Action Plan for Paramaribo, Suriname

ACTION PLAN FOR PARAMARIBO

THE INTER-AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK EMERGING AND SUSTAINABLE CITIES PROGRAM ISTT Plan4cure - University of Antwerp IBT - Engineering consultants

Team • University of Antwerp, Faculty of Design Sciences, ISTT • IBT Engineering consultants • Johan De Walsche (UAntwerp - promotor) • Johan Martinus (IBT - local promotor) • Nathan De Feyter (researcher) • Marleen Goethals (urban design expert) • Sigrid Heirman (planning governance expert) • Dirk Laporte (heritage expert) • Dirk Lauwers (urban mobility expert) • Angelika Namdar (urban planning expert) • Tom Van Vilsteren (researcher)

ACTION PLAN FOR PARAMARIBO

THE INTER-AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK EMERGING AND SUSTAINABLE CITIES PROGRAM ISTT Plan4cure - University of Antwerp - Faculty of Design Sciencies IBT - Engineering consultants

CONTENTS INTRODUCTION: FROM BASELINE STUDIES TO PRINCIPLES FOR AN ACTION PLAN

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1. An action plan for Paramaribo 1.1 Problem statement 1.2 An action plan as part of the Emerging and Sustainablilty Cities Programme (ESC) 1.3 An integral approach, transversally addressing several priorities 1.4 Not only projects, but also processes 2. An action plan underpinned by baseline studies 3. First focus: water management: towards an integral blue-green network 3.1 IDB Baseline Studies 3.2 Elements for the Action Plan 4. Second focus: mobility and transport: towards a multi-modal network 4.1 IDB baseline studies 4.2 Elements for the Action Plan 5. Third focus - land use and zoning: shaping the compact city 5.1 IBT Baseline Studies 5.2 Elements for the Action Plan 6. Transversal priorities 6.1 Energy 6.2 Education 6.3 Participation and public management 6.4 Vulnerability to natural disasters 6.5 Solid waste management

20 20 21 22 22 25 31 31 31 37 37 39 45 45 45 50 50 51 52 52 53

THE ACTION PLAN

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1. Selection of potential actions 2. Structure of the Action Plan: three types of interrelated actions 2.1 Technical Studies 2.2 Projects 2.3 Strategic Actions 3. Overall methodology of the Action Plan 3.1 A trifold design-driven actor-oriented approach 3.2 Tactical urbanism 3.3 Neighbourhood contracts as a negotiated common framework for reaching the goals and monitoring the process

56 60 60 61 62 63 63 68 69

A FLEXIBLE MASTERPLAN FOR A BLUE-GREEN NETWORK FOR PARAMARIBO-NOORD

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1. Introduction 2. Grey-blue solution for coastal flooding 3. Solutions for inland flooding and sewage purification 4. BRT and Bicycle streets 5. Greening 6. Characteristics of the study 7. Conclusion

73 79 85 93 99 110 113

HOUSING AND LAND USE POLICY STUDIES AND IMPLEMENTATION PROGRAMMES

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1. Introduction 2. Urban sprawl in Paramaribo 2.1 current situation 2.2 Planned and unplanned growth of Paramaribo, historical growth of Paramaribo and the decline of urban planning 2.3 Residential developments as the dominant driver of urban sprawl and its effects 3. Housing shortages and deprivation 4. Tackling housing deprivation, Urban Growth study versus Action plan 5. Densifying the compact city 5.1 Bottlenecks 5.2 Opportunities 5.3 Strategy 5.4 Policy studies 5.5 Implementation programs 6. Reprogramming the suburban perimeter 6.1 context and strategy to move from baseline to action plan 6.2 policy studies 6.3 Implementation program 7. Conclusion

118 119 119 121

BRT AS A NEW BACKBONE FOR URBAN MOBILITY

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1. Introduction 2. Mobility scenarios for Paramaribo 3. The BRT in the public transport system of Paramaribo 4. Why a BRT North-South backbone for Paramaribo?

5. Outline of a BRT backbone for Paramaribo 6. Implementation program: BRT backbone

170 171 175 175 179 184

123 124 128 132 132 136 141 141 154 161 161 161 164 166

A NEW FERRY SERVICE FOR MEERZORG – OLD JETTY

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1. Introduction 2. The ferry in the public transport system of Paramaribo 3. Considerations 4. Vision 5. Actions 6. Cross-sectoral and transversal priorities 7. Conditions 8. Implementation program

190 195 197 198 199 202 203 204

LATOUR AS A NODE IN A POLYCENTRIC PMNA

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1. Introduction 2. Problems 3. Vision 4. Interventions 5. Cross-sectoral and transversal priorities 6. Conditions 7. Implementation program

208 211 213 214 216 217 218

STRATEGIC ACTIONS 1. TEST CASE HOUSING QUALITY AND UNBURDENING HOUSING PROGRAM IN LATOUR 2. TEST CASE DENSIFYING THE CITY CENTRE: HOUSING AND ADAPTIVE REUSE 3. TEST CASE INTEGRATED PPP ACTIONS IN CLEVIA, INCLUDING HOUSING DENSIFICATION ON EMPTY PLOTS 4. TEST CASE SMALL AND MID-SIZE RESIDENTIAL FARMSTEAD IN CLEVIA 5. BICYCLE PROMOTION 6. URBAN TACTICS CAR-FREE PUBLIC DOMAIN – TOURTONNE MARKET/WARUNG NEIGHBORHOOD

221 227 233

ANNEX

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Gantt chart overview of the Action Plan Global overview of the budget of the Action Plan

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239 245 251

LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1......................................................................................................................................................... 24 • Areal picture of the project area of PMNA, its sub-urban and peri-urban area (Urban Growth Study, p.30) Figure 2......................................................................................................................................................... 26 • Schematized map, showing the concentric nature of the metropolitan area of Paramaribo as two perimeters around an historic centre, based upon UGS (ISTT) Figure 3 ........................................................................................................................................................ 26 • The typical Y-shape of the action plan area (ISTT) Figure 4 (left page)...................................................................................................................................... 29 • Consolidated prioritization of potential fields for the action plan (IDB Filters & Prioritization Report, p.12) Figure 5......................................................................................................................................................... 30 • Map showing the area affected by coastal hazards, for a 10-year return period (IDB Hazard & Risk Study, p.94) Figure 6......................................................................................................................................................... 32 • Schematic overview of the natural zoning, and disconnections around the City centre area (ISTT) Figure 7 ........................................................................................................................................................ 34 • Presence of water infrastructure as constituent of the urban tissue of Paramaribo, at the same time connecting and separating the old city neighborhood from its later expansions: Sommeldijkse kreek, 2019 (ISTT) Figure 8 ........................................................................................................................................................ 36 • Table showing the coherence between baseline studies and Action Plan Figure 9 ........................................................................................................................................................ 40 • Two conceptual models for conceiving a hierarchical interconnected network Figure 10 ..................................................................................................................................................... 40 • Main accesses to the city center Figure 11...................................................................................................................................................... 42 • Map indicating multiple centers Figure 12...................................................................................................................................................... 44 • Overview of distribution in land use for four growth scenarios (UGS, p.148)

Figure 13...................................................................................................................................................... 47 • Map demonstrates potentials of punctual interventions in the city centre area (source: Paramaribo Urban Lab Final Report, p.67) Figure 14 (previous page)............................................................................................................................ 56 • An Action Plan, consisting of a coordinated set of studies, projects, processes and tactical interventions, running parallel, and informing each other (ISTT) Figure 15...................................................................................................................................................... 58 • Scheme showing the principle of spatial coherence across the different actions of the Action Plan Figure 16 (below) ........................................................................................................................................ 58 • Overview of the longlist of 18 identified actions, and the evaluation against the above mentioned criteria.

Figure 17....................................................................................................................................................... 64 • Schematic presentation of the Plan4CuRe approach (ISTT) Figure 18...................................................................................................................................................... 64 • Schematic overview of the Urban Living Lab Methodology (based upon co-evolution approach of L.Boelens e.a.)

Figure 19...................................................................................................................................................... 64 • Schematic overview of the process of round tables in the co-evolution Urban Living Lab methodology (Goethals, 2018) Figure 20...................................................................................................................................................... 66 • Schematic overview of the ALDO approach (ISTT) Figure 21 ..................................................................................................................................................... 72 • Concept for a blue-green network in Paramaribo-Noord (ISTT) Figure 22...................................................................................................................................................... 74 • Coastal Flooding Hazard Map for a 100-year Return Period with 2050 SLR and Business-As-Usual Scenario (IDB hazard risk baseline study, December 2017) Figure 23...................................................................................................................................................... 74 • Vulnerable areas of flooding and households affected (source: Masterplan ontwatering Groot Paramaribo, MPW 2016) Figure 24....................................................................................................................................................... 76 • Integraal Waterbeleid - Water Cycle (Nolf, 2013) Figure 25 (Below)......................................................................................................................................... 76 • Demarcation of Paramaribo-Noord and names of streets and neighbourhoods Figure 26...................................................................................................................................................... 78 • Planting of new mangroves in Suriname

Figure 27....................................................................................................................................................... 80 • Section of the new northern dike of Paramarib Figure 28...................................................................................................................................................... 82 • Clay dike on ‘schelpenrits’ + concrete or damm wall along the river Figure 29...................................................................................................................................................... 84 • Public water management network: open canals and retention basins for surface water in front of the dike, land side Figure 30...................................................................................................................................................... 86 • Old plantation structure of Paramaribo-Noord and Commewijne Figure 31....................................................................................................................................................... 88 • Workers houses on the plantation of Geyersvlijt, 1915 Figure 32...................................................................................................................................................... 88 • Water retention in Bakkie, 2016 Figure 33...................................................................................................................................................... 89 • Proposal for private sewerage purification in Mariënburg (septic tank and helophyte field) Figure 34...................................................................................................................................................... 89 • Proposal for a floodable playground in Rotterdam (De Urbanisten) Figure 35...................................................................................................................................................... 90 • Living around a retention pond in Germany Figure 36...................................................................................................................................................... 90 • Section of a floodable walkway next to a soft river bank Figure 37....................................................................................................................................................... 91 • Helophyte ponds in public space in Amsterdam Figure 38...................................................................................................................................................... 92 • BRT on the axis of the Wilhelminastraat and local shuttle buses in the neighbourhoods of Paramaribo-Noord (ISTT, 2019) Figure 39...................................................................................................................................................... 94 • Network of bicycle trails: two north-south arteries and several east-west connections (ISTT, 2019) Figure 40...................................................................................................................................................... 95 • BRT, bicycle network and waterbus (ISTT, 2019) Figure 41....................................................................................................................................................... 96 • Proposal for a bicycle street in Clevia (De Feyter 2019) Figure 42...................................................................................................................................................... 98 • Concept for a blue-green network in Paramaribo-Noord

