no water supply, forcing people to purchase water in shops. The urban poor cannot afford this and use the unsafe water from the rivers as a consequent. The Ethiopian government launched in 2019 the Addis Ababa Riverside project, or the Sheger beautifying project. It follows a series of ongoing beautification projects in the Global South. The project aims to clean the rivers and create public spaces, bicycle paths and walkways along the rivers. The project is criticised because it is no certainty that the rivers will not continue flooding and there is no proposition for all the waste that is currently discharged into the rivers. Rapid urbanisation in combination with poverty and the inability of the state and the market to provide affordable housing, cause that over 1 billion people reside in informal settlements. Addis Ababa can be seen as an example of this inability. Historical grown, informal neighbourhoods called sefers are located in the city centre. Over the last decade, sefers are challenged by the swift urbanisation of Addis Ababa with a resettlement program aiming to replace these low-income neighbourhoods into denser urban schemes affecting the social, economic and political tissue. This program, the Integrated Housing Development Programme (IHDP), was introduced by the government in 2005. The inhabitants of former kebele houses claim their houses get demolished without any compensation or alternative accommodation. Piassa is chosen as a project site, being currently challenged by demolition of the existing kebele housing. Having researched the location and its inhabitants, a housing system is designed with a combination of tenure systems for different income groups. These groups will live together in an inclusive, mixed-income environment in the inner-city of Addis Ababa.