Mongolia - urban poor housing ..... part 2

June 16  2005

4. Possible Directions

Given conditions in Ulaanbaatar there are two possible directions.

•  Old Housing: ESCAP has chosen a site consisting of barracks which previously belonged to a state enterprise. The people living in the barracks have been given individual ownership of the rooms in which they live. Since there is no organisation to collectively maintain the buildings, they are in a terrible state of disrepair. Their toilets are also badly maintained and solid waste disposal is not effectively managed.

Through initiating a savings process ESCAP feels that it can bring people together for maintenance and management of the barracks. Similar work has been done successfully by Baspana in Almaty. However, research is required to improve toilet design, cheaper and improved stoves and roof and wall insulation.

•  Housing and Infrastructure in Ger Settlements: Conventional sewage and water infrastructure is unaffordable both for the residents and for the state. Alternatives to it have to be researched and introduced to the community through an extension programme.

Thousands of houses have been constructed in the ger settlements. The housing solution is staring us in the face. There is a need to understand the sociology, economics and technology of the housing process, identify its weaknesses and strengths and then to develop a programme that overcomes the weaknesses and support the strength. In this process, it is important to understand the actors in the housing drama, their relationships and the problems they face. This can only be done if participatory research leads to the establishment of a "housing clinic", which gives people advice on how to build and estimates on costs. The housing clinic can eventually become a community managed commercial enterprise. Similar work has been done by Baspana in Almaty, by the OPP-RTI in Karachi and a lot of research and extension work on the same lines has been done by the Building And Construction Improvement Programme (BACIP) of the Aga Khan Foundation in Northern Areas of Pakistan where climatic conditions are similar (though not so extreme) as in Mongolia.

5. ACHR's Role

The ACHR can play the following role in the promotion of better housing in Ulaanbaatar.

•  It can initiate the savings process in the barracks identified by UNESCAP. This can be done by arranging visits of the community members to Bangkok and Bombay and/or arranging visits of CODI staff to Ulaanbaatar. The process can be transferred to other communities.     

•  Initiate a research programme on the sociology, economics and technology of the housing process in the ger settlements. This research programme needs to be organised around a local NGO and supported by ACHR resource persons. The Centre for Human Rights and Development can be the local NGO. The research cell needs only three people: a young architect, a local activist from the ger communities and a person for secretariat and logistic support. Understanding of the existing housing process will require in-depth interviews with the actors (owners, builders, material suppliers, government officials etc) followed by 50 questionnaires each in old, not so old and new ger settlements. This process was followed in Almaty and the questionnaires and their results are given in my book "Housing Crisis in Central Asia". The process can be completed in two months.

 

•  Based on the above research, appropriate designs for toilets, stoves, insulation materials for infrastructure pipes and housing can be developed along with house designs which individual households can use.

 

•  The research cell can then convert itself into a housing clinic and employ artisans and management staff that it identifies during the research period. The housing clinic will give technical advice, managerial guidance and tools to individual families who wish to build their houses and to a cluster of houses that wish to develop their infrastructure. It can over a two year period become self-sustaining by transforming itself into a commercial enterprise that is affordable to poor families.

•  The research cell can then convert itself into a housing clinic and employ artisans and management staff that it identifies during the research period. The housing clinic will give technical advice, managerial guidance and tools to individual families who wish to build their houses and to a cluster of houses that wish to develop their infrastructure. It can over a two year period become self-sustaining by transforming itself into a commercial enterprise that is affordable to poor families.

Urban Poor Mongolia - Hosuing

A Report for ACHR from Arif Hasan

June 2005

Later in the year - in August - a team from Thailand followed up with a visit to help start SAVINGS groups in Ulaan Bataar.

A report on the visit is HERE