Catchiungo (or Katchiungo) is a typical third-tier municipal city that has been left out of most researches up until now. Catchiungo was largely depopulated during the war, and suffered serious damage. Like many Angolan municipal centres, Catchiungo is rebuilding itself as a regional market town in the last post-conflict years. The city of Catchiungo has a population of 10,000 and an almost negligible population growth rate.

The evidence is that in general, the Catchiungo urban area has not spread into areas of environmental risk. The data show that the urban core itself is located in a very low risk area and that in the outlying or peripheral areas, there are relatively few houses that have been built on steep slopes that may be at risk of erosion. Perhaps this is an issue that the city administrators should keep an eye on, to make sure that this trend does not continue to grow. The study has shown that there are adequate areas for the future physical expansion for the city, and similarly, areas for housing in non-risk areas are available.  With an almost negligible population and economic growth rates, there will be little pressure for the city and the people of Catchiungo to occupy at risk areas. 

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This report focuses on the research in the city of Huambo. The research used field research and new mapping techniques to, firstly, supply baseline data on the five characteristics which the United Nations uses to define slums for the Millennium Development Goals and, secondly, to explore in more depth the spatial aspects of poverty and urban environmental issues in Luanda. The five characteristics which the United Nations uses to define slums are poor security of tenure, difficult access to safe water, low levels of improved sanitation, low durability of housing structures and overcrowding. The spatial aspects of poverty and urban environmental issues that were studied were land markets and prices, housing location and transport, and flooding and erosion risk.

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Since 2002, when decades of civil conflict ended, Angola has struggled to rebuild. Its planners are hampered, however, by a shortage of reliable data about their own country’s population and environment. During the long conflict, Angola’s cities mushroomed when the rural economy collapsed and many parts of the countryside became unsafe. An influx of poor people settled in the urban districts they could afford — that is, in slums that are vulnerable to flooding or erosion, and that lack basic services and economic opportunities.

Poverty, in other words, has a spatial aspect and a circular effect. The poor are likely to settle in environmentally sensitive areas where their presence is likely to exacerbate environmental damage, thus aggravating their poverty.

If Angolan policymakers were to take effective measures to tackle urban destitution and environmental degradation, they needed a clear picture of the geographic distribution of slum dwellers and of their social and environmental circumstances.

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Article published by IDRC/CRDI on 2013/04/01.

The report provides evidence that rising land prices has forced the urban poor out of inner-city informal musseques to occupy lower-valued environmentally risky sites such as river basins, dangerous slopes and areas susceptible to flooding on the margins of cities like Luanda. The urban areas of Luanda (the capital city of Angola), Huambo (the capital of Huambo Province), and Cachiungo (the main town in the District of Cachiungo in Huambo Province) were chosen for this study as they are dissimilar and were considered to be representative of different types of urban areas in Angola.

Development Workshop carried out the research project from 2009 to 2011 to examine the differences in the three urban areas. The study used field research and new mapping techniques to supply baseline data on the five indicators which the United Nations uses to define slums for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and, secondly, to explore in more depth the spatial aspects of poverty and urban environmental issues in Luanda. 

A typology of settlement types was developed for each urban area, based on the date of settlement, history, the distance from the city centre, service levels, street patterns and type of housing. In Luanda, the largest urban area, there is a greater diversity of settlement types, hence nine settlement types were identified. In Huambo, only three settlement types were identified: the formally-urbanised centre of the city, the informally-settled areas surrounding it, and semi-formal settlements which have some, but not all, of the services associated with formal housing areas. In Cachiungo, only two settlement types were identified (the formally-urbanised centre of the city and the informally-settled areas surrounding it) but in practice it was found that the characteristics of the two were similar. 

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Rooftop mapping was made of all residential units and built structures in Luanda: