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A long thread: Ever since my coffee-drinking-armchair-self became a bit active on twitter yesterday, many people have messaged me to better understand why I'm so opposed to high-rises for the urban poor in Colombo & what issues we are facing in Colombo wrt "development" 1/16
I'm opposed to the high-rise model because it's failing so spectacularly & I have seen with my own eyes since 2013 how. #lka has done housing well in the past & there is no reason we can't learn from that now and push for a community driven, in situ, consultative model 2/16
Post war Colombo - the land grabs, the evictions, Port City, the push to become a "world class city" is part of a larger vision that is not backed by proper data or research. I've said this so many times, what they want is a "slum-free city" but not a poverty free one 3/16
I'm not opposed to new housing for the urban poor. My point is that no one should force people to live in high-rises & trap them in that way of life, an alien built environment for 20-30 years even before giving a deed. A house is not just permanent walls & an indoor toilet 4/16
A house is so many things. It is place of aspiration, of joy, privacy, friends and neighbours, dreams, rituals, painting rooms one by one when you save some money, something to leave for your children, the list is endless. This is what the high-rise model takes away 5/16
There are communities that desperately need better housing. No proper water & sanitation, floods & mosquitoes, overall pretty dire. Help them first. But even some of them reject the high-rises. I've been knee deep in dirty flood water talking to ppl living by canal banks who 6/16
still say they would rather face floods twice a year rather than move to a "flat". Those conversations in particular taught me so much about the different ways in which ppl articulate the idea of home and living and it's far beyond a permanent structure. 7/16
People who have also taught me so much have been ppl who benefited hugely from Premadasa's Million Housing prog & those who were heavily involved in it from design to community mobiliser level. Even they talk of how much the housing lessons are undone by the high-rise model 8/16
Those who talk about slums & shanties in Colombo talk as we have sprawling slums like in Bombay or Dhaka. We actually don't. The wattes and settlements people live in are so diverse that even after years of writing about them, we still don't have an appropriate term. 9/16
Even CMC survey data doesn't back the claim the UDA makes about how over 50% of Colombo's population lives in slums and shanties. This is just a way to justify the dispossession. Data actually shows that around 90% of low income settlements fall into the category of 'upgraded'.
Over the years my own writing has referred to communities in various ways - underserved settlements, urban poor, income poor, working class poor, low income community etc. Every community is so different that I can't give the same term to 2 wattes just a lane apart. 11/16
Why we think that randomly stuffing such different communities into high-rise complexes that sprawl 1000+ flats is the answer? It isn't. While the shift has been beneficial to some, overall its not worked well for most. The COVID-19 lockdowns have been devastating as well 12/16
Here is some reading material for those interested in knowing more
On high-rises & why it's not working -
http://ssalanka.org/cant-feel-earth-beneath-feet-anymore-dispossession-high-rise-living-colombo-iromi-perera-pp-51-58/
https://www.himalmag.com/losing-a-home-in-colombo-and-lahore/
https://www.addastories.org/highrise/ by @smriti_daniel
Effect of lockdowns on those living in high-rises - http://www.themorning.lk/life-in-high-rise-buildings-amidst-isolation/
On high-rises & why it's not working -
http://ssalanka.org/cant-feel-earth-beneath-feet-anymore-dispossession-high-rise-living-colombo-iromi-perera-pp-51-58/
https://www.himalmag.com/losing-a-home-in-colombo-and-lahore/
https://www.addastories.org/highrise/ by @smriti_daniel
Effect of lockdowns on those living in high-rises - http://www.themorning.lk/life-in-high-rise-buildings-amidst-isolation/
On the politics of Colombo's post-war urban development these are two fantastic pieces that have shaped so much of my work. If you don't have access to EPW please send me a message and I will email a PDF. 14/16
https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/681926# https://www.epw.in/journal/2013/34/commentary/cementing-hegemony.html
https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/681926# https://www.epw.in/journal/2013/34/commentary/cementing-hegemony.html
More reports from 2014 onwards about Colombo's beautification and the Urban Regeneration Project
http://www.righttothecity.info/resource-center/
If you don't have the time to read, follow @righttothecitysl on Instagram! 15/16
http://www.righttothecity.info/resource-center/
If you don't have the time to read, follow @righttothecitysl on Instagram! 15/16
END: Do watch this great short film by Nadya Perera on women working in the informal sector in Colombo. I really like this because Nadya shows the diversity of what 'informal' & precarity means in Colombo, from manpower workers to street cleaners 16/16
The end I promise: In 2017, my late friend & colleague Vijay & I wrote about how the Meethotamulla tragedy was actually the face, not failure of development. Some of this is still true for today. http://www.ft.lk/article/609631/The-Meethotamulla-tragedy---The-face--not-failure--of-development