Figure 43....................................................................................................................................................100 • Model for an urban farmstead development, closely related to concepts of integral water management (retention, irrigation) (De Feyter 2016) Figure 44....................................................................................................................................................102 • Linear green landscape park on the BRT artery in the Wilhelminastraat Figure 45 ...................................................................................................................................................105 • BRT becomes catalyst for greening the neighbourhood. Private partners start greening parking Figure 46....................................................................................................................................................106 • Appropriation and greening of the canalside in the Jan Steenstraat Figure 47..................................................................................................................................................... 107 • Visualization of further appropriation and greening in the Jan Steenstraat Figure 48....................................................................................................................................................108 • Infiltration zones in narrow street Figure 49....................................................................................................................................................108 • Infiltration zone and open sewer canal in Saint-Laurent du Maroni Figure 50....................................................................................................................................................114 • Scheme showing the components of the BGN flexibel masterplan, and the mutual interconnections between the elaboration of the study, strategic actions and implementation Figure 51.....................................................................................................................................................120 • Land use map of Paramaribo in 2015 (Environmental Resource Management inc., 2017) Figure 52....................................................................................................................................................122 • Table and map: Urbanisation process of Paramaribo from foundation until 2012 (Heirman en Namdar 2012) Figure 53....................................................................................................................................................123 • Green House Gas Emmissions by GPC sectors of Paramaribo in 2015 (Environmental Resource Management inc. 2017, b) Table 1 .......................................................................................................................................................125 • overcrowding situations in Suriname (own processing based upon Mencke, 2016) Table 2 .......................................................................................................................................................126 • Housing quality (Environmental Resource Management inc., 2017) Table 3 .......................................................................................................................................................126 • future housing demand due to demographical growth by 2056 (Environmental Resource Management inc., 2017) Figure 54....................................................................................................................................................130 • Map of potential urban development areas (Environmental Resource Management inc., 2017)

Figure 55....................................................................................................................................................137 • LISP 2 project (www.LISP.org, 2018) Figure 56....................................................................................................................................................140 • strategy to combine policy studies, test cases and implementation programs to densify the compact city (ISTT, 2019) Figure 57.....................................................................................................................................................160 • schematic overview of interrelationship between policy studies, test case, and implementation program regarding urban farmstead Figure 58....................................................................................................................................................167 • synoptic overview of the policy studies related to housing and land use, and how they interrelate with test cases and implementation programmes (ISTT, 2019) Figure 59.................................................................................................................................................... 171 • indication of rapid shift away from public transport to increase of car use (Source: Verkeerscirculatieplan Binnenstad, Prosur, May 2012) Figure 60.................................................................................................................................................... 172 • Cars clogging of the streets in Paramaribo Figure 61.................................................................................................................................................... 174 • 2015 Emissions by GPC sector for Paramaribo. The sectors that are primarily addressed by the Action Plan are indicated in red (source: GHG baseline study, 2017, modified by ISTT) Figure 62.................................................................................................................................................... 174 • Efficiency of BRT and other public transport. (Source Taotao Deng & John D. Nelson, 2011) Figure 63.................................................................................................................................................... 175 • identified mitigations under an intelligent growth scenario, as identified by IDB GHG Baseline stud.

The sectors that are primarily addressed by the Action Plan are indicated in red (graph ISTT, based upon GHG study, 2017, pp.31-32) Figure 64.................................................................................................................................................... 177 • Hybrid and trunk and feeder UPT systems, (ITDP) Figure 65.................................................................................................................................................... 179 • Scheme of the BRT backbone Figure 66....................................................................................................................................................180 • trajectory of the BRT line Figure 67....................................................................................................................................................181 • arterial antennas (yellow) branching off the east-west passaage Figure 68 ...................................................................................................................................................182 • separated crossing, tunnel/Viaduct at crossing Willem Campagnestraat-Vanhogerhuysstraat, for the bus coming from the Kankantriestraat

Figure 69....................................................................................................................................................183 • North-South backbone within the perspective of a city wide BRT network Figure 70....................................................................................................................................................185 • Overview of planning Figure 71.....................................................................................................................................................191 • “Tentboot” at Waterfront Paramaribo, litho by Jacob Eduard van Heemskerck, 1860-1862 Figure 72....................................................................................................................................................191 • Private “korjalen” Paramaribo-Meerzorg, 2019 (ISTT) Figure 73....................................................................................................................................................192 • Traffic on the Wijdenboschbridge (foto Starnieuws 22 December 2018) Figure 74.....................................................................................................................................................192 • Newspaper item regarding reinstatement of the ferry (website De Ware Tijd 1 October 2018) Figure 75....................................................................................................................................................193 • Landing stages Paramaribo side Figure 76.....................................................................................................................................................193 • left: Platte brug Paramaribo; middle: Former car-ferry Paramaribo; right: Waterfront Paramaribo Figure 77....................................................................................................................................................194 • Landing stages Meerzorg side Figure 78 ...................................................................................................................................................194 • left: Wooden jetty at Meerzorg, middle: Entry to the ferry at Meerzorg; right: Former entry to the carferry at Meerzorg Figure 79....................................................................................................................................................195 • Unconsolidated and consolidated line structure (Dodson) Figure 80....................................................................................................................................................196 • left: Plan of Paramaribo, litho by Elias Spanier, 1853, with the former business center in blue; right: Detailed map of Paramaribo, 1916 – 1917, with the focus on the city center Figure 81 ...................................................................................................................................................199 • Sketch of the locations for the pedestrians-ferry and the car ferry Figure 82 ...................................................................................................................................................200 • Sketch of set up at Paramaribo side Figure 83....................................................................................................................................................200 • Sketch of set up at Meerzorg side Figure 84....................................................................................................................................................201 • Reference for Dubai (section) (design by Sybvanbreda &Co, 2016)

Figure 85....................................................................................................................................................201 • Electric Ferry (pictures from the websites https://plugboats.com/this-solar-ferry-in-india-runs-on-260-a-day/ and http://navaltboats.com/navalt-first-solar-ferry-introduction/ (visited 3 May 2019) Figure 86....................................................................................................................................................201 • Former green environment of the landing place (Vailliantsplein, 1920) Figure 87....................................................................................................................................................208 • left: Topographic map of Paramaribo, 1916-1917; right: The plantation Beekhuizen on the map by Bouwmeester, 1907 (archive Dikland) Figure 88....................................................................................................................................................209 • Saramaccadoorsteek on the map of Duif and Schalken Figure 89....................................................................................................................................................209 • Street map of the project area. (www.openstreetmap.org, ) Figure 90.................................................................................................................................................... 210 • The four parts of the project area, cut through by the Martin Luther Kingweg Figure 91 ................................................................................................................................................... 210 • left: Closed Industrieweg at Saronbridge; right: Ramgoelamweg Figure 92....................................................................................................................................................212 • Drainage scheme Latour (from Masterplan Ontwatering Groot Paramaribo, 2000) Figure 93....................................................................................................................................................212 • Transformation of public space (Ruimtelijke Ontwikkelingsstrategie Woningbouw for Greater Paramaribo, city of Amsterdam, 2011) Figure 94....................................................................................................................................................213 • left: Internal connections related to center; right: City Plaza in former vision with bus-station Figure 95 ...................................................................................................................................................215 • Most important interventios summarized. Bike lanes drawn in red Figure 96 ................................................................................................................................................... 217 • Installing infiltration crates (www.indra-infra.com) Figure 97 ....................................................................................................................................................222 • Housing stock in Latour (source: Laporte, 2019) Figure 98 ...................................................................................................................................................224 • conceptual visualisation of the renovation options within Latour (source: Heirman, 2019) Figure 99 ...................................................................................................................................................229 • pictures of the monastery and boarding school, Henk Arronstreet (Dirk Laporte, 2019)

Figure 100 .................................................................................................................................................229 • conceptual presentation of the new renting model (source: Heirman, 2019) Figure 101 .................................................................................................................................................234 • design impressions of qualitative and flexible Javanese group Housing (Peeters and Voorspoels 2017) Figure 102..................................................................................................................................................235 • design impressions of qualitative and flexible Javanese group Housing (Peeters and Voorspoels 2017) Figure 103..................................................................................................................................................235 • design impressions of qualitative and flexible Javanese group Housing (Peeters and Voorspoels 2017) Figure 104.................................................................................................................................................. 241 • conceptual urban farmstead allotment and plot – axonometry of a productive entity (De Feyter, 2017) Figure 105.................................................................................................................................................. 241 • conceptual urban farmstead allotment and plot – axonometry of a one-house productive unit (De Feyter, 2017) Figure 106.................................................................................................................................................. 247 • Proposal for a bicycle street in Clevia (De Feyter 2019) Figure 107.................................................................................................................................................. 247 • Network of bicycle trails: two north-south arteries and several east-west connections (ISTT, 2019) Figure 108..................................................................................................................................................252 • Proposal for a car-free Sunday at the Tourtonne market Figure 109..................................................................................................................................................253 • Tourtonne market in Paramaribo-Noord Figure 110..................................................................................................................................................253 • Reference for a temporary transformation of the Josephine Samson Greenstaat in a collective car-free terrace for all the warungs on a Saturday evening (reference: Rua Mamede Simões, Recife, Brazil)

INTRODUCTION: FROM BASELINE STUDIES TO PRINCIPLES FOR AN ACTION PLAN

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1. AN ACTION PLAN FOR PARAMARIBO 1.1 PROBLEM STATEMENT Paramaribo is the capital of Suriname. This most dense populated part of the country is flat and low, and, due to climate change, considerably vulnerable to both coastal and inland flooding. Paramaribo is the only substantial city of the country. More than half of the country’s population lives in Paramaribo. Hence, the city is the economic, social and cultural centre of the country. It also houses all the important public services such as education and health facilities. However, the fast transformations that the city and its surroundings have undergone call for resolute interventions, in order to redirect future evolution of the city into sound and sustainable growth and development.

The combination of raising sea level with increased intensity of rainfall affects the delicate balance of water management that is at the origin of the development of the country. The former plantations indeed relied upon a well-thought system of active water management. However, as sea level raises, also the level of the river raises. As a result, the time slots during which inland water systems can drain into the river gradually become shorter. In combination with an aged sewage system, this situation requires the development of a global vision of integral water management at all scales, from the household to the region, including the implementation of new and innovative solutions.

The centrality of Paramaribo within the country, combined with the deterioration of the countryside, has resulted in a moving pattern of rural-urban drift. This process goes on since many decades, and causes pressure on the land, entailing fast and fragmented developments in the rural areas around Paramaribo.

The urban sprawl not only causes environmental fragmentation and loss of pastures and agricultural land. It also results in an outlying urban infrastructure network that is larger and thus more expensive than a compact network. Such outlying urban infrastructure network causes long, inefficient and costly utilities and public services. In addition, daily commuting trips are too long to walk or bike and public

Introduction: from Baseline Studies to principles for an Action Plan

transportation is difficult to organize. Subsequently, a fragmented city is a car-oriented city that creates large traffic congestion which results in a waste of time and energy, a reduction of quality of life, an increased emission of greenhouse gasses and huge economic losses.

The objective of this action plan is to alter this urbanisation process and to divert the necessary transformations into a transition process that results in a more sustainable growth path, thereby taking into account the high urgency related to climate change - particularly concerning flooding (both inland and coastal) – as well as the high urgency to address land use and mobility.

1.2 AN ACTION PLAN AS PART OF THE EMERGING AND SUSTAINABLILTY CITIES PROGRAMME (ESC) The action plan is framed within the Emerging and Sustainable Cities Program (ESC) of the Housing and Urban Development Division of the IDB. This programme is a non-reimbursable technical assistance program, providing direct support to national and subnational governments in the development and execution of city action plans.

ESC employs a multidisciplinary approach to identify, organize and prioritize urban interventions to tackle the main roadblocks that prevent the sustainable growth of emerging cities in Latin America and the Caribbean.1 This Action Plan is the final step of a first stage that consists of rapid diagnostic tool to identify the sustainability challenges of a city. Afterwards, topics (i.e. water, air quality, transparency, etc.) are prioritized through the use multiple filters – environmental, economic, public opinion and sector specialist expertise – to identify issues that pose the greatest challenges in a city’s pathway towards sustainability.

Finally, an action plan is formulated, containing prioritized interventions and a set of strategies for their execution across the short-, mediumand long-term. The second stage then consists of the execution phase begins with the preparation of pre-investment studies for prioritized interventions and the implementation of a citizen monitoring system.2 1 program

https://www.iadb.org/en/urban-development-and-housing/emerging-and-sustainable-cities-

2

Ibid.

