Paper presented at the XXXIII IAHS World Congress on Housing, 27-30 September 2005,"Transforming Housing Environments through Design", University of Pretoria.
Viable housing needs more than just the construction of the houses -- indeed it is about more than just the houses themselves. It is also about providing and then operating and maintaining municipal engineering infrastructure, and also public amenities. However, despite obligations to sustainably manage infrastructure, the competing demands that are made on limited municipal operational budgets (and staff and other resources) severely constrain sustainable management. The paper describes the finding of extensive research over the last three years into the state of South Africa's municipal infrastructure, and into concepts of sustainable management of that infrastructure. Inter alia, it points out the extent to which the viability and habitability of our housing is at risk because of the threats to the infrastructure. It also outlines what is needed in order that the infrastructure be sustainably managed.
