San Salvador

San Salvador is the capital of El Salvador, the smallest country in Central America and the most densely populated. It resembles The Netherlands in that respect. Sixty percent of the population lives in cities, 27 percent lives in the capital San Salvador.

Slums have grown fast, with people migrating from the countryside looking for work. Many others came to the city when they fled the civil war, earthquakes and hurricanes like Mitch. Although El Salvador is growing at an annual rate of nearly five percent, thirty percent of the families live in absolute poverty.

Mejicanos and Soyapango

Urban Matters will focus on the neighbourhoods of Mejicanos and Soyapango where approximately 50,000 people live. Within these two the focus will be on the zones Montreal, with a population of 15,000, and El Limón, with a population of 7,000.

These municipalities have a high percentage of poor people living in precarious environmental and social conditions. Likewise, their historical centres are deteriorating as a consequence of the high concentration of informal trading activities, with no basic conditions present in the markets and surroundings for enhancing the households’ productivity and competitiveness.

Challenges

Houses are overcrowded, poorly build and in a bad state. It’s hard for families to obtain legal rights and correct documentation to their plots, even though they paid for the land. Legal papers are also necessary to get connection to piped water. Part of the land is uneven and ridged with hills and mountains that are part of the volcanic belt. During the rainy season floods and landslides occur. Drinking water is hard to get. Less than one third of the people have piped water in their houses. Little people have proper toilets; only ten percent have sewage.

Many health problems are the result of poor hygiene: dengue, diarrhoea, respiratory problems, and to some extend hiv/aids. Public healthcare is poor, medicines are expensive. Most people can’t afford to go to private clinics.
Though public education is free, many children can’t attend because books and transport are too expensive. It’s also dangerous to travel to school because gangs roam the streets. Many children drop out of school, use drugs and become gang members.

There are hardly any facilities for youth to meet in a safe environment, play sports, to do homework, learn computers or attend workshops and training. The markets in both Soyapango and Mejicanos have unfavourable physical and environmental conditions and lack proper infrastructure. Besides this traffic jams are a serious problem.

Opportunities

Urban Matters builds upon existing plans and initiatives that are taken up by Cordaid partners, the municipalities, civil society and private sector. The strong support of the municipalities creates a strong basis for the sustainability of the Urban Matters project. The historical centres of both neighbourhoods offer possibilities to create economic opportunities that are important for the development of the area.

Some of the opportunities that have been indicated by local organisations in Mejicanos and Soyapango are:

• Construction of sewage disposal systems with final discharge to treatment plants. There is a special need to look for treatment alternatives given the topographical conditions of the land.
• Construction of protective works for stabilising the ground.
• New building technologies to ensure that houses are disaster (earthquakes, typhoons) proof
• Build a small market place and areas for recreation, culture and sports

Other opportunities are to be found in areas such accessible housing and land, service infrastructure, social infrastructure, youth, income and employment and decision-making processes at a neighbourhood level.