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The results of these studies have been discussed with governmental partners, societal partners, stakeholders and involved actors, through two consultation rounds (respectively in January and March 2019).

The first consultation round aimed at discussing the results of the baseline studies, and their provisional translation into a first set of potential actions. The second consultation round aimed at validating the proposed short list of actions and approaches, in order to finalise a first draft of the Action Plan. The time in between the two consultation rounds was used to conduct additional explorative fieldwork. As the Action Plan adopts a design-driven, actor-oriented approach it addresses governmental partners as well as involved stakeholders, and societal partners, differentiated by action.

1.3 AN INTEGRAL APPROACH, TRANSVERSALLY ADDRESSING SEVERAL PRIORITIES Urban and rural development can only be successful and efficient if it takes into account the interrelations between its drivers. Interventions that focus on water management may impact agriculture and land use, which in its turn may impact traffic, economies, waste production and energy. This calls for an integral approach, and transversal evaluation of actions, across the different priorities that sustainable development may contain. To give an example: when a street needs to be broken up and rebuilt because the sewage system needs to be renewed, it is better to have concepts about what other issues can be addresses in this new street, such as additional solutions for water management (e.g. infiltration, retention and evapotranspiration by new green structures), but it may also be a unique occasion to think of new street profiles, including separate bicycle lanes, small playgrounds, and spaces that might stimulate local economies.

1.4 NOT ONLY PROJECTS, BUT ALSO PROCESSES The actions to turn urban processes into sustainable transformations are diverse. Some actions need to be conceived, directed and implemented by the government, for others public-private-partnerships will me more appropriate, while still others will only be successful when supported and implemented at the level of stakeholders and local actors. Therefore, this action plan not only consists of governmental projects, but, next to this, also includes proposals for implementing processes.

Introduction: from Baseline Studies to principles for an Action Plan

Some projects, as well as some processes however, needs further technical study before they can be successfully implemented.

Therefore, this action plan also identifies a set of technical studies in order to conceive well-informed projects and processes.

And finally, the action plan acknowledges that interventions for sustainable development should not be conceived from the desk top only, but are more likely to be successfully implemented when they are conceived based upon knowledge and insights about “what lives among people�, upon knowledge and insights about what is accepted and acceptable for people, and in response to how people respond to certain interventions. The action plan therefor includes actor-oriented, design-driven interventions and processes, following urban living labs methodology. Interventions of place-making and actical urbanism have the trifold goal (i) to better inform the technical studies, (ii) to develop alternative implementation strategies at governmental level, as well as at neigborhood level, and (iii) to support a new and more sustainable way of thinking (new mentalities, new mind-sets).

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Figure 1 Areal picture of the project area of PMNA, its sub-urban and peri-urban area (Urban Growth Study, p.30)

Introduction: from Baseline Studies to principles for an Action Plan

2. AN ACTION PLAN UNDERPINNED BY BASELINE STUDIES The action plan is based upon a set of baseline studies, commissioned

by IDB in the period 2016-2018. Baseline studies are part of the first stage of the IDB ESC methodology, as described above.

For this Action Plan, the following Baseline Studies were available: a water and sanitation study (March 2017), a solid waste study (March 2017), an urban growth study (September 2017), and a greenhouse gas study (November 2017). These studies were submitted to evaluation

by IDB, leading to a Prioritization Filter Report (November 2017), and completed by three additional reports, namely of a hazard and risk study (December 2017), of a mobility study (August 2018), and an urban design lab (May 2018).

The IDB baseline studies deal with the so-called metropolitan area of Paramaribo. Within this metropolitan area three zones are discerned1: 1.

The city of Paramaribo, Meerzorg and Nieuw Amsterdam, (PMNA) which contain the urbanized areas of the district of Paramaribo and the coastal areas of the resort Meerzorg, Nieuw Amsterdam and Margaretha in the district of Commewijne.

2.

The suburban setting of Paramaribo, configured mainly by the territory of the district Wanica, which is undergoing a process of accelerated and fragmented urbanization.

3.

The peri – urban setting and involves mainly the districts of Oost and Noord Para, Kampong Baroe, Jarikaba, Wayambo Weg in Saramacca and Lelydorp Together, the study area involves five districts: Paramaribo, Wanica, Para, Commewijne and Saramacca.

1

See Urban Growth Study p.30

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Figure 2 Schematized map, showing the concentric nature of the metropolitan area of Paramaribo as two perimeters around an historic centre, based upon UGS (ISTT)

Figure 3 The typical Y-shape of the action plan area (ISTT)

Introduction: from Baseline Studies to principles for an Action Plan

The growth scheme of the city follows the main roads in Paramaribo.

The two most important roads connections are: the Oost –West verbinding connecting Guyana to French Guyana and the Indira Ghandiweg connecting the city with the South of the country such as Lelydorp, Johan Adolf Pengel airport, Paranam all the way to the Afobakaweg. Due to the dominance of these two road connections for urban spatial development, the concentric territory of the metropolitan area is overlayed by a functional city that has a Y-shape.

The sprawling nature of the city causes many challenges that have effect on several areas and sectors within the city. The baseline studies first detect, then quantify and ultimately prioritize the challenges. For the prioritisation, the ESC methodology rely upon a set of prioritization filters, namely a Public Opinion Survey filter, an Economic Filter, an Environmental Filter, and a Multi-Sectoral Filter (see Figure 4).

The Filter & Prioritzation report concludes that for Paramaribo the top five issues are: • • • • •

Mobility/transport Land Use Planning and Zoning Energy Vulnerability to Natural Disasters Education

Among these five topics strong interrelationships exist. Mobility is strongly related to land use and zoning, energy is related to electricity consumption in housing and transportation use. Even vulnerability to natural disasters is related to land use and zoning. Finally, education is highly transversal, as it deals with changing mind-sets towards more sustainable ways of living; it has to do with a shifting mind set regarding the use of cars as the only way of transportation, regarding solid waste production, regarding changing mentalities about land use, etcetera.

These strong interrelationships and transversal connections were taken into account during discussions with stakeholders and governmental partners. It was acknowledged that, relating to the topic of energy, interventions at the level of industry and primary energy production go beyond the scope of the Action Plan. Education was considered as a crucial future-oriented aspect to include transversally, in all interventions. Finally, it was acknowledged that for the metropolitan

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Introduction: from Baseline Studies to principles for an Action Plan

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area of Paramaribo, vulnerability to natural disasters mainly relate to flooding, as a result of climate change.

These considerations has led to the conclusion that, in order to identify feasible actions the scope of the Action Plan could focus on three problem fields: (i) water management, (ii) mobility and (iii) land use and zoning.

Next sections describe systematically how, for each focus, the findings and recommendations of the IDB baseline studies have been translated into operational action fields for the Action Plan. Section 2 explains how the baseline studies have informed interventions from the perspective of water management, section 3 does the same from the perspective of mobility, and section 4 from the perspective of land use and zoning. Section 5 then elaborates on how these three perspectives transversally respond to other priorities. Finally, section 6 explains the general strategy of the Action Plan.

Figure 4 (left page) Consolidated prioritization of potential fields for the action plan (IDB Filters & Prioritization Report, p.12)

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Figure 5 Map showing the area affected by coastal hazards, for a 10-year return period (IDB Hazard & Risk Study, p.94)

Introduction: from Baseline Studies to principles for an Action Plan

3. FIRST FOCUS: WATER MANAGEMENT: TOWARDS AN INTEGRAL BLUE-GREEN NETWORK 3.1 IDB BASELINE STUDIES Water management is a critical factor for the well-functioning of the city.

This critical position and precarious situation of water management in Paramaribo makes the improvement of the water management situation in and around Paramaribo a fundamental precondition for the sustainable future of Paramaribo. Without a good sanitation and drinking water system the city will drown from inland and coastal flooding and the inhabitants will be deprived of a clean and reliable system for potable water.

The sanitation system of Paramaribo dates from the plantation era of the country and is not designed to drain the waste water from all of the residential development on former agricultural plantations in the fringes of the city. This results in a system that has insufficient capacity for the drainage of all urban waste water. In addition, is the infrastructure maintenance facing issues in structural character of maintenance activities. Hence, the sanitation of Paramaribo is outdated and has had too little maintenance causing for inland flooding. To improve the effectiveness of the sanitation system, the idea is to create rather autonomous sanitation zones.

Besides the inland flooding, is the disappearance of mangroves and the effects of climate change on the city causing more and more coastal flooding. More and more flooding are presence in the city. The protection of the city for the effects of sea level, requires either the development of a dike or the rehabilitation of the mangroves.

3.2 ELEMENTS FOR THE ACTION PLAN The Action Plan selects integrated projects that contribute to integral water management for the compact city, and the suburban area of PMNA, with water as a spatial guiding principle. Actions will take into account water supply, sanitations systems, small-scale wastewater treatment, measures related to coastal and inland flooding.

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Figure 6 Schematic overview of the natural zoning, and disconnections around the City centre area (ISTT)

Introduction: from Baseline Studies to principles for an Action Plan

The metropolitan area of Paramaribo is a highly artificial landscape, developed through consequent campaigns of land exploitation, either for habitation (historic city) or for plantation. This has resulted in a problematic amalgamation of more or less separate entities - that were conceived to function on their own - with additional entities, resulting from city expansions, that overload the original entities. This observation closely connects the problems of inland flooding with considerations of land use and zoning.

The existence of these entities, and the concept of the metropolitan area as an amalgamation – or patchwork – of water-based entitites, is a given that should be taken into consideration as a key to a solution. The Action Plan acknowledges the following entities (see Figure 6): • North: Leonsberg, Clevia, Geyersvlijt. This entity is still a rather autonomous area. It does not suffer from later expansions, as the city center does (see next point). The main problem rather is situated in its low altitude (related to sea level).

• City Center. The main problem is age of the sewer system, and under-dimensioning, due to additional connections from the western expansions (see next point).

• West. This area is problematic as it overloads the existing sewer system of the center • Southeast (area between Suriname river and Martin Luther King way and former bauxite mines). This area contains land that could serve as an opportunity for regulating Suriname’s river fluctuations (see UGS, p.130).

• South. This area is important as it is allows drainage towards the Saramacca canal.

• North West. This area is to be considered as an extended ecological areas (see UGS). However, the growing urbanisation as a pressing issue due to the high risk for flooding (hazard and risk study - Urban Growth study) • South East. This area is to be kept as a sound ecological structure. There is a threat of increasing urbanisation in allotments – an evolution that should strictly be avoided.

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Figure 7 Presence of water infrastructure as constituent of the urban tissue of Paramaribo, at the same time connecting and separating the old city neighborhood from its later expansions: Sommeldijkse kreek, 2019 (ISTT)

Introduction: from Baseline Studies to principles for an Action Plan

In line with the recommendations of the IDB baseline studies, the Action Plan conceives interventions that follow the next set of principles: • Disconnection of urban quarters into manageable zones (incl. implementation of DMAs) • Optimizing, restoring and reactivating existing structures (e.g. rehabilitation of former city and plantation canals) • Coastal flooding: proposal of a mixed plan (so-called grey-green solution, see further) and measurements to be taken for allowable land use • Inland flooding: controlled land use, including decentralized use of the trias principle: reuse, infiltration, retention (cf. Lansink’s Ladder).

• The baseline studies also point to problems and urgent actions that go beyond the scope of this Action Plan, namely: • Ageing of infrastructure, both in supply and sewer. However, several campaigns have been undertaken by the government recently, or in a stage of being executed. A recommendation hereby is to take into account the huge opportunity to not restrict the works to renewal of tubes, but at the same time address other priorities, such as greening of the environment (to increase evapo-transpiration, disentanglement of traffic flows (bus/cars/bicycles/pedestrians).

