Shack living goes green
The Plaatjie family - like more than a million households in South Africa - lives in an informal settlement. But unlike most such households, the Plaatjies’ shack is warm in the winter and cool in the summer, and it has an independent electricity supply as well as an alarm system.
It is the iShack - or improved shack - and it is envisaged as a stepping stone that will raise living standards in informal settlements while residents wait to move into brick-and-mortar government housing. A 2009 government report estimated about 2.3 million households lived in inadequate housing; of these, some 1.2 million were living in shacks in more than 2,500 informal settlements across the country.
About a year ago, Nosango Plaatjie, her husband Ntoya and their three children became the first family to occupy one of three prototype iShacks in Enkanini, an informal settlement near Stellenbosch, about 40km from Cape Town. While they still want to live in “a real house”, they say their lives have improved significantly.
“My old shack was made from wood, and it was also very cold and flooded often. My children were constantly sick, but life is very different now. We have lights, and it is no longer cold at night. The children are feeling better, which makes me happy,” Plaatjie told IRIN.
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