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“Sometimes I Think the Shack was Better”: Examining Flood-Risk in Subsidised Housing Areas in Cape Town Robyn Pharoah Town Cape Thesis presented for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of Department of Environmental and Geographical Science University of Cape Town November, 2013 University Supervisor: Dr Sophie Oldfield Co-Supervisor: Dr Ailsa Holloway Acknowledgements Several people have provided assistance in the completion of this thesis. I would like to thank Dr Sophie Oldfield and Dr Ailsa Holloway for their patience, dedication and invaluable comments and guidance. I am indebted to Nobonile Ngesha for her assistance in facilitating and translating during the focus group discussions. I am grateful like to Nobonile, Siviwe Vuzane, Octavia Jeje and Phinda Skade for their assistance with the remainder of the fieldwork. I owe thanks too to Thomas Slingsby and Kathya Mauff for their help and advice with respect to the spatial and statistical analysis respectively. I am also appreciative to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) who provided financial support for my fieldwork. Finally, I would like to thank the research participants and all of those who gave so generously of their time and expertise in each of the research sites. Town Cape of University 2 Abstract Flooding is an ongoing challenge in Cape Town. The problem is considered most severe on the Cape Flats, where thousands of poor households are affected by seasonal flooding each year. Informal settlements are perceived to be most vulnerable. The authorities, the research community and those living in flood-prone informal settlements view the provision of state-subsidised housing as the definitive, long-term solution to flooding on the Cape Flats. This relationship between housing and risk reduction rests on the pervasive, but entirely untested, assumption that flooding is confined to informal settlements. However, the combination of well-documented quality concerns and the geographical and social marginality of developments makes a strong case for flooding in subsidised housing areas. Town This thesis examines the extent, nature and impact of flooding in informal and subsidised housing areas on the Cape Flats. Drawing on constructivist arguments regarding the subjectivity of risk as a concept,Cape I examine how flooding and risk are conceptualised locally and internationally, and how well these framings compare with people’s experiences in subsidised housingof areas in Cape Town. I show that flooding remains a significant challenge in subsidised housing areas. Flood-risk has a strong built environment component; the very dwellings that should help to improve people’s lives serve instead to transform and perpetuate risk, undermining the developmental objectives of the housing programme. In so doing, I interrogate assumptions aboutUniversity risk, hazard and vulnerability, and the lessons for theory and practice. 3 Table of Contents CHAPTER 1 ................................................................................................................ 11 Exploring the Construction of Flood-Risk ............................................................... 11 Introduction .......................................................................................................... 11 Interpreting reality: The constructionist argument .............................................. 13 Framing the problem ............................................................................................ 15 The aims and objectives of the thesis .................................................................. 19 Overview of the thesis ......................................................................................... 22 CHAPTER 2 ................................................................................................................ 27 Weather and Society: The Construction of Risk in the Literature ........................... 27 Introduction .......................................................................................................... 27 The interaction of hazard and vulnerability: Defining risk .................................. 28 Surplus water and unsustainable development: The conceptualisation of the hazard, risk accumulation pathways and impact in the literature ........................ 37 Socially produced, collective and coarse: The application of risk and vulnerability in the literature ................................................................................ 48 CHAPTER 3 ................................................................................................................ 63 Promising a Remedy: Flood-Risk and Subsidised Housing in South Africa .......... 63 Introduction ..........................................................................................................Town 63 Housing as development and risk reduction ........................................................ 64 Reconstruction and development: Subsidised housing in South Africa .............. 67 A neglected constituency: Flooding in subsidised housing areas ........................ 79 CHAPTER 4 ................................................................................................................Cape 83 Assessing Flood-Risk in Subsidised Housing and Informal Settlements on the Cape Flats ................................................................................................of .......................... 83 Introduction .......................................................................................................... 83 Connecting the theory and methods ..................................................................... 84 Overview of the research ..................................................................................... 90 The choice of methods ......................................................................................... 92 Site selection ........................................................................................................ 93 The qualitative research ....................................................................................... 95 Quantitative data collection ................................................................................. 96 Limitations of the survey ................................................................................... 100 Analysis andUniversity consolidation of the quantitative data .......................................... 101 The spatial data collection ................................................................................. 109 Summary of analytical components ................................................................... 110 CHAPTER 5 .............................................................................................................. 115 Sandy, Windy, Wet and Excluded: Contextualising the Research Sites ............... 115 Introduction ........................................................................................................ 115 The social and physical division of space: A brief history of the Cape Flats .... 116 Marginal land, marginal space: Locating the research areas geographically and socially ............................................................................................................... 119 Experiences in common and apart: The history and characteristics of the research sites .................................................................................................................... 124 Physical and social fragilities: The characteristics of the dwellings and households.......................................................................................................... 132 Framing the empirical experience of flooding: Connecting the research context and aims ............................................................................................................. 142 4 CHAPTER 6 .............................................................................................................. 144 More in Common Than Apart: Rain-Related Problems in Informal and Formal Settlements ............................................................................................................. 144 Introduction ........................................................................................................ 144 Leaks versus ‘flooding’: The extent and nature of flooding in informal and formal settlements .............................................................................................. 146 A range of experience: Flooding profiles in informal and subsidised housing . 150 Wet, damp and mould: The impact of rain-related problems ............................ 157 ‘Minor’ problems, major impact: Extending the parameters of flood-risk in Cape Town .................................................................................................................. 174 New house, new risk: Rethinking assumptions about flood-risk in subsidised housing ............................................................................................................... 177 CHAPTER 7 .............................................................................................................. 180 Quality and Design: The Factors Driving Flooding in Subsidised Housing ......... 180 Introduction ........................................................................................................ 180 Testing influences: Recap of the analytical approach and
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