• Need for water treatment plants. However, the Action Plan does provide actions to develop decentralized water treatment, such as the use of septic tanks. It is important to point to the recommendation of the IDB baseline study on sanitation and water management to revise the standard design of septic tanks (see sanitation study, p.48).

The Action Plan proposes the area of Paramaribo North as a pilot to conceive a sustainable development into a so-called Blue-Green Network. It is a contemporary approach to conceive a flexible masterplan, from a perspective that integrates water-management, mobility, land use and zoning, taking account socio-economic actors and factors. (see chapter “A Flexible Masterplan for a Blue-Green Network for Paramaribo-Noord”)

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Figure 8 Table showing the coherence between baseline studies and Action Plan

Introduction: from Baseline Studies to principles for an Action Plan

4. SECOND FOCUS: MOBILITY AND TRANSPORT: TOWARDS A MULTI-MODAL NETWORK 4.1 IDB BASELINE STUDIES The IDB baseline study on mobility and transport provides a preliminary assessment of the urban mobility situation in Paramaribo (about 250,000 population) addressing the city’s critical challenges in the sector. It suggests the creation of an Action Plan for sustainable urban mobility and lifestyles in the city in the short, medium and long term including planning and prioritisation of main challenges, opportunities for improvement, and the identification of particular areas for interventions.

The IDB baseline study characterises the actual situation as follows: • private transport is increasing and is used by more than 60% of the population • very few people use bicycles • ample bus routes, passing through main and larger secondary roads (no mapping of bus routes), not very reliable during off-peak hours, long walking distances from stops to origin or destination, used by less than 20% of the population • no mass public transport system, railway between Waterkant and the South (Onverwacht) disappeared • no separate lanes for buses or emergencies • in general no major congestions or long traffic jams • poor drainage conditions during rainy seasons • high traffic numbers considered poor road conditions

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The baseline study concludes with recommendations at four levels: 1.

Road (re)construction measures to improve the flow of private transport , the parking capacity, the drainage of the roads and the flow of public transport, bicycles and pedestrians.

2.

Traffic measures focus on restructuring of flows. For the restructuring of the public transport the study suggests to improve the quality and reliability of the bus system by regulation of departure and arrival times; fixed bus stops with shelters; proper sanitary in main bus terminals; increased safety in bus terminals.

3.

Institutional, legislation and regulations measures concern changes in the juridical framework that can enhance traffic flows.

4.

Organizational measures deal with the enforcement of measures to improve the flows and the parking.

Introduction: from Baseline Studies to principles for an Action Plan

4.2 ELEMENTS FOR THE ACTION PLAN The four sets of measurements suggested by the baseline studies relate to measurements about existing flows and how to accommodate them (first set of measurements); measurements in order to change the existing flows to more desirable flows (second set of measurements) and institutional and organisational measurements that either relate to existing flows, or are to be examined in relation to the implementation of new flows.

In the Action Plan, these four measures are translated into an overall design that can be explained following three – distinct, but interrelated - principles.

• Developing a framework that accommodates different flows (a hybrid framework thus), and that is not organized radially towards one centre, but following a grid connecting several nodes into a network (see 3.2.1.)

• Such mobility scheme then allows the city to develop in a polycentric way (interconnected polycentricity (see 3.2.2.)

• Such approach however requires particular attention for the interaction and potential conflicts between the different flows, that have to be cautiously designed, fully aware of mutual relationships (see 3.2.3.)

4.2.1. A HYBRID FRAMEWORK OF INTELLIGENT CONNECTIONS The project team of this action plan considers the improvement of the public transport and the bicycle infrastructure as the first concern in order to decrease greenhouse gasses, increase safety on the roads and diminish congestion.

Frequent high quality tram-buses in separated bus lanes should serve all the main traffic arteries of Paramaribo (north-south, east-west). In addition a tangential ringbus system should connect the different main lines. Building on the the IDB-study on mobility in Paramaribo two models are explored.

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Figure 9 Two conceptual models for conceiving a hierarchical interconnected network

Figure 10 Main accesses to the city center

Introduction: from Baseline Studies to principles for an Action Plan

The first model relocates the bus terminals of regional lines from the city centre to the outside, and introduces a shuttle-bus-system with high frequency that connects the terminals with the city centre.

In the second model state owned buses can continue their routes on the main arteries through the city centre. The micro network is then served by the privately operated micro buses. The macro and micro network cut each other in public transport nodes. Busier nodes are equipped with small urban terminals for the micro buses and taxis.

It is noted that the MoPWT&C has installed a special committee in 2016/2017 to restructure the public transport. However, existing public and private bus holders fear loss of income and are not confident that sufficient facilities will be provided by the Government (mainly due to lack of space and finance). Hence the implementation of a new public transport will need a lot of dialogue with the bus companies.

4.2.2. INTERCONNECTED POLYCENTRICITY The new public transport system will connect active cores in the compact city and in the sub-ruban area (e.g., Geyersvlijt, restaurant neighbourhoods of Blauwgrond, Latour, ADEK university environment, Lelydorp, but also Meerzorg and Nieuw Amsterdam). Doing so, the new public transport network and bicycle network will define the selective and controlled development of a polycentric city region, that is in line with the densification strategies of the UGS. Companies can be seduced to relocate towards a selection of new centres within the PMNA, e.g.

Geyersvlijt or Lelydorp, instead of providing more car parks.

4.2.3. MULTIMODAL FLOWS Roads in Paramaribo often lack safety when other flows are taken into account than cars only. Most streets are in need of being redesigned to better and safer accommodate pedestrians, bicycles and public transport as well as private cars. This can be reached by using the principle of separate lanes, which requires sufficient width, but also through the principle of disentanglement (“ontvlechten”) of different flows in different streets, and by reviewing hierarchy in street users (e.g. concept of “fietsstraat”).

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Figure 11 Map indicating multiple centers

Introduction: from Baseline Studies to principles for an Action Plan

Due to a lack of financial budgets and traffic planning this reconstruction works can only get implemented on the long term.

A transitional measure for safer and more attractive bicycle traffic could consist of the introduction of a network of ‘bicycle streets’ on calm secondary residential roads, parallel to the main car and public transport arteries. The grid shaped street pattern of the former plantation areas are well-suited to implement such network with minimal investments.

Indeed, although it might be acknowledged that this transition relies mainly relies upon a mental shift, it is crucial to undertake concrete initiatives for implementing and promoting the use of the bicycle. The meetings with diverse stakeholders and actors showed that safety is the most crucial concern. Indeed, road design and behaviour of car drivers is not really bicycle friendly.

During the discussions in the meetings several attendees remembered to have used the bicycle to go to school when there were young themselves. It became also clear that many people still do possess a bicycle, albeit stored somewhere in there house or around. But at least, everybody knows how to ride a bicycle. So, next to the promotion of bicycle as a new habit, for several parts of the population, it will be perceived as re-implementation, rather than as something completely new.

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Figure 12 Overview of distribution in land use for four growth scenarios (UGS, p.148)

Introduction: from Baseline Studies to principles for an Action Plan

5. THIRD FOCUS - LAND USE AND ZONING: SHAPING THE COMPACT CITY 5.1 IBT BASELINE STUDIES The urban growth study mapped the current urbanisation trend and also projected future situations by working out different types of growth scenarios. UGC included a baseline study, a business as usual growth scheme, a linear development scheme and a desired growth scheme. For each of the scenarios the uptake of land was projected per functional use in maps and were quantified in graphs. Underneath the graphs show that there is a tremendous sense of urgency to tackle urban sprawl within Paramaribo.

In order to tackle urban sprawl development and create a more sustainable urban growth process, the UGS distilled two principles: densification and programming of the fringes: • For the compact city the UGS prescribes a densification of PMNA, and adopts a prospective approach, looking at the future demand, and suggest to look for areas suited for housing projects that will provide capacity on that longer term (by 2056). • Within the suburban perimeter the UGS stresses the need for strict control of the ecological and cultural platforms in the North-West and South Easth area, and suggests to look for combinations of controlled small and midsize economies, such as residential farmstead

5.2 ELEMENTS FOR THE ACTION PLAN The UGS adopted a prospective approach looking at the longer term (2056). The consultations and prior-research however have demonstrated that there is also immediate urge as well as potential.

Therefore, the Action Plan will focus, not primarily on future demands, but on urgent needs and capacities. It looks at housing capacity on empty plots, strategies for urban renewal, prevention of urban-flight, and looks for strategies to support housing policy for densification of city centres (see 5.2.1.)

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Within the suburban perimeter, the UGS suggests small and midsize economies such as residential farmstead. However, models and typologies of such mixed economies are missing. The Action Plan, in its turn, will thus focus on developing ideas, models and typologies that will allow further development of these economies. It will take into account poverty, and pay attention to emerging small initiatives such as the kwattamarkt or the Ssunday farmers market in Marienburg. (see 5.2.2.)

5.2.1. DENSIFICATION OF PMNA Within the baseline studies, housing is framed a priority, as the projections of the UGS suggest a housing need of 134.206 new houses by 2056. This number was calculated upon the data from the household study of 2012 from ABS and is a combination of housing shortage, houses with quality issues, houses that need to be replaced due to natural hazards and demographic projections. Looking at the capacity of both the public and private sector, this number is beyond the construction sectors capacity. In addition is the availability of land suited to develop for residential purposes scarce. The UGC suggests that these houses need to be built on raw or open land. The potentials of urban renewal for the houses with quality issues and the housing situations where several families live in one house or on the same lot are not taken into consideration within the UGC. The project team of this action plan thinks that it is an opportunity to tackle a third of the projected housing need by renovating the existing neglected residential housing stock. Subsequently, housing renewal and urban renewal will be a priority approach within the pressing issue of housing deprivation focussing on tackling urgent housing needs.

The densification of PMNA can thus occur through a dual strategy that is based upon small-scale opportunities to develop empty lots combined with the renewal of existing houses. This dual strategy is a serious endeavour as it success depends on the action of many individual home-owners and land-owners. Hence, it creates opportunities that a wider range of possible stakeholders is addressed which makes it more likely to convince a small group of pioneer developers and housing re-modellers that can set an example and convince more sceptical stakeholders. Subsequently, the introduction of this new focus within housing policy would benefit from the use of

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pilot projects. Previous housing programmes, policy plans, projects and academic research show the opportunities of setting such a pilot. In order to make both strategies strengthen each other and create the opportunity to link the housing strategies to other urban redevelopment initiatives, an area based pilot seem most interesting. The IDB Urban Lab study is an example. It shows the result of an intensive participatory planning and design process , focussed on the redevelopment of empty plots, combined with the detection of additional urban redevelopment opportunities such as the remodelling of public spaces.

As the PURP project and the Urban Lab study focus on the city centre of Paramaribo, the search areas within this study are located in Latour and Frimangron in the south. These areas are characterised by a pressing dynamism in new population and activities causing transition.

They combine several renewal issues: flooding, overpopulation in houses, neglect of houses, informal constructions, traffic congestion etc. They could be good locations to install Park and Ride bus terminals of a new public transport system. Moreover the residents of these neighbourhoods are socio-economically less advantaged urging the renewal projects to also take care of projects that can stimulate social mobility and community building.

Figure 13 Map demonstrates potentials of punctual interventions in the city centre area (source: Paramaribo Urban Lab Final Report, p.67)

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5.2.2. PROGRAMMING THE PERIMETER In the urban perimeter rural land is transformed into residential ribbons at a high development pace.

The objective is to stop the urbanisation process in zones that offer natural protection against flooding from the sea, good agricultural land, and in areas with high biodiversity or with capacities for strengthening of natural networks. In these zones no hard infrastructure and dense urban development should be permitted. However the typical small to medium residential farmstead land use should still be possible.

