Quick Scan: Santa Tecla (Las Collinas)
Quick Scan Report: Santa Tecla, Las Collinas
Accompanied by: Roberto (Fundasal)
Date: 11/03/09
Time: 09:00 – 12:00
Introduction
Las Collinas is a community within the municipality of Santa Tecla. Santa Tecla is populated by 131 971 inhabitants is situated in the very south west of the greater San Salvador. Santa Tecla is seen as one of the richer and more developed parts of San Salvador. The urban morphology follows the geography of the surroundings. The north part is enclosed by a volcano and the south part by a group of steep hills. Las Colinas was build on the bottom of one of these hills.
The earthquake of 13 February 2001 instigated a big landslide which destroyed a big part of the Las Collinas neighborhood. Over 400 homes were destroyed and 800 people lost their live in this event.
Roberto of Fundasal showed us Las Collinas and other parts of Santa Tecla to get an understanding of the context. Fundasal did not respond to this disaster, because their policy is to focus their time on helping only the poorest and most vulnerable.
Mortgage
Las Collinas is nowadays a green lawn at the foot of the hill, with plots fenced off and not much is being built. The affected people still own the land, but due to the mortgages which were not remitted by the banks, they first have to pay off their houses before building a new one. The people got supported by the Taiwan government, which donated 2 million, which comes to 10 000 dollar each. This help does not come near their debts; the houses were worth around 40 000 dollar. The affected people took the case into court but despite their efforts they didn’t received more money.
Contemporary situation
The contemporary situation in Las Collinas shows that after 8 years just a tiny little is being rebuilt. The plots are visible and most of them are fenced, which shows they are still owned by different people. On the boundaries of the landslide, on the Westside we see a closed wall. This closed wall is formed by the backside of the houses that face another street. On the east side of the landslide there are ruins of half destroyed houses, next to rebuild houses, where people seem to have enough money to rebuild, that have the view over the empty space that cuts the neighborhood in two.
Next to these houses on the side, there is just three other activities. Alongside the ongoing road which passes through Las Collinas there is one building which contains a small cafeteria, a house and a garage for a public bus. On the other side of the road there is a small wooden house where they fruits and vegetables. It seems that these people managed to get their money back or sold the plot.
Emergency shelter response
Direct after the landslide the central government gave the permission to set up an shelter camp at Cafetalon, which is an big open-public place in the middle of Santa Tecla. It has the capacity of 5 football fields, enough open space to build up a camp for the survivors of the landslide. OXFAM, Plan and Care supplied tents, food, medical and psychological help. After 4 months the emergency camp was closed and all the beneficiaries found a place to live.
Transitional settlements
It is not exactly clear where al the people ended up. Roberto gave us a few different scenarios. The first is that the broken families started to live with their relatives. The second is where the family could effort another cheap house where they started to work on repaying there debts. The third is where people settled themselves in informal settlements on the outskirts of the town. Roberto shows us a neighborhood where Fundasal helped to construct a few houses. At the time they were build the government gave permission for temporary use of that specific ground. Due to the bad financial situation of the people they didn’t have any opportunity to leave this place.
Potentialities
This will follow after the Revision
Accompanied by: Roberto (Fundasal)
Date: 11/03/09
Time: 09:00 – 12:00
Introduction
Las Collinas is a community within the municipality of Santa Tecla. Santa Tecla is populated by 131 971 inhabitants is situated in the very south west of the greater San Salvador. Santa Tecla is seen as one of the richer and more developed parts of San Salvador. The urban morphology follows the geography of the surroundings. The north part is enclosed by a volcano and the south part by a group of steep hills. Las Colinas was build on the bottom of one of these hills.
The earthquake of 13 February 2001 instigated a big landslide which destroyed a big part of the Las Collinas neighborhood. Over 400 homes were destroyed and 800 people lost their live in this event.
Roberto of Fundasal showed us Las Collinas and other parts of Santa Tecla to get an understanding of the context. Fundasal did not respond to this disaster, because their policy is to focus their time on helping only the poorest and most vulnerable.
Mortgage
Las Collinas is nowadays a green lawn at the foot of the hill, with plots fenced off and not much is being built. The affected people still own the land, but due to the mortgages which were not remitted by the banks, they first have to pay off their houses before building a new one. The people got supported by the Taiwan government, which donated 2 million, which comes to 10 000 dollar each. This help does not come near their debts; the houses were worth around 40 000 dollar. The affected people took the case into court but despite their efforts they didn’t received more money.
Contemporary situation
The contemporary situation in Las Collinas shows that after 8 years just a tiny little is being rebuilt. The plots are visible and most of them are fenced, which shows they are still owned by different people. On the boundaries of the landslide, on the Westside we see a closed wall. This closed wall is formed by the backside of the houses that face another street. On the east side of the landslide there are ruins of half destroyed houses, next to rebuild houses, where people seem to have enough money to rebuild, that have the view over the empty space that cuts the neighborhood in two.
Next to these houses on the side, there is just three other activities. Alongside the ongoing road which passes through Las Collinas there is one building which contains a small cafeteria, a house and a garage for a public bus. On the other side of the road there is a small wooden house where they fruits and vegetables. It seems that these people managed to get their money back or sold the plot.
Emergency shelter response
Direct after the landslide the central government gave the permission to set up an shelter camp at Cafetalon, which is an big open-public place in the middle of Santa Tecla. It has the capacity of 5 football fields, enough open space to build up a camp for the survivors of the landslide. OXFAM, Plan and Care supplied tents, food, medical and psychological help. After 4 months the emergency camp was closed and all the beneficiaries found a place to live.
Transitional settlements
It is not exactly clear where al the people ended up. Roberto gave us a few different scenarios. The first is that the broken families started to live with their relatives. The second is where the family could effort another cheap house where they started to work on repaying there debts. The third is where people settled themselves in informal settlements on the outskirts of the town. Roberto shows us a neighborhood where Fundasal helped to construct a few houses. At the time they were build the government gave permission for temporary use of that specific ground. Due to the bad financial situation of the people they didn’t have any opportunity to leave this place.
Potentialities
This will follow after the Revision
QS: Santa Tecla (Las Collinas)
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