Movin' on up : mainstreaming under-serviced urban communities in Colombo, Sri Lanka

This thesis offers an early look at a radical shift in Sri Lankan urban housing policy regarding slums in the capital city of Colombo. During the 1980s, the Sri Lankan government achieved widespread urban improvements by mobilizing community-led on-site slum upgrading. However, since the late 1990s, the government has attempted to persuade urban slum dwellers to relocate to nearby high-rise apartments and, thus, reclaim public land inhabited by low-income settlements in central Colombo city. This policy shift is surprising because: (1) Sri Lanka's previous 10-year slum upgrading program was described as "best practice" by donor agencies, and (2) most other countries have rejected the notion of high-rise for low-income city dwellers. Concurrent shifts in donor agency ideology and preconditions as well as overcrowded physical conditions in previously upgraded under-served settlements drove the government to seek new approaches to improve the lives of the urban poor. Moreover, beginning in the 1990s, there was a renewed perception that cities like Colombo needed to capitalize on its comparative advantages vis-à-vis the rest of the region in order to spur economic growth in the nation. The Sustainable Townships Programme (STP) and its pilot project, the Sahaspura apartment complex, with its parallel attempts to free up land for development and resettle slum dwellers in modern high-rise apartments, were part of the drive to remain competitive in the global and regional economy. Prevailing thought maintains that relocation and high-rise housing will adversely affect the social networks and informal livelihood patterns of slum dwellers.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2005

Author dc:creator

• Wickrema, Marinne Dhakshike

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Bish Sanyal.

• Urban Studies and Planning.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/33065

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/33065