Ms. Fatema Sharmin Sonia, an architect, conducted participatory mapping and housing design workshops with the people in Shondip Colony, in Chittagong, to map their settlements, develop housing improvement plans and construct some pilot house designs, in collaboration with UPPR. 

1. Background
            Shondip Colony is a hilly land containing around 83 acres. It was mainly a Hindu property owned by a Hindu land owner before 1971. More families came from Shondip and started to live permanently by constructing Temporary house. For time being this area becomes known as Shondip Colony. Basically population was increased and hill area was decreased as they cut the hill. So land slide become the major natural disaster during rainy season at Shondip Colony. The land is Khas, but when people started to live permanently The Government permit them to stay there lifetime during 1999. From 2001 different organization like Unicef, UPPR (Urban Partnership for Poverty Reduction Program) started to work at Shondip Colony to develop their life standard by giving road, toilet education loan, Income generation loan etc. Now a day’s more than 900 families live at Shondip Colony and total area is under Chittagong City Corporation. So Local Government is also concerned about this community. 

2. Objective
            The main goal was to play a vital role for resolving/minimizing this vulnerability by a proper guidance.

3. Process

• Site Analysis: Strength and weakness of site: Main weakness of this community is poor land use, lack of drinking water, poor infrastructure, illiteracy along with climatic vulnerability such as land slide and land erosion by rain water within the individual household and up to total settlement. Main strength of this community is their knowledge about local technique to reduce the climatic hazard, natural resources like sand, hill, vegetation and land also.
• Existing Settlement Analysis: The existing condition of settlement is very poor. Lack of access road and drainage to reduce overflow of rain water and daily household use water, lack of necessary guide wall to protect land at hill side, scarcity of drinking water and daily use water source, vulnerable calamities, lack of proper sanitation and solid waste disposal service. UPPR provided some access road, drainage facility and guide wall but that was not enough for whole community.
• Household System Analysis: The existing house hold is smaller to accommodate minimum space for sleeping, cooking, storage &livelihoods. Temporary Kacha houses made with mud, Bamboo and thatched roof which maintenance process is very tough and not time effective and also not cost effective due to income range perspective.

            Design process was led by community people. A workshop was arranged with community people to prepare a community map and conducted land survey to demarcate housing units and existing infrastructures.
            After several community consultations with community people settlement Improvement proposal plan has done by the fellow and other technical person according community consultation. Each household has individual land area. So it is very tough work to produce design for individual 900 families. So some module based design was proposed for the community which helps them to reduce climatic vulnerability at household system. From survey data and map we got minimum 750 sft land and maximum 5250 sft for individual houses. It was a phase wise up gradation process because the whole are development is not possible in a single day or month. So we proposed some design ideas according community requirements and site requirement at master plan level and individual household level which will help them to upgrade their environment and lifestyle. Land area along family members, financial condition of the family, their affordability and climatic vulnerability were the main concern during design idea generation.

4. Next Action Plan
            Eviction is a common trend in different urban settlements in Bangladesh which affect mentally to community people. Settlement improvement project in Shondip Colony create a faith and hope for ensuring better living condition with land tenure security and upgrade living condition among the neighbored community also. Moreover the community-led development process made the people more confident and unites to share their problems and find the solution, also to coordinate with city corporation government bodies and other development organization too. So not to let the hope down of the community we are continuing some activities like house hold survey, house hold registry, community profiling to identify the socio economic  conditions and forming saving groups to manage the fund. Main achievement of the work is make concern community people to show some guideline which shows the path of improvement and quality life of the community people.