Building adaptive Capacity in the informal settlements of maputo - Climate Change Adaptation and Development: Transforming Paradigms and Practices - page 32

Experimentation and testing
Experts at the helm of preparing climate resilience and adaptation plans in
Maputo are led by INGC and the Physics Department of Universidade Eduardo
Mondlane, supported by the Architecture Department. This expertise is
combined with the interests of international organization (e.g. UN Habitat) and
the local government (municipality) and will set the stage for the development
of an urban adaptation plan. Current efforts to draft an adaptation plan involve
going into urban settlements as an experiment with greater participation and
integration of local risk and response perspectives. However, preliminary
findings from our work indicate that, as regards disaster risk reduction, the state
supports implementation and forms of consultation, but no new institutions
- limiting the extent to which these experiments can inform new planning or
governance arrangements for adaptation . 11
Other environmental experiments with clear local development benefits
have been identified in Maputo. These include a waste collection and recycling
initiative managed by AMOR (Associação Moçambicana de Reciclagem), which
supports ad hoc partnerships between small private waste-collectors, supported
by municipal collection services from local 'recycling points'. NGOs and
informal waste collectors substitute for the operations of the government here.
In the case of small-scale water providers, the state has financed infrastructure
and has helped to establish new water providers. Regarding waste collection, the
role of government has been more limited, with local catadores (usually women)
emerging from within the local population who are flexible enough to respond
rapidly to existing waste collection needs. 12
Small-scale projects such as these are examples of how development actors, in
various forms of partnership with the state, can engage in experiments necessary
for adaptive capacity. That said, the existence of alternatives alone is not enough
to stimulate learning. Avsi, for example, has plans for a simple approach to
solving major drainage and flooding issues, by building properties on stilts to
allow height for improved drainage. While experimenting with this approach
could prove critical to informing adaption options for the communities in the
informal settlements, this alternative is undesirable to those who seek to use
relocation in order to access valuable land. The lack of real engagement between
state and local urban settlers in selecting locally relevant experiments may be
attributed to the absence of 'a culture of participation', but there also seems to
be a significant gap between this level of experimentation and the power issues
discussed in 'Knowledge and information'.
lessons from a resilience perspective
In Chamanculo C, flooding is a significant challenge whenever it rains. This is
one of Maputo's oldest bairros , and the lack of drainage leads to chronic problems
that are likely to worsen if rainfall events become more intense, as predicted