This is regarded as a cultural asset of Suriname that can provide for subsistence for poor families. According to the researchers of the Urban Growth Study (2017), this type of housing on cheap land on driving distance from Paramaribo retains poor rural families to develop largescale slums in the city. However, they also indicate that this type of housing could also lead to unwanted dense development, given the population growth in, for example, Wanica. Therefore future urban farmstead development should be diverted towards locations that are suitable for development, become more compact and adapted to climate change issues. For instance they could be framed by a natural or historical water drainage and retention system. Ideally the agricultural production and the sale should be upgraded in cooperative and community based organisations.

In order to detect areas in which such urban farmsteads can develop, the urban fringes within the urban perimeter should be assessed based upon local needs. The urban fringes of Paramaribo show a great variation and four different zones can be distinguished: • Northern fringes: combination of valuable wetlands and mangroves that are combined with agricultural activities and are both threatened by urban development. This development can lead to the destruction of wetlands and mangroves, the diminishing of agricultural opportunities and creates an urban environment that is very vulnerable to effects of climate change and natural disasters. The reprogramming in this part of the fringes requires the protection of wetlands, restoration of mangroves and to halt residential developments. As planning enforcement is weak in Suriname controlling the northern fringes will require political support and agencying of involved stakeholders. As this northern

Introduction: from Baseline Studies to principles for an Action Plan

fringes is dominated by the watermanagement preconditions, the reprogramming will be further elaborated in following parts of the action plan. In the northern fringe potentialities for investigation and proto-typing on housing, in terms of residential densification and (urban) farmstead development, are situated within the neighbourhood of Clevia and around the Cultuurtuin (north-west).

• The Eastern fringes are located within Commewijne and contain both former plantations, active agriculture and valuable ecosystems, it also includes the uprise of a new urban centrality due to all recent residential and commercial developments in Meerzorg and on allotments along main roads. E.g. With its thriving farmers market and its tourism related attractions (stafdorp and original drainage and kampong structure) the neighbourhood Mariënburg could be a good location for a pilot project on renovation of the existing housing stock and residential and (urban) farmstead development.

• Southern fringes: include sandy soils with ideal characteristics to develop. Also due to the former link to the bauxite refinery, infrastructure, public and private services are available both in Lelydorp and Paranam. In addition, there are many open lands but more linear or leapfrog developments are not desireable.

Reprogramming the Southern fringes includes exploring the development opportunities around these polycentrical centres and looking for opportunities to implement a pilot of urban renewal grant.

• Western fringes: these western fringes the developments occur along main roads as linear developments and within the agricultural tissue in a dispersed manner. As there is no specific centrality within this area it is less desirable to make large development within this area.

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6. TRANSVERSAL PRIORITIES During the discussions of the meetings more insights were gathered regarding the transversal priorities:

6.1 ENERGY The energy sector is mostly focussing on securing 24h energy supply in the interior and improving the current infrastructure network. In addition they try to secure the supply of energy. For energy Suriname is mostly relying on the hydropower plant at Blommerstein lake and fossil fuel. As the lake energy from the lake is insufficient, all additional electricity has to come from fossil fuel generators. The energy law makes accommodates the setup of private and household production of renewable energy, but the projects on producing additional renewable energy are limited. The Tapajai project to increase the capacity of the hydropower plant and some initiatives to set up solar power plants.

On household level the initiatives are rare and although the government made it possible to use renewable energy power installations such as solar power cells, they are not actively promoting it. There are no public incentives to increase renewable power installations on household level. In addition, the electricity prices are rising but are still under the level that the reimbursement of costs of renewable energy installations can be regained within the lifetime of the installation. Hence, the usage of renewable energy systems for households relies only on the ecological motives of the families using them and have no financial advantages.

Furthermore are nor the government nor other organisation working on energy efficiency and low impact development on household level. Also initiatives for electric transportation means are limited. The amount of electric cars is marginal. This makes energy a difficult priority to push within society. More awareness within the politics, public offices and society is necessary.

The Action Plan has the capacity to affect transversally energy related priorities in different ways. • projects related to water management should be informed by the ongoing energy efficiency study (see SWS report p.18)

Introduction: from Baseline Studies to principles for an Action Plan

• projects related to transport and mobility focus on a decrease of cars in order to decrease energy consumption, look for alternative energy and/or hybrids for transport, particularly investigating the options of electrification of transport (cars/buses/shuttles/bicycles as well as electric ferry boats+ infrastructure) • projects related to land use and zoning offer several opportunities to include concerns related to energy: • reduction of urban sprawl impacts on infrastructure for transmission and distrbibution; • offer opportunities or launching residential energy efficiency plans; • operationalization and implementation of a subsidy structure for private market for energy efficiency, low impact development and renewable energy systems in both new buildings and urban renewal projects; • pilots about decentralization of production; • institutional strengthening.

6.2 EDUCATION In all priorities there is a need for education to raise awareness on the set priorities and the opportunities to tackle the faced challenges.

The educational system can be used as an important channel to raise such awareness. In addition politicians, public servants, companies and residents need to be educated on their level. This requires tailor made educational initiatives that are closely related to participation and public management.

The Action Plan addresses educational opportunities in each of the three perspectives: • projects related to water management offer opportunities for raising awareness about use of sewer; • projects related to transport and mobility offer opportunities for a transition towards public transport use, bicycle and walking, but also for raising awareness about waste production and GHG emission of cars

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• projects related to land use and zoning, and more particular regarding new programming of the perimeter allow for mental shifts towards agriculture and revalorization of small and medium farmstead, as well as promoting entrepreneurship of SME; • in projects related to land use and zoning, densification, offer opportunities for test cases for waste separation at source.

6.3 PARTICIPATION AND PUBLIC MANAGEMENT The methodology of the Action Plan is design-driven and actororiented. It is based upon participation and public management. Good governance principles of an open dialogue between the political level, public sector, private sector and civil society is crucial in both the general ESC approach but also in the ALDO and living lab approach, explained further in this Action Plan. Raising awareness and creating accountable stakeholders is a very important precondition to make this action plan succeed.

In addition public management in Suriname is facing many challenges regarding transparency and general efficiency. These challenges are of such great importance that they can hamper but also totally obstruct the development and implementation of policies. Especially on the level of land use and urban planning, transparency and sound policies are hampered due to the poor governance situation.

6.4 VULNERABILITY TO NATURAL DISASTERS Due to the location of Paramaribo, low, flat and close to the ocean and along the Suriname river, the city is extremely vulnerable to natural disasters and particularly for inland and coastal flooding.

Flooding from the coastal zones and the inland is a severe issue in the well-functioning of the city. The issues of inland flooding are manageable through interventions of integral water management (sewer systems, reuse, infiltration, retention etcetera. The issue of coastal flooding appears to be more complex. There are contradicting mitigation strategies being supported by the government. Both the rehabilitation of mangroves as the construction of a coastal dike are in the discussion. Until recently the rehabilitation of mangroves seemed the dominant way the protect the city against coastal flooding in the north of Paramaribo while a dike was chosen along the river

Introduction: from Baseline Studies to principles for an Action Plan

banks along the city centre. During the very period of consultations for the Action Plan, the construction of a sea dike in the north was announced in the press in order to protect the city from flooding. This is a contradictive strategy regarding the efforts made to rehabilitate the mangroves. The Action Plan contains a green-grey proposal that combines several concerns and solutions – again within an integral and cross-sectoral approach (see chapter “a flexible masterplan towards a Blue-Green Network for Paramaribo-North”).

6.5 SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT Several aspects of the Action Plan address concerns of solid waste management. To give some examples: • At a generic level: The projects of the action plan will allow for pilots for inventory and to inform new legal and regulatory frameworks (Waste Management Plan, SWS p.32-33) • projects related to water management may contains pilots for waste collection points in waterways (SWS p.14) • projects related to transport and mobility that aim at a decrease of cars result in a decrease of waste oil (SWS p.17) • projects related to land use planning and zoning planning, that aim at renewal of housing may offer pilots for bulky waste (furniture, refigerators,…) (SWS p.13), as well as pilots for asbestos removal and waste collection (SWS p.22), and pilots for management of construction and demolition waste (SWS p.18) • projects related to land use planning and zoning, that aim at construction of new projects offer pilots for waste separation at source (SWS p.10) as well as pilots formanagement of construction and demolition waste (SWS p.18)

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THE ACTION PLAN

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1. SELECTION OF POTENTIAL ACTIONS At the end of two sequential weeks of consultations, meetings and discussions with stakeholders in the period January-March 2019, a longlist of 20 actions have been identified, and evaluated through a set of criteria. In the initial proposal, the following indicators were listed for predicting the success rate of potential projects: • sufficient data available • accountable actors with the ambition to act • an institutional strategy that is the result of intensive cooperation and discussion with the actors • and a feasible budget or financial strategy After the initial workshop of the kick-off week, these indicators are expanded with an assessment of: • availability of partners at all levels (governmental partners, local actors, involved stakeholders, …) with the ambition to act • the issues and/or obstacles that are likely to be met • integrality of the projects; i.e. the capacity of a pilot project to face and resolve multiple priorities A final concern in identifying, conceiving and selecting potential actions relates to spatial coherence. Actions should be spatially connected, in order to enhance visibility, optimize synergetic effects increase likeliness of transversal as well as cross-sectoral impact.

It is predictable that for each of the proposed actions, difficulties will be met at a governmental level, either in terms of capacity, skills and knowledge, organisation, or regulation and legislation. Therefor a set of topics that will give way to governmental support and implementation studies were longlisted: • • • • • Figure 14 (previous page) An Action Plan, consisting of a coordinated set of studies, projects, processes and tactical interventions, running parallel, and informing each other (ISTT)

Housing deprivation Grants as governance Neighborhood contracts as governance strategy Cost-of-sprawl study Water management strategies study to become part of an integral BGN-development • Urban greening strategies study to become part of an integral BGNdevelopment • Mobility study

The Action Plan

Some of the proposed actions of the longlist related primarily to transport and mobility, and were connect potential centres of the polycentric PMNA. The following potential actions were longlisted: • Connecting the right bank: Ferry Leonsberg-New Amsterdam • Connecting the right bank: Ferry Old Jetty - Meerzorg • Disentanglement of cars and bicycles on a North-South axis inner city- Leonsberg • Disentanglement of cars and cibycles on the axis inner city - Latour Next to the projects that connect centres, and thus extend themselves over the city, actions have been identified that rather related to the delineation of a neighbourhood. It concerns particular interventions, tailored for the needs of the neighbourhood, conceived in a way to be exemplary for a bigger area. Therefore, two projects were longlisted for the compact urban area – one in the South, and one in the centre – and two projects for the sub-urban area – one in the North-West side, where the City Centre connects with ecological area, and one in the east, at the fringe of the sub-urban and peri-urban area. This gave way to the following list: • • • • • •

Latour (urban - South) Frimangron (incl. Drambrandersgracht) (urban - Centre) Inner city of Paramaribo (to be distinct from PURP-project) Clevia (sub-urban/fringe with natural structure of the North-West) Lelydorp (a case of polycentric development) Blauwgrond (connecting the restaurant neighborhood of the Josephine Samson Greenstraat with the inner city) • Mariënburg (border of sub-urban and peri-urban developments in the East) An overview of this long list of actions, as well as the evaluation against the above mentioned criteria is shown in the table below.

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Figure 15 Scheme showing the principle of spatial coherence across the different actions of the Action Plan Figure 16 (below) Overview of the longlist of 18 identified actions, and the evaluation against the above mentioned criteria.

The Action Plan

Evaluation of the longlisted potential actions has resulted in the identification of a shortlist of three technical studies, two projects, and a set of strategic actions. How these actions are interrelated and structured within the overall concept of the Action Plan, how they are transversally addressing other priorities, and how the overall methodology looks like is explained in next section, and descried in detail in separate chapters further in this Action Plan.

