What do changing seasons mean for our communities?

It's just started to rain this morning, and the weather report says that there's going to be a heavy downpour of about 30mm today. I look forward to the coming of winter. For me it means more frequent and larger swells, NW offshore winds, fires in the living room, walks in the drizzle bundled up in many layers and protected by an umbrella. I can get around in my car if it's too wet for my motorbike, and there's always a hot shower and warm bed waiting for me at home.

But for many people living in our communities the coming of winter is not a pleasant occasion, especially here in the Western Cape where our winter rainfall combines with dropping temperatures. Informal housing that has been built on low-lying ground (most of which used to be wetlands before being urbanised) gets flooded year after year, and diseases spread like wildfire. Speaking of fire, unsafe heating heating within shacks frequently cause these dwellings - and all around them - to burn to the ground along with everyone's worldy possessions.


These problems go on year after year after year. What can we do to avoid the constant flooding, burning illness and cold? For me, there is only really one solution: we cannot have a population who are living in shacks. If people are living in formal housing with insulation, weatherproofing, warmth and safety, we will see far less flooding, burning and illness. But we cannot just give houses to those who have none. As any low-cost housing development will show, backyard shacks spring up as soon as the houses become accupied, and they experience the same problems as their counterparts in informal areas. Home-owners without income or means of earning income will also be unable to maintain their houses and pay their rates, and in the end we will be back to square one.

The only way for our wet and cold winters to become somthing that everyone can look forward to is to educate and train our currently disadvantaged citizens so that they can create and obtain sustainable livelihoods, thus lifting themselves out of poverty and being able to purchase/rent and mantain their dwellings. this, of course, may seem obvious. The difficulty lies in coming up with creative solutions to achieve these aims that are long-term. Maybe even 20-30 years before we even start to look at progress? There are just no quick fixes here, and we need to find a balance between long-term outcomes and enabling people to manage in the mean time so that these goals are achievable.

I've left a lot open for discussion, and there is plenty to comment on, so please join the discussion. Can we do it? Can we survive our own organsional and networking threats (funding, mismanagement, skills shortages, infighting etc) and overcome societal threats (drugs, violence, lack of education, unemployment, HIV/AIDS, teen pregnancies etc) to empower and liberate the nation? Is this really possible?

It can be, but that just depends on our approach to the challenge and our communities' responses to our efforts. Please join the conversation, and we can see what we can do.

And if you can, enjoy the wintery weather...