Case study CHSS of the July exhibition 2009

1. In any panoramic view in Mejicanos a There is a system for waste removal; the garbage
‘Sistema de alerta temprana’ is one of truck comes by 2 to 3 times a week on the main
ALARM SYSTEM
couple of buildings stick out because of the most important incentives in the There are numerous stories about the
the typology. For example a church and road. Important factor is that people have to landownership in sector Montreal.
communities of sector Montreal,
“LOTIFICATION”
an elementary school initiated by the overcome difficult passages to drop it off and the Areas owned by private untraceable
Mejicanos. The collaboration between dogs in the streets are constantly going through
Spanish Embassy and run by Catholic, local and international NGOs and the stakeholders obstruct development.
Mexican nuns. the trash. Result of this are piles of garbage on the Residents have contracts and receipts
Munipality of Mejicanos made it hills and trash hung up on electric poles. In
possible to construct safe community but no legal documentation or rights
Cuscatancingo they call the Municipality when
INCENTIVES
One of the incentives we investigated houses and evacuation routes. to their homes. In another situation
was a settlement in Cuscatancingo the pile gets to big to come and pick it up. squatters built an informal settlement
initiated by local NGO Procomes. With in a deserted area.
capacity building they constructed two NGO
rows of 16 houses, in total 32, for families
which were living in high risk zones in
Mejicanos.
The main road that connects all the
communities with the center of Mejicanos and
NGO the city San Salvador is in contrary to the other
roads very accessible for vehicles. The shops
here are more open to the street and let the
products (mainly water, gas and food) be
NEW SETTLEMENTS
delivered to them directly. This road is a one
DISTRUBUTION
way street and has a continuous flow of
DWELLING TYPOLOGIES
(micro)buses passing by, which most residents
use. Sector Montreal is notorious and in
general taxis refuse to go inside the area.
During a GPS mapping of economic activities we came to the conclusion
that little to none profit is being made in the shops. Families with little
shops located on a lower level travel to the local market or further for
their inventory. These small businesses are integrated in the front of their
Regardless of the efforts from the
houses and fill in an important role of distributing basic products and
Municipality of Mejicanos, who indicate
goods within the community.
the high risks in these areas, on the other Closing off the plot to the street is a repetitive phenomenon.
side of the valley is used to develop new The barb wire and fences constructed with a diversity of
settlements with gated communities. materials indicate the (social) security issues what these areas
are known for. Overall, the general typology has the private
zone located at the end of the house, with sanitation and
washing areas situated outside while the (semi)public zone is
located in the front.

2. CONNECTIV TY
ONNEC V TY
ONNECT VITY
ONNECTIVITY
N
T ma the connectivity we p t
To ma the connectivity we put the emphasis on the overall network of infrastructure; the
map ectivity
ec y h s overall ne
ra ne r o in stru tur ;
infrastr
structure;
t
s b e residents
reside
esiden
id on A
n e relatio f dwelling to
a l
ll g
accessibility for the residents by means of transportation. Also, the relation of dwelling to
street and the psyc
e psychical and non-psychical presence of ac ivities in public space related to
p ctivities
c it tie
activities ublic spac related
bl c
b ic ce el d
this network, analyzed with tools like Space Syntax and GPS.
h s ne wo a
etw GP
G S
The principal road is connected with many ‘pasajes’ [passages/streets]
it
which have to be comprehended as very steep and sometimes very
narrow pathways going up and down to different communities and
d
dwellings. There’s a large diversity of materials used and an absence of
y
safety installations. Results: very dangerous and poorly/not accessible
p y
situations, for elderly and young children.
The social insecurity has a great influence
ri
i
on the ‘fencing’ of plots. At the same time
enci g of plots
p
the interventions of the local Municipality
and NGOs in the infrastructure; e.g.
gutters, decreases the accessibility to the
entrance even more.
ve
The analysis with Space Syntax indicates that the inter visibility in
Sector Montreal is low due to the narrow ‘pasajes’ and closed off
private plots. The extreme variables in this geographical context
obstruct even more social control by sight. On the principal road
we find some higher results for inter visibility. The road functions
as the connection to and from the sector and has the best local
and global integration. Most shops and spatial activities can be
found here. Although it is the best integrated street it is still the
Montreal is notorious and with the single road is
only connecting road in Sector Montreal. At the very end of the
secluded while having a decent connectivity within
principal road these characteristics; prevailing connection and a
the sector. The newest expansion has the same
higher value inter visibility, provide the possibility for the present
characteristics; even more secluded while locally
gang to control the neighborhood.
strong connected and is now in control of the gangs.