The shortlisted technical studies include: • a flexible masterplan towards a Blue-Green Network for Paramaribo-North • BRT urban backbone Latour – Paramaribo-North • Housing and land use policy and implementation study The shortlisted projects include: • Ferry Veerplein/Old Jetty • Latour neighbourhood project The set of strategic actions include: • Latour housing test case • Innercity densification and adaptive reuse test case • Integrated PPP actions in Clevia including housing densification on empty plots • Small and mid-size residential farmstead in Clevia test case • Bicycle promotion actions.

• Urban tactics car-free public domain -Tourtonne market – Warung neigborhood.

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2. STRUCTURE OF THE ACTION PLAN: THREE TYPES OF INTERRELATED ACTIONS The Action Plan distinguishes between three types of actions: Technical Studies, Projects, and Strategic Actions. Although each action has a particular goal, timeframe, and audience, the whole set of studies, projects and strategic actions are conceived to inform each other.

At several points there will be mutual interactions between actors, stakeholders and governmental partners that are involved in more than one action. Coordination of this overall process is a dedicated project in itself, and should be contracted as such.

2.1 TECHNICAL STUDIES Some of the major interventions that have been identified as being crucial and proficient for sustainable development need further refinement before they can be put into a tender. The Action Plan identifies the following studies as being crucial and proficient: • Development of flexible masterplan towards a Blue-Green Network for Paramaribo-North. This concerns an environmental study about PNMA North, including the dike and coastal protection, related to the idea of grey-green solutions (including mangroves and wetlands, and combining it with the idea of the dike, as elaborated in the concept of the blue-green network). It is an inclusive and cross-sectoral study that integrates interventions related to inland and coastal flooding, integral water management at household and neighborhood scale, urban greening, urban and residential farmstead and other economies, and disentanglement of traffic flows. This study connects closely with strategic actions such as the tactical urbanism interventions described later, methodologies of urban living labs, and implementation strategies of neighborhood contracts.

• BRT urban backbone Latour – Paramaribo-North. This study aims at the putting into tender an BRT line from Latour to the North of Paramaribo, and its connection to a Lelydorp-Latour bus line that is studied by the government for the moment. The study includes (i) conceptual design study of the backbone route (pre-feasibility study including stakeholder mapping, workshops, and exploration

The Action Plan

of types of busses), (ii) predesign study of the backbone rout (feasibility study, defining case and partners, cost-benefit study, investment/operational costs, juridical and constraints study) and (iii) detailed design study of the backbone route (including elaboration of business plan, investment and operation costs).

• Housing and land use policy and implementation study. This study related to the suggestions of the UGS concerning housing/ densification, land use and zoning. It includes a cost-of-sprawl study applied to the concrete, actual situation of the peri-urban area of Paramaribo, that will serve as a basis to infer grants for densification and renewal of existing fabric and/or for supporting the development of alternative land use typologies in the suband peri-urban neighborhood. This study is directly connected to strategic actions, such as a Latour housing test case, an innercity testcase, and an integrated PPP testcase in Clevia aiming at development of a new typology for residential and/or urban farmstead. These strategic actions thus, in their turn, inform the housing and land use policy and implementation study, rendering it empirical ground, thus increasing the likeliness of success.

2.2 PROJECTS Suriname has been buried by excessive amounts of studies that have never reached the stage of (succesful) implementation. Therefore, it is crucial that the Action Plan results in concrete projects, highly visible, with strong societal and political support, satisfying clear and direct needs and interests. Such projects are worth to be facilitated by substantial investments/loans/grants. Based upon the conclusions and recommendations of the the action plan proposes the following projects: • Ferry Veerplein/Old Jetty – to be translated into a tender that includes on the one hand (solar)boats, infrastructure, operational trainings, inclusion of existing boatsmen and services, and other hand urban development of the Old Jetty/waterkant/Heiligenweg/ Knuffelsgracht and of the Veerplein (Commewijne) • Latour neighbourhood project: reorganisation of the Latourweg including water management (infiltration/retention/sewers/pump stations) is considered as an occasion to start an inclusive process of neighbourhood development, based upon urban living labs methodologies and neighbourhood contracts. Particular attention

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is paid to alternative traffic flows towards services (schools…) in the area Ramgoelamweg/Menkendam, but also to housing renewal projects (thus informing the housing and land use policy and implementation study)

2.3 STRATEGIC ACTIONS During all the talks and discussions we had, it was more than clear that for several ideas and proposals there is a lack of social basis and/ or public support. In order to increase the likeliness of moving towards processes of sustainable development a gradual shift of mind-set is needed. This requires additional actions, of a different kind than the previous projects at infrastructural scale. Therefore, the Action Plan includes a set of Strategic Actions, considered as pilots.

These strategic actions can be looked upon as pilots, since they aim to be exemplary for other similar projects within the city, and allow for further upscaling. Hence, the selected pilots are not only strategic within the redevelopment of a particular neighbourhood, but also will serve as referential projects within the city to inspire similar projects to be developed in the other parts of the cities. The pilots will be used to convince the stakeholders to shift from a business as usual urban development tendency towards the sustainable scenario of the Urban Growth Study. As such these actions mainly address the f The selected pilots are not only the most strategic actions or the actions the most exemplary, they are above all the most feasible projects.

One of the main preconditions of the pilots is their high feasibility to succeed. Hence, these projects have been evaluated on feasibility indicators and likeliness of success. The Action Plan identifies the following interventions to have a high strategic capacity: • Latour housing test case • Innercity densification and adaptive reuse testcase • Integrated PPP actions in Clevia including housing densification on empty plots • Clevia small and mid-size farmstead testcase • Bicycle promotion actions. This concern a number of small interventions on strategic trajectories e.g. between the house and the school • Urban tactics car-free public domain Tourtonne market – Warung neighborhood:. This action aims at considering modal use of urban space over a week regime

The Action Plan

3. OVERALL METHODOLOGY OF THE ACTION PLAN History has proven that in Suriname there is no lack of good ideas and elaborated (master)plans. However, too often they don’t reach the stage of implementation. Reasons why in the past these ideas and plans have not been realised are many. A lack of available funding, shifting priorities, involved actors and stakeholders show opposition due to (a feeling of) not being heard, local knowledge was insufficiently incorporated in the plans, sudden and unforeseen issues on the field or cause difficulties, etcetera. Success of initiatives for sustainable development not only depend on the content of the proposed actions, but equally on the methodology how they have been conceived, how they intend to be implemented, and the processes of creating societal and stakeholder support.

3.1 A TRIFOLD DESIGN-DRIVEN ACTOR-ORIENTED APPROACH The Action Plan relies upon a threefold methodology: Plan4CuRe (Platform for Activating Networks for Cultural Resilience); Urban Living Labs, and ALDO. Plan4CuRe is a design-driven and actor-oriented methodology, that has been developed through a funded VLIR-UOS South Initiative project, in cooperation with ADEK university, tailored for the specific context of Suriname. The methodology is based upon a process of identification of existing hopeful and promising initiatives that are already up and running, often initiated by a charismatic person or an engaged and committed group or organization. The Platform then looks at these initiatives as signs of “what lives among people” and how these initiatives respond to their actual way of living (“cultural resilience”). Consequently it aims to connect such small-scale initiatives with each other, as well as with other actors, such as NGO’s, specific stakeholders, and partners in civil society, but also governmental partners, in order to upscale these initiatives.

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Figure 17 Schematic presentation of the Plan4CuRe approach (ISTT)

Figure 18 Schematic overview of the Urban Living Lab Methodology (based upon co-evolution approach of L.Boelens e.a.)

Figure 19 Schematic overview of the process of round tables in the co-evolution Urban Living Lab methodology (Goethals, 2018)

The Action Plan

The Urban Living Lab (ULL) approach is an action-research based process of an iterative set of round tables, with pre-identified actors, leading to a co-evolution process of co-creation towards a desired future scenario. The Action Plan follows a co-evolutionary ULL methodology developed by Luuk Boelens, Michiel Dehaene, Marleen Goethals, Annette Kuhk and Jan Schreurs (Boelens 2009, Boelens et al. 2016), that consists of four planners’ navigation techniques: tracing, mapping, diagramming and agencying. These activities must not necessarily be performed in this order. Sometimes several activities can take place at the same time.

• Tracing is about tracking of qualities, problems, causes, chances and stakeholders (owners of problems and solutions) in a region.

Tracing encompasses also bilateral talks with actors and searching referential projects.

• The Mapping activity comprises designerly depicting of spatial chances and solutions and the investigation of the financial, juridical an organizational feasibility of the solutions in a businesscase. The chances should be open enough to be adaptable to new actors, and precise enough to genuinely make a resilient match. A second step is to find complementary actions that upgrade small local actions in systemic innovation.

• Diagramming is about building up solid actor networks using an iterative set of round tables and adjusting business-cases to the suggestions of involved stakeholders. During this process businesscases become more concrete and achievable. By jointly looking for mutual matches of interest and possible added values the actor network becomes rea and stronger.

• Agencying is developing procedures and agencies that can facilitate similar co-evolution processes in other settings. This activity is not a part of the Action Plan

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Figure 20 Schematic overview of the ALDO approach (ISTT)

The Action Plan

ALDO stands for Awareness/Legislation/Design/Organisation. It is a design attitude that one the one hand cherishes design (D) as a futureoriented practice that is able to conceive solutions – alternatives for cases in which the available approaches do not satisfy – and on the other hand the conviction that these designs doesn’t make sense if they are not emerging from actually available potentials, situated in a particular value system, of which both the designer and the involved actors should be aware (A). On the other hand, future scenarios either are submitted to an existing legal system, or give way to amend existing legislation (L). Likewise, future scenarios, if they are to be implemented, need management and organizational structure – either existing organizational structure or newly conceived organizational structures (O). ALDO claims that these four aspects should simultaneously be explored and evaluated when conceiving (urban) projects.

In order to develop policy development studies that are carried out by accountable stakeholders that have ownership of the produced technical studies the methodology of the action plan, using Urban Living Labs and the ALDO approach will be worked out. This smaller technical studies will result in guidelines and handles for all consultants that will work on either generic or focus studies. Though the application of the same methodology through all studies, the development of a stronger and more cooperative stakeholder network for urban development and land use planning will be created. Such policy environment is a precondition to implement institutional changes such as passing laws, approving policy studies and construct pilot projects.

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3.2 TACTICAL URBANISM As indicated earlier, the action plan comprises three types of projects: policy studies, focus studies, and governmental support. These projects have been modelled relying (i) upon data and recommendations of the baseline studies, (ii) the urban living lab methodology as described earlier in this document, (iii) and relevant material of diverse studies that have been undertaken earlier. History has proven that in Suriname there is no lack of good ideas and elaborated (master)plans. However, they don’t reach the stage of implementation. Reasons why in the past these ideas and plans have not been realised are many. A lack of available funding, shifting priorities, involved actors and stakeholders show opposition due to (a feeling of) not being heard, local knowledge was insufficiently incorporated in the plans, sudden and unforeseen issues on the field or cause difficulties, etcetera.

Tactical Urbanism is a way to increase the likeliness for successful implementation, particularly by its capacity • to create common epistemological ground among governmental partners, local actors, involved stakeholders and planners; • for creating commitment at all levels • to explicitly aim for changing the minds (at all levels) based on a common experience • for breaking prevalent prejudices by demonstrating what could be, and by giving evidence of “what really works” • for trying out potential alternatives for prevailing solutions (that didn’t work in the past) • for exploring difficulties that are to overcome when upscaling the tactical intervention to a bigger project In the Action Plan, tactical urbanism will be used in order to • Gather information that could not be gained in another way, • Equally inform all involved parties (governmental partners, local actors, involved stakeholders and planners • Create commitment of all these parties • Refine and/or expand actor-identification related to a particular intervention • Explore the effects and impact of a particular intervention, in order to better anticipate the upscaling to a bigger level

The Action Plan

The Tactical Urbanism Interventions are situated in one of the areas of the focus studies. In this way, mutual learning and created commitment is more effective as it will inform not only the tactical urbanism intervention but also the conceived pilot project within a concerned focus study.

