The need for a Holistic Approach in Planning
Like many other countries, Honduras has been facing huge housing inequalities forever. The challenges are deeply embedded and have been built for years in the system. Data provided by the Instituto Nacional de Estadistica (INE) has suggested one million housing deficit as a start point to depict the situation that prevails in the country. That number is the consequence of weak governance, corrupted system, land tenure, among other factors.
Exacerbating such numbers, there is the well-known topic of Climate Change. Honduras is prone to an earlier experience of the effects of global warming due to its geographical conditions. As proof of it, it should be highlighted the crisis unleashed by the back-to-back ETA & IOTA hurricanes late in 2020 where Sula Valley’s area was destroyed resulting in 150,000 families being displaced and left unhoused.
The intersecting Crisis
As the displaced families managed to sleep where they could, severe health conditions led to outbreaks including but not limited to the widespread of Covid -19 in Honduras. As a result, is noticeable that the higher public health impacts happen on precarious (or nonexistent) human settlements. Lockdown policies are not feasible for those in need of decent shelter. The most affected population has been the cluster integrated by the urban and rural poor facing inhuman conditions in overcrowded, unhealthy homes. And, that is true for all individuals around the world dealing with similar conditions.
WHAT NOW?
Such contexts bring me back to the reflection: Will I as Habitat Planner reproduce more of the same? Absolutely no! I won’t. There is a clear dynamic circle in the Urban and Rural Planning Framework integrated by housing (planning, designing, etc), public health, and climate change that must be reevaluated.
Honduras can be rebuilt into a sustainable country by rewriting and approving policies that focus on providing responsibly healthy homes for all Honduran families in need. It could be possible by retaking local natural materials and risk-design- projects as concrete actions to guarantee quality spaces for living while generating along the way harmony at the individual, collective and environmental levels.
Promoting Housing Projects framed in Social Justice, Equity, Citizen Inclusion, Risk-reduction, and Respect for Nature is one sustainable, attainable and long-lasting solution to deal with the housing deficit in Honduras. Hence, is imperative to incorporate a Holistic Approach at the forefront in the planning process. It will hopefully reduce the existing gaps around equitable access to decent housing and contribute to local ecosystems protection by reducing along the way the effects of Climate Change which in turn will have a positive impact on public health.