3. ALA
AL
ALARM SYSTEM
ALARM SYSTEM
LA SYSTEM
YSTEM
YS
STEM Civil Protection is a governmental organ that
is in charge of notifying the Municipality in
case of an alert with SNET (National Service
for Territorial Studies). The Municipality
focuses on improving the infrastructure in
sector Montreal and improved the
accessibility of the community house with an
evacuation route.
NOTIFICATION
The community leaders form
‘intercomunal’ and gather every
N TIFICATIO
Friday in the community houses to
address current issues.
SNET
measures rainfall and detects emergency
Out of the results of one of the surveys we
came to conclude that a large amount of
the residents is not aware of this system.
Conocimiento de systema alarma
70%
Municipality
YES
60%
co
communication with cellphones and walky-talkies
E
O
NO
50% Finca Commu
Communities
YES
YES
S
NO
NO
Argentina comm ca ion w th c
communication with community leaders
m a ion th
Buenos
Aires
50%
NO
40%
N
YES
Y S
Iberia
The outskirts on the north side of the city, are situated on steep hills, like
Sector Montreal, or close to canyons on planes of ‘Tierra Blanca’ (white soil).
Especially in the rainy season, which runs from June until November, the risk
instigated by heavy rain falls grows. The big amount of water itself and the
erosion caused by the water instigates landslides and floods that take down
the precarious dwellings and the soil around it. Adjacent the continuous
tremors (little earthquakes) in this area increase the risk even more.

6. ORGANIZATIO
ATION
There are numerous stories about illegal landownership in sector Montreal. Areas owned
by private, sometime untraceable, stakeholders that obstruct further development.
Residents have contracts and receipts but no legal documentation or rights to their homes.
This land cheating is most definitely happening in El Salvador and the current rules and
regulations cannot cope with this.
There is no law or system regarding the vacant spaces and no land taxes.
Chinchilla (OPAMSS) gave an example of (cultural) conception about land and property: if
people occupy (vacant) space for over 20 years and they can prove somehow that they
lived there for the entire time, they receive the legal rights for ownership of that space
[which is almost impossible]. There is a centralized administration institution CNR that
keeps all data about property.
Protection walls highly prefered as
incentive in on of our workshops with the
OPAMSS is an organization that was intercommunal of sector Montreal.
founded as a response on the 1986
earthquake and focuses mainly on
transferring knowledge and providing
technical advice, with risk-maps, rules and
regulations for density. They are
independent, also meaning that provide for
themselves, often accepting proposal even
though it is not recommended, like the
settlement on the other side of the valley in
Mejicanos.
The Municipality has very limited financial
resources for the entire area. Their leftist
eir leftist
r s
perspective also results in distributing the
n distrib
s b
aid as much as possible: focusing on the
s possibl
s b
infrastructure. There are houses on the
re
e
verge of collapsing, or partially already
destroyed, currently ‘hoping’ to survive next
rainy season.
A local NGO called Procomes realized the
possibilities in international collaborations
os
and their main goal is to raise awareness
nd
and build capacity. The form a important link
nd
nd
in the layers of organization for sector
Montreal.
Mo
Mo
Sector Montreal benefits from organized communities, a
board of community leaders (intercomunal) that together
with the social promoter have a platform to address
urgent issues. This way of organization leads to a more
efficient communication between stakeholders. For
example local NGO Fundasal is now focusing on
sanitation networks in certain areas.

7. BENDICIÓN E IOS, CUSCATANCINGO
BENDICIÓN DE DIOS, CUS TANCINGO
N IC Ó
NDICIÓN
C O
OS CUSCATANCING
USCATANC G
S TANCING
SCATANCINGO
ANCI GO
ANCING
NCINGO
Procomes initiated a housing program as part of the risk reduction program in the
north part of Sector Montreal. It’s intended for a 28 families of the people of the
community Finca Argentina, who were heavily affected by hurricane Stan in
2005. Together with the municipalities of Cuscatancingo and San Salvador
Procomes found a more safe (according to disasters) area to built 32 new houses
for 28 families who were living in Finca Argentina and 4 families that were living
at a high risk place in San Salvador. The project was initiated in 2006, it took till
the summer of 2008 till the last families moved into their new homes.
Within the program of constructing
typologies within the budget,
Procomes includes some of the
MITIGATION
In these fixed typologies we basic services; water and
observed a clear influence sanitation, infrastructure, disaster
of the traditional way of risk reduction but could not include
dwelling; the origin. The electricity. This is illegally tabbed
residents keep chickens, from the network. The electricity
small commerce and paint Procomes and the community company put poles in the area
their façade and public hired a lawyer to legalize their where houses ‘appear’ or are
space. Every house is land rights. Every family pays being constructed. The community
expanded with any 16-25 dollars per person for the is now negotiating with the
accessible material, which expenses. There is a good hope Municipality in order to get legal
proofs the urge for the process will be finished by the electricity with the already
adaption. end of this year. established network.
27 %
27 %
50 %
0
14 %
What is th most mproved?
What is the most improved?
What do you miss the most?
yo miss the os
36 %
36
h
27 %
27
18 %
18
13 %
3
Did you had to quit your job?
i you ha to ui our ob
ad ob?
What
Y
YES 59 %
NO
NO 41 %
Land rights
asi Services
Basic Services
R duce R sk
Reduced Risk
Conn ctivity
Connectivity
Trees
F mi y
Family
Neighbors
Quality of dwelling
T ee
La d gh
Q alit o wellin
Ne ghbo
Coul o keep you ol jo ?
Cou
Could you keep your old job?
kee our
YES 32 %
YE
ES
N
NO 59 %
13 % New oppurtunity
Ne pp rtu ity
unit
un