3.3 NEIGHBOURHOOD CONTRACTS AS A NEGOTIATED COMMON FRAMEWORK FOR REACHING THE GOALS AND MONITORING THE PROCESS Within neighbourhoods the chances of a successful outcome become higher when stakeholders are officially bound to a contract which specifies the developed actions, the accountable stakeholders and the implementation strategy. Open-ended participation of projects leads towards temporary engagements but also are likely to result in nice projects to put on the shelves but lack of real action. Through the gradual development of an accountable stakeholders network that feels responsible for the project implementation of the developed pilot projects the stage is set to formalize the pilot project into neighbourhood contracts. Such contract can be used as a framework to ensure the implementation of the proposed pilots.

For the development of such a stakeholder network within a pilot, not only civil society organisations will be used but also the local public administration level of the resort boards will be used to develop a network that is a healthy mix between public, private and civil society stakeholders.

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A FLEXIBLE MASTERPLAN FOR A BLUE-GREEN NETWORK FOR PARAMARIBONOORD

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Figure 21 Concept for a blue-green network in Paramaribo-Noord (ISTT)

A Flexible Masterplan for a Blue-Green Network for Paramaribo-Noord

1. INTRODUCTION DESCRIPTION Topic of this technical study is the on-desk designing of a blue-green network in Paramaribo-Noord. In this network water management, an urban greening strategy and sustainable transport are combined in order to develop a resilient Green-Blue network, that will restructure this part of the city.

Blue-Green Networks are increasingly considered as valid strategies for sustainable development, particularly when taking into account effects of climate change. As BGNs combine hydrological functions with urban nature, landscaping and urban planning, they have considerable capacities to protect against floods and other impacts of climate change (Ramboll, 2018). New plantings of trees lead to shading and evapotranspiration, and thus impact hydrology of an area. Moreover, the microclimate that is induced by BGNs may improve air quality and public health (Klemm et al., 2017).

Recent research has argued that the combination of blue and green infrastructures impacts a variety of functions regarding social, ecological and design aspects which contribute to make cities more resilient to climate change (Fryd et al., 2011).

The proposals for a blue-green network for the specific environment of Paramaribo North, are based on insights from the IDB Baseline Studies (see bibliography), added with insights from consultations and fieldwork during the elaboration of the Action Plan.

This technical study is needed to develop the concept of such a network into a spatial, technical, economic and juridical feasible urban development project. Many insights from the baseline studies can be used to set up the outline of the study and to develop basic insights in the preconditions of a blue green network.

METHOD During the technical study of the blue-green network the on desk designing of the general network will be combined with participatory design work in urban living labs for specific pilot projects. These

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Figure 22 Coastal Flooding Hazard Map for a 100-year Return Period with 2050 SLR and Business-As-Usual Scenario (IDB hazard risk baseline study, December 2017)

Figure 23 Vulnerable areas of flooding and households affected (source: Masterplan ontwatering Groot Paramaribo, MPW 2016)

A Flexible Masterplan for a Blue-Green Network for Paramaribo-Noord

participatory designs will be supported by tactical urbanism projects (subject of another study), described as separate so-called strategic actions of the Action Plan. It is important to run these strategic interventions concurrent with the elaboration of this study. Hence, more insights, awareness and local support for the network will be developed during the technical study phase.

Next to the baseline studies, this project definition is also based on the insights of an urban living lab, that was performed in Clevia (Paramaribo-Noord). Aimed at is the continuation and expansion of urban living labs for a series of pilot projects in the other neighbourhoods of Paramaribo-Noord.

Rationales behind the use of urban Living Lab methodologies are discussed earlier in this document.

Rationale: Why a Blue-Green Network? Integrated water management as key issue and Paramaribo-Noord as a pilot Due to its geographic situation Paramaribo is very vulnerable for coastal flooding resulting from the rise of the sea level, caused by the warming of our climat. The intensification of the rainfall, another result of climat change, is also causing more and more inland flooding. The constant expansion of the city is worsening the situation. The rise of the roof surface, paved open space and households is overcharging the existing drainage and sewerage systems, some of them are dating from the plantation era of the country.

In addition urban sprawl is threatening the continued existence of valuable mangroves and natural coastal flooding zones leading to a growth of neighbourhoods with flooding risk and a constant loss of natural buffer areas between the city and the sea and the river.

The protection of the city against coastal flooding is under discussion.

The government is tending towards hard and technical solutions such as concrete dikes or steel dam walls. Scientists1 and nature organisations adhere to natural solutions such as the rehabilitation of the mangrove belt around Paramaribo and a strict protection against further urbanisation of natural areas along the seaside and the river.

Notable is that solutions for inland flooding don’t make part of these discussions. Yet inland and coastal flooding are interconnected, e.g.

1 Suriname

Among others Dr. Sieuwnath Naipal from the Anton de Kom University of Paramaribo; WWF; CI

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Figure 24 Integraal Waterbeleid - Water Cycle (Nolf, 2013) Figure 25 (Below) Demarcation of ParamariboNoord and names of streets and neighbourhoods

A Flexible Masterplan for a Blue-Green Network for Paramaribo-Noord

when high tide inhibits outflow of drainage canals in the river. Hence it is imperative to search for integrated solutions for both inland and coastal flooding, using the three steps strategy of integral water management: maintaining, storing and increasing of floodable space.

An interconnected series of actions for maintaining rainwater (collection, reuse, infiltration), storing rainwater and slowing the outflow in the natural rivers (using retention, infiltration and evapotranspiration (plantation of trees)) and increasing the space of natural rivers (creation of more floodable areas) can form the basis of a blue-green network. In his turn this network can frame and connect solutions for other challenges in the city of Paramaribo such as sanitation of sewage; production of potable water; stimulation of bicycle use; transit and bicycle oriented development; natural climat control; urban agriculture and increase biodiversity. As the implementation of these projects will also need engagement of citizens and neighbourhood associations community building will be stimulated. Moreover the development of more and more qualitative public space in the blue-green network will attract Paramaribo’s inhabitants to walk, take a rest, play and meet each other.

Given the degree of complexity of the topic and the ambition to engage citizens in the conception and implementation of blue-green projects and to upgrade already existing citizens’ initiatives it seems appropriate to explore the potential of a blue-green network for a part of Paramaribo. The choice was made for Paramaribo-North (for demarcation see fig. 25). In this part of the city the flooding risks from both the coast and inland is most imminent. Yet the pilot for the BRT will be the North-South backbone of the city. As this backbone is also going through Paramaribo-Noord (axis of Wilhelminastraat, former border between Ma Retraite and the east-west oriented plantations) it will also play a strategic role in the blue-green network. Moreover as Paramaribo-Noord disposes of diverse types of drainage and sewerage the results of the pilot will also deliver concepts for solutions for other boroughs.

In the following chapters a series of preliminary concepts will be brought to the fore. A report of the urban living lab that was initiated in Clevia is included as annex.

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Figure 26 Planting of new mangroves in Suriname

A Flexible Masterplan for a Blue-Green Network for Paramaribo-Noord

2. GREY-BLUE SOLUTION FOR COASTAL FLOODING Based on earlier plans and studies for the protection against coastal flooding and for the delineation of the urbanisation in ParamariboNoord a clay dike is introduced in the North, parallel to the coast between the coast and the northern borough. It will function both as a border for coastal flooding and as a border for further housing development in the northern fragile open area. As protection for coastal flooding it could be combined with the mangrove protection of Dr. Sieuwnath Naipal, where it can stop the water that during very high tide could roll on the mangrove. The area in front of the dike will become floodable, thus dwellings already located in this area will have to ensure their own protection against coastal flooding.

Stable ribbons of shells in the clay soil could function as foundation for the dike and at the same time define its exact location. Further to the west and along the Suriname river a concrete dike or dam wall will protect the city.

The clay dike but also the dam wall can function as a recreational bicycle route and hiking trail.

The precise location of the dike and dam walls, the engineering and hydraulic engineering aspects, the integration in the landscape, their topography, the visual relation between the land behind the dike and the sea/river etc. will be subject of design research in this study.

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Figure 27 Section of the new northern dike of Paramaribo

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Figure 28 Clay dike on ‘schelpenrits’ + concrete or damm wall along the river

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Figure 29 Public water management network: open canals and retention basins for surface water in front of the dike, land side

A Flexible Masterplan for a Blue-Green Network for Paramaribo-Noord

3. SOLUTIONS FOR INLAND FLOODING AND SEWAGE PURIFICATION The causes of inland flooding in Paramaribo-Noord are divers and different for each type of sewage system. During the plantation era Paramaribo-Noord consisted of 9 east-west-oriented plantations, perpendicular on the Suriname river and two north-south-oriented plantations (Ma Retraite and Tourtonne). The border between the two plantation clusters is the north-south dike/axis of the WilhelminastraatMr.R.W. Thurkowstraat. Each plantation was surrounded with a dike and canals, that ensured the drainage of each plantation in the river separately. Only Tourtonne and Ma Retraite didn’t drain directly in the river. They drained in the wetlands north of these plantations, and in two canals of the east-west-oriented plantations (today the canals of the Copernicusstraat and the Plutostraat). In the plantations smaller canals, perpendicular on the principal canals, were draining into the ring canal. Originally this system was also in use as an irrigation system.

The plantation structure is still visible in the morphology and nomenclature of the residential development that took over the agriculture. However only in the most northern neighbourhoods, Clevia and Leonsberg, the complete old drainage system of the former plantations is still in use. This old drainage system is very versatile as it can also store rainwater during periods of high tide, during which discharge in the Suriname river is not possible. Flooding is mainly happening here because of the reduction of the flow section of the canals. Bad maintenance of the canals is giving rise to growth of plants, accumulation of dirt and calving of the canal banks. But also lack of awareness amongst the residents and weak control of regulations concerning the drainage system are contributing to the increase of the flooding risk. E.g. residents are filling the canals to increase their properties and to find parking places for their cars. Next the water quality in the canals is very bad. Paramaribo doesn’t dispose of a separate sewerage, nor of purification installations. Septic tanks are used, but not everywhere.

In the southern neighbourhoods, Geijersvlijt, Twee kinderen, Mon Plaisir etc., and in the western neighbourhoods, Tourtonne and Ma Retraite, only (parts of) the principal canals of the former drainage plantation system have remained. The smaller perpendicular affluents have been replaced by sewerage pipes. Recent residential developments around Tourtonne have blocked the drain to the northern wetlands. The result

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Figure 30 Old plantation structure of Paramaribo-Noord and Commewijne

A Flexible Masterplan for a Blue-Green Network for Paramaribo-Noord

is that the drainage of the whole Tourtonne neighbourhood is shifted on to the canals of the Copernicusstraat and the Plutostraat. During heavy rain high water level in the canals is inhibiting the drainage of the sewer pipes of the side streets, causing flooding in these streets. But also the capacity of the, often neglected, sewerage pipes is too small.

Reopening canals should be considered here.

The background of floodings in the neighbourhood of Morgenstond is completely different to the previous cases. Here houses were erected on lowlands that can only drain by means of pumps.

Each of these particular flooding situations needs particular solutions.

They can only get solved if government and civic stakeholders work together to break ground in the development of an integral water management. A combination with sewerage purification system is recommended. Integral water management starts with storage (durotanks, retention ponds, waterpleinen etc.) and reuse of rainwater and the increase of infiltration by unsealing (ontharding) gardens, parkings and streets by private households, companies and amenities.

