Click to hear Allan Cain speaking from Luanda, capital of Angola.

 

Working and living in Luanda since 1980, Allan Cain has seen first hand the devastation the war and poverty has brought to the lives of Angolans. The worst impact has been on musseques like Sambizanga:

"In 1992-93 there was a new outbreak in the civil war...Cities became battlefields and we had the highest population growth. Most of the population growth was in the informal squatter areas around Luanda where 75-80% were living...without water and without sewage."

With Development Workshop, a Canadian organization he co-founded, Allan Cain talked to community leaders and residents of Sambizanga. The number one priority all agreed upon was the need for water.

They concluded that the community needed to work together to build trenches and lay pipes which would connect to the municipal water system operating in downtown Luanda. This would bring treated water directly into Sambizanga. Then they needed to form user groups to manage and repair the pipes, and to collect small fees to go towards maintenance.

But's that easier said than done. Sambizanga is a big place, and hundreds of people would have to help with the construction of the water system.How could they stir up people's interest in the project?

Photo: Development Workshop training program

What Allan Cain did was work with a local theatre troupe! The group performs a street play that describes a water program that the community can set up. The play has music and dance and lots of humour. It outlines the process of electing a community management group, building a water system and also highlights possible problems, such as the treasurer running off with all the money. The street theatre initially captured the residents' interest and from there it was possible to organize user groups. Each user group is based on the neighbourhood area for each standpipe - about 500 people or 60 families per user group. The group then elects a committee which is then trained in hygiene, treatment of drinking water, basic bookkeeping, routine maintenance and simple repairs. Following training, each group is given health education materials, two taps, one wrench, and three metres of wire for cleaning out drains.

The groups initially select sites for new standposts, making sure that they are in convenient locations, then build the trenches, linking pipes to the old city network of treated water. The groups elect a commissioner, treasurer and supervisor to take care of the standpost, do any repairs needed and collect fees from the users for their water.

The final result is nearby access to affordable, safer water for the families of Sambizanga. By 1996, 58 standposts had been built and Sambizanga went from having the highest cholera death rate in the city to having one of the lowest.

Why was the project successful? There are a number of key factors which make a project like this work:

1. Community involvement

Good intentions alone are not enough. The community needing assistance must be active participants throughout the decision-making, implementation and maintenance of a project. You may have heard stories of foreign aid shipments of trucks or tractors being left to rust in the fields because the local people have no parts to repair them. That won't happen if a project works directly with the individuals affected.
2. Low cost

There is no point coming up with a great plan if it's too expensive. Working in one of the poorest areas of the world, it is important that both the original construction and ongoing maintenance are affordable. In Canada, the most expensive part of a project like this one would be the labour costs. In Luanda, the labour was provided by the people of Sambizanga who learned how to build trenches, install and repair pipes. Once the water is flowing the users pay a fee which is enough to pay for ongoing maintenance.
3. Long-term

If it breaks down in six months and the original work force have moved on, it won't be much good. Because the water project in Luanda was built by people living in the community, long-term maintenance is not difficult. The elected supervisor is paid a salary to take care of repairs and replacements as required.
4. Ownership

The community's ownership and control of the final water system play a large part in making sure that it will work in the long term. Instead of people maintaining the taps just because it is their job or because they are told it will be good for them, the user groups actually have control of all decisions made. How much to charge for water? When to make repairs? When to think about expanding the system? They evaluate the impact of decisions: for example, the higher the fees, the more money to finance repairs but the greater the hardship for the community users. 

Project Sambizanga was selected in the "Best 100 List" of the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (UNCHS) "Best Practices Competition" for 1996 as an example worthy of copying in other developing countries.

Allan Cain - Up Close
Allan Cain lives with his wife and two children in Luanda, where he has been for 16 years. 

The son of an autoworker, Allan Cain grew up in St. Catharines, Ontario in the 1960s.  He attended Sir Winston Churchill Secondary School and went to England to study architecture.  He received a degree from the Architectural Association in England (equivalent to a Masters in Architecture in the North American system). Very concerned about the role of architecture in lives of the poor, he and two other architecture students founded Development Workshop in 1973.  Their first programs focused on how architecture can improve living conditions for the rural poor.  One of their best known projects is the Woodless Construction Project in Niger which promotes earth vault and domed building techniques that do not require wood (a scarce and expensive commodity in Niger).  The building constructed during a six-week builders' training programme in Niger was short-listed for the Aga Khan Award for Islamic Architecture.  Development Workshop was incorporated as a NGO (non-governmental organization) in Canada in 1981.

In addition to his work with Development Workshop, Allan Cain is Canada's Honorary Consul in Luanda, Angola.  In 1993, he received the Award of Excellence in Foreign Policy from Canada's Ministry of External Affairs for his round-the-clock assistance to Canadians when fighting broke out in Luanda.

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