POLICY AND STRATEGY

AGENDA 21 FOR SUSTAINABLE CONSTRUCTION IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

Comments received

Institutional capacity, in terms of financial and human resources, is by far the greatest barrier to sustainable development in developing countries. How can this be solved?

Hanlie Barnard, Environmental Manager, Greater Pretoria Metropolitan Council, South Africa.

The idea arose that there might be only one solution, when many of the problems experienced are related to development models by Western orientated organizations like the UNDP and the World Bank.

Typical for a human settlement, not only in developing countries but also in parts of the Western world, is the informal growth of settlements. What we see as the most beautiful places in Europe, and sustainable ones in many cases, are places that show an informal growth in the past of buildings and infrastructure. It's the people themselves that have added pieces in a way they thought best. Based on this realization, the informal settlements in the developing countries are maybe the best way to start sustainable settlements. One can start with facilitating the general structure of informal settlements, accepting and supporting informal economies and informal labour exchange between the inhabitants, while providing some basic structural support such as water, waste collection, paving established roads (formed by the community as a reflection of their movement patterns) and providing materials or structures to improve shacks. Hopefully, over the years people will start to upgrade their environment within a given and self-developed context and social structure (which needs to be supported as well). This copies the trend in the Western world for eco-villages, which depend on a lot of informal activities as well.

It must also be a very useful exercise to map the building methods and useful products/ materials of all cultures worldwide. This would provide an enormous database of sustainable and adaptable solutions for all kinds of situations, climates and available materials sources, and would be very useful in deciding what should be stimulated and what could be changed or improved.

It takes a long time before governments and policy makers are convinced that they can make legislation without society starting a revolution. They are afraid that there would be no social acceptance. It took twenty years in the Netherlands to convince the public and industry that energy savings are an unavoidable part of the future, moving from the first energy savings actions to finally being able to introduce legislation on energy savings in households.

Everything is driven by people in their habitat. Thus if we want change, people will partly have to act (reacting to the surrounding parameters) and partly would want to act (reacting to their personal wishes and needs)

Ronald Rovers, Editor: Sustainable Building. Netherlands

What about buildings and workspace for disabled and old persons? Water efficiency is also a crucial point to be addressed - exploitation of groundwater, rainwater harvesting, wastewater management and recycling are all components of urban sustainability. We further need to create a platform of education about sustainable development and environment and create accreditation requirements for educational institutions that encourage faculties to build teaching capacity in these areas.

Prof. C. T. Ganesan, University of Botswana

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