Stimulating residents and companies to work together to find solutions in the short term will give the government breathing room for the phasing of expensive works such as the building of the dikes, the reopening of filled canals, replacement of sewer pipes, broadening of canals, purification ponds and installations and construction of retention ponds.

That’s why this technical study should combine the design of the general and public network of dikes, canals, retention ponds and purification systems with urban living labs for specific flooding situations that involve residents affected by flooding, governmental actors and researchers and designers of the technical study team.

Together they can conceive qualitative, context sensitive, sustainable, juridical and economically feasible solutions and find resources and organisation structures for implementation and maintenance. E.g. the participatory design process during the living lab in Clevia caused a mind shift with the director of the local school. Instead of raising the level of the playground that is regularly flooded, he/she became interested in an excavated playground that is functioning as a retention pond and a water playground during heavy rainfall. And at the same time this can educate the children in sustainable water management (see Waterpleinen of the Urbanisten (NL)).

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Figure 31 Workers houses on the plantation of Geyersvlijt, 1915

Figure 32 Water retention in Bakkie, 2016

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The public water management projects together with the private initiatives should form a framework for the greening of the city, the development of sustainable transport systems and bicycle streets, Transit and Bicycle oriented development, urban agriculture and the increase of attractive public spaces. Inspiration for the green-bleu network is to be sought of in the beautiful plantations district of Commewijne.

Images are references from Commewijne and from abroad.

Figure 33 Proposal for private sewerage purification in MariĂŤnburg (septic tank and helophyte field)

Figure 34 Proposal for a floodable playground in Rotterdam (De Urbanisten)

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Figure 35 Living around a retention pond in Germany

Figure 36 Section of a floodable walkway next to a soft river bank

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Figure 37 Helophyte ponds in public space in Amsterdam

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Figure 38 BRT on the axis of the Wilhelminastraat and local shuttle buses in the neighbourhoods of ParamariboNoord (ISTT, 2019)

A Flexible Masterplan for a Blue-Green Network for Paramaribo-Noord

4. BRT AND BICYCLE STREETS The public water management framework in Paramaribo will structure the sustainable transport system. The north-south Bus Rapid Transit backbone (see p.169) will follow the axis of the Wilhelminastraat (former border between Ma Retraite and the east-west oriented plantations) with stops each 300 meters. From each stop a circular shuttlebus is serving the different neighbourhoods in the west and the east of the BRT. Moreover, the BGN will provide occasions to develop a network of bicycle trails (dedicated lane on a road) and bicycle streets (mixed system, bikers can take priority on the cars).

As test case, the Action Plan provides particular locations for implementing pilots for such bicycle trails, namely, two north-south arteries - one through the western neighbourhoods and one through the eastern neighbourhoods - and several east-west connections (see Figure 38).

The realization of these lanes is provided as “strategic action” in the Action Plan. The implementation of these lanes runs concurrently with the elaboration of the desk-study, so that both actions can mutually inform each other.

The bicycle streets are located on calm secondary residential roads, along canals and parallel to the main car arteries. In a bicycle street it is forbidden for cars to overtake bikers (ref. Belgian Bicycle streets - “fietsstraten”). Bikers can take priority on the cars and are allowed to drive next to each other. Bicycle streets are to be combined with one-way traffic for cars. Street cuts, bicycle bridges over canals and one-way streets for cars will prevent cut-through traffic that circumvent congestion on the main arteries. The unroll of the bicycle-street network should start with the access of the schools. During the living lab in Clevia a few proposals for bicycle streets were discussed with inhabitants.

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Figure 39 Network of bicycle trails: two north-south arteries and several east-west connections (ISTT, 2019)

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Figure 40 BRT, bicycle network and waterbus (ISTT, 2019)

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Figure 41 Proposal for a bicycle street in Clevia (De Feyter 2019)

A Flexible Masterplan for a Blue-Green Network for Paramaribo-Noord

Although cycling can reduce traffic jams and greenhouse gas pollution, Surinamers generally don’t use the bicycle for home-work-school transport because the roads are unsafe and the climate is too hot.

Hence recreational bicycle use is becoming more popular. Safer bicycle streets and electric bikes might stimulate bicycle use, but participatory design with inhabitants, schools, companies, during urban living labs in the neighbourhoods will be needed to instigate a real mind shift.

To further energize the urban living labs, a series of tactical urbanism interventions will be executed parallel to this technical study. These interventions are described under the section “strategica actions”, further in this Action Plan.

Potential locations for these interventions are e.g. the streetmarket on Sundays along the Tourtonnestraat and the warung cluster around the Josephine Samson Greenstaat. The idea is to stimulate biking during recreational activities: a try-out of a car-free Tourtonnemarkt and a temporary transformation of the Josephine Samson Greenstaat in a collective car-free terrace for all the warungs on a Saturday evening.

The strategic action to promote bicycle use also include car-free Sundays.

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Figure 42 Concept for a blue-green network in Paramaribo-Noord

A Flexible Masterplan for a Blue-Green Network for Paramaribo-Noord

5. GREENING The network of canals, retention, purification ponds, BRT backbone and bicycle streets will function as a framework for a greening strategy.

Trees in the streets, neighbourhood parks, urban agriculture can create natural corridors that connect natural reserves around the city. Besides of the increase of biodiversity they can play important roles in the water management as they slow down the flow caused by heavy rainfall and evaporate water. As they also take care for cooling and natural air conditioning they will function as attractive public meeting places and bicycle corridors.

The northern fringes are a combination of valuable wetlands, mangroves and agricultural activities. They are all threatened by urban development. This development can lead to the destruction of wetlands and mangroves and the diminishing of agricultural opportunities. It will also create an urban environment that is very vulnerable to effects of climate change and natural disasters. A complete concrete stop in the green areas on the northern urban fringe is very urgent. This natural area is very much needed for the temporary accommodation of the seawater during heavy storms. As planning enforcement is weak in Suriname controlling the northern fringes will require political support and agencying of involved stakeholders. The installation of the northern dike can raise awareness about the flooding danger of this area. The woods in the north but at the landside of the dike (Noordbos) should be protected too. It can become a big natural recreation area for Paramaribo that is accessible by means of high quality public transport and safe bicycle routes.

In the neighbourhoods Clevia and Morgenstond large plots of land lie unbuilt. They form a very interesting chance to develop urban agriculture, using the principle of the urban farmstead. Urban farmsteads are also regarded as a cultural asset of Suriname that can provide for subsistence for poor families. According to the researchers of the Urban Growth Study (2017), this type of housing on cheap land on driving distance from Paramaribo retains poor rural families to develop large-scale slums in the city.

Urban farmsteads usually develop in ribbons. The idea here is to develop more compact and adapted to climate change issues. For instance they could be framed by a natural or historical water drainage

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Figure 43 Model for an urban farmstead development, closely related to concepts of integral water management (retention, irrigation) (De Feyter 2016)

A Flexible Masterplan for a Blue-Green Network for Paramaribo-Noord

and retention system. Doing so the urban farmstead principle becomes a strategy to develop housing while maintaining the area green, open and permeable. Residents of Paramaribo can visit these farmsteads during a bicycle tour through Paramaribo-Noord in the weekend. On the farms they will be able to buy fruits, vegetables and meat, or to collect food themselves. Ideally the agricultural production and the sale should be upgraded in cooperative and community based organisations.

The introduction of the BRT in Paramaribo-Noord will need a new layout of the axis Wilhelminastraat-Mr.R.W. Thurkowstraat. On the wide section and the double canal system between the Plutostraat and the Commissaris Robblesweg a linear green landscape park with six rows of trees can come into existence. The section between the two canals will be dedicated to the BRT in two directions. Pedestrian bridges will connect busstops to the adjacent neighbourhoods.

Private transport will use the sections between the canals and the neighbourhoods for one-way traffic. Between the canal and the oneway streets a green walkable zone is provided, and between the buildings and the one way streets a wide bicycle lane and sidewalk.

The latter green zone could even expand to adjacent parking lots where a greening strategy can transform underused zones into small parks between the shops and restaurants and the linear Wilhelminapark.

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Figure 44 Linear green landscape park on the BRT artery in the Wilhelminastraat

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Figure 45 BRT becomes catalyst for greening the neighbourhood.

Private partners start greening parking

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Figure 46 Appropriation and greening of the canalside in the Jan Steenstraat

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Figure 47 Visualization of further appropriation and greening in the Jan Steenstraat

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Figure 48 Infiltration zones in narrow street

Figure 49 Infiltration zone and open sewer canal in Saint-Laurent du Maroni

A Flexible Masterplan for a Blue-Green Network for Paramaribo-Noord

For a greening strategy of the public space along the canals and the future bicycle streets inspiration could be sought in spontaneous appropriation actions by residents. E.g. in the Jan Steenstraat parts of the public space along the canals are already planted and maintained by adjacent residents and by a private kindergarten. Under condition of guaranteed permanent accessibility this appropriation could be stimulated by the government by offering free plants and tools.

Organizing private parking places should be forbidden. Although car ownership should reduce in the future it could be a good idea to organize clustered collective parking places in these green strips. In narrow bicycle streets smaller green infiltration ribbons can be thought of.

Given the performant public transport and the living quality of the park landscape, the BRT-backbone, and the north-south bicycle streets will become very suitable for more dense development of housing, amenities and working places (bicycle and transit oriented development).

Just like the projects of the water management and the mobility projects the greening strategy will only be implemented through a cooperation of citizens, land owners, companies and government.

Urban living labs with all the necessary stakeholders, from the start of the study, will thus be very much needed to find feasible, qualitative and widely held solutions for implementation.

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6. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE STUDY Scope Development of a flexible masterplan BGN for Paramaribo North, including: • • • •

Grey Blue solutions for coastal floodings Solutions for inland floodings and sewage purifaction Development of bicycle network, including bicycle streets Development of a local public transportation network that links to the citywide BRT • Development of greening strategies • Connecting to living lab activities that set preconditions and raise awareness for the flexible masterplan Relation to baseline studies The flexible masterplan builds upon the detected bottlenecks and opportunities from following baseline studies: • • • • •

Green House Gas report Hazard and Risk study Mobility Study Water and sanitation study Prioritization filter report

Organisation • External consultancy including: landscape architect, urban planner, hydrologic expert, social and physical geographer, transportation expert • The external consultancy cooperates with existing initiatives and local experts in the field of coastal protection, inland flooding, urban greening, public transportation and bicycle transportation • The masterplan receives imput and exchanges insights and experiences with

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Timing • total: 1 year • Selecting consultant (1M -2M): 2 months • Analysis and development of spatial potentials and concepts (3M – 6M): 4 months • Iterative design of flexible masterplan (M7 – M12): 6 months • Institutional feedback and triage of concepts and proposals of the masterplan (M6 – M11): 6 months Budget a flexible masterplan towards a Blue-Green Network for Paramaribo-North

73,81 M USD

study cost masterplan study costs construction works

Dike from Paramaribo North to Weg naar Zee green backbone parks and retention basins bicycle streets

Living Labs

Slow network interventions Green parking places (100 parkings) Urban Farmstead (25 households) Water Purifcation (450 households - Clevia)

construction costs

Dike from Paramaribo North to Weg naar Zee Green backbone Parks and retention basins Cycle network

0,200 2,000 0,850 0,600 0,510 0,100 0,050 1,500 2,000 44,000 5,000 14,000 3,000

3,960

3,650

66,000

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SMART indicators • Amount of surface in Paramaribo North with improved santiation conditions • Number of households protected for coastal flooding • Number of bicycle streets designed • Number of households with improved access to public transportation • Timing