Interview with Zeca: the sanitation in Chamanculo

We had a long talk with Zeca Dimiter José Chioco, who has been involved with ASSCODECHA since it was founded – approximately 10 years. None of us doing the SGT course speak very well Portuguese, so we had to have someone to translate for us. 

Interview with Zeca Dimiter José Chioco at ASSCODECHA

Zeca explained to us that the problems of Chamanculo have their roots in poverty – the people who live there are poor, the municipality of Maputo is poor, the state is poor. Chamanculo’s population has been growing for decades and the buildings haven’t been planned. As a result the area is a labyrinth of houses very close to each other, and there are no ditches or sewers. There is neither space nor money to dig ditches or sewers. One of the serious consequences of this is that in the rain season the area often floods and the water gets into the houses very quickly. This makes normal activities, like sleeping on the floor, problematic. It actually doesn’t even have to rain, water pipe breakdowns cause minor flooding too. This is both due to not the best quality work in the first place and people’s amateur attempts to make their own connections to the water pipes in order to not having to pay for the water. And where there are sewers, people fill them with trash and cause flooding that way.

The streets are full of water after just a little rain.

Many people have a water pipe coming to their home, but not all. Previously there were public places to pick up water and the residents were charged after each month according to how much water was used, but many people refused to pay and said that others had used the water more. Then the water companies switched to a prepaid system. The public taps are since closed and people without a tap have to buy their water from the neighbors. The water companies are not interested in building a sewage system as they get their money from the clean water and not the waste water.  So the waste water is simply thrown on the street.

Most people in Chamanculo have a traditional latrine as they call it – a deep hole dug in the ground in the corner of the yard. A few have “improved latrines”, which means that they have a big tank underground and sometimes a toilet bowl, which is flushed with a bucket of water. Some people also have an indoor toilet – or at least we met one family who was going to build one and had got the materials.

Traditional latrines are dangerous for playing children, but more importantly combined with the flooding they cause regular epidemics of cholera and diarrhea. And as the hospitals suffer from insufficient supply of medicine, sometimes people die. 

Improved latrines are not filled with water when there is a flood, so they don’t spread diseases. They are however not a sustainable solution, as they can’t usually be emptied. After a time – maybe 5 years, maybe a decade – they will be full. 

ASSCODECHA had its first sanitation project in cooperation with the municipality of Maputo in 2001. They identified families using traditional latrines and built them improved latrines instead. A French organization called ESSOR continued with this project in 2007-2008. Due to the lack of sustainability ASSCODECHA went after the first project for a different solution, a sanitation block shared by 8 or 9 families. So far they have built two in cooperation with Taksvärkki. Also an Italian organization has built some sanitation blocks in Chamanculo according to ASSCODECHA’s idea. The sanitation blocks have toilets and showers, and the underground tank can be emptied. They also have a water tank on top to supply the water for showers and washing the toilets, but at least the other one has not been in use for a while due to a broken part that prevents the overflowing of the tank. They are collecting money from the families to repair it though. They are also thinking about opening an account for the families to save money for emptying the tank, but lack of trust makes it hard. ASSCODECHA does still provide councelling with the blocks, but the families should pay for the maintenance.  So far they have planned to build two more blocks. They also have a new idea of a shared tank that would have more plumbing so that people could have the toilets in their own yards instead of a shared block.

The shared blocks have caused some arguments and personal conflicts due to for example water bills, but the families are very happy about their sanitation blocks. Also the neighbors are happy as it no longer smells and they can eat outside. There is also a possibility to get prepaid water as well as prepaid electricity. According the Zeca it’s affordable for the families.

One of the sanitation blocks built by ASSCODECHA with Taksvärkki.

ASSCODECHA has also organized sanitation education projects with lessons, panel discussions and drama. They estimate having reached thousands of people, as they have had shows for example in marketplaces.

The waste is also a big problem in Chamanculo and in the whole of Maputo. The municipality have contracts with minor companies or associations that collect the waste from the houses with small carriages that fit in at least most of the alleys. They then bring the waste to big trash pools that are located in places accessible by big cars. The families are not respobsible of taking care of it, as they tend to send their children to do it and with them the trash usually doesn’t make it until the end. Also many adults are lazy and just leave the trash out of the sight of their home. However the pickup service is very irregular and families will have to dump their stinking garbage somewhere – usually not the garbage pool. The garbage collection is included in the tax of goods and doesn’t need to be paid separately.

There is no sorting of waste and very small recycling – no public at all. There are some companies that recycle bottles, metal or batteries.  

The big trash container that is taken away by a truck later on.

Chamanculo is a very traditional area and it’s located very close to the city center. During the colonialism the maids and workers lived there. The people who have lived there since have bigger places and they practically own the land, and they pay a symbolic rent to the government – something like 2 meticals (0.05€) a year. The people who came after the independence often rent the land from those who were there before. Although I’m not sure how accurate this information is, as Zeca had a long talk with his friends and didn’t seem very certain with answer. All the locals I have interviewed say that they own the land that they live on. There are no proper addresses or street names in Chamanculo, which of course makes it very hard to report problems or get help in emergencies – not that many places would be reachable by cars anyway. There are some plans to build bigger roads and a sewage system in the main part of Chamanculo, but nobody knows when it’ll happen. Making the streets wider would of course force some people to move out of their homes. 

Chamanculo is not a typical slum in the sense that some people want to live there even if they get an education and a good job. They’ll just improve their house. However these stories are quite uncommon. 

People have many children as there is a cultural belief of a rural origin that many children will equal wealth to the family. School is free of charge until the 7^th grade, but of course the uniforms and school material (excluding books) need to be bought and some families cannot even afford that. There are also often unofficial payments collected by the schools for guarding or cleaning – whether the money actually is used, it’s hard to say.