New housing project in pipeline
2007-06-28
May Saal
THE Drakenstein Municipality announced last week that a total of 817 new houses will be built in the Greenfields area of Paarl for the residents of the squatter areas Fairyland and Siyashala.
The residents of Fairyland and Siyashala were informed last week that 50% (156) of the households of Fairyland and 50% of the households of Siyashala (156) be relocated to the adjacent Phase 7 which has not yet been serviced.
The Municipality wishes to do away with shacks and is in the process of obtaining funding for new houses for the residents.
Living conditions in the informal settlements are poor because of insufficient sewage and other services, which contribute to the pollution of the Berg River.
At the meeting, consultant James Lochner of Lyners Consulting Engineering explained to residents of the informal settlements how the process will work.
“Currently there are 679 households living in shacks in Fairyland. A total 262 of these households will receive houses in Fairyland, while 156 househoulds will be relocated to Phase 7.
“Siyashala has 570 households and has two sites. On the one site 181 houses will be built and on the other site 62 houses will be built. A further 156 household will be relocated to Phase 7.
“The council must also still decide where they will build houses for the rest of the households of Siyashala and Fairyland,” Lochner said.
According to Lochner all of these houses will be built at the same time.
“The money is there to build the houses. The provincial government has budgeted R29 million for houses in the Drakenstein area.
“That is why it is important that we get everyone’s details as soon as possible, so that they can be registered as beneficiaries.”
According to Cupido Jacobs, Housing Manager for Drakenstein Municipality in Paarl East, said that erven would be allocated to those longest on the waiting list.
Jacobs also informed the meeting that a committee of ten people (five from Fairyland and five from Siyashala) should be elected by the residents.
The role of the committee is to make inputs on behalf of beneficiaries on the type of houses, and other relevant issues of mutual interest of the beneficiaries. All the new houses will be 40m² in size.
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