BREWERVILLE

Housing and Working Resettlement and Livelihood Strategies

PROCESS FACILITATION – PROJECT

Brewerville, Liberia | 2016 – on going

The slow onset natural disasters such as sea level rise can be extremely disruptive, and have a large impact on livelihoods. People affected by these events can be categorised as climate refugees, as they are forced to move from their usual living and working environment.

This phenomenon is relentlessly occurring in West Point, a densely populated peninsula situated at the urban junction of the wide stretched Monrovia lagoon and the ocean. The urgency is extremely high, as the peninsula’s fishermen community deals with the loss of their houses/working spaces due to a combination of high tide and winds, creating extreme waves.

Some 50,000 – 70,000 people live in this informal settlement, which covers just four square kilometres shrinking by the day.

SPARK and SPCITI are combing forces to work on a development strategy for the resettlement of the West Point community to Brewerville. In Brewerville, West Point fishermen would be able to fish at sea and create new working partnerships with the local entrepreneurs building a micro-economic network. Both communities economic prospects need to be strengthened through an adequate living and working spatial structure laying the bases for a new town to develop. A dynamic strategy which identifies the opportunities for densification in Brewerville, and aims to generate direct results and a long term planning towards an autonomous and resilient town can become a regional reference, relieving pressure and congestion from Monrovia.

 

In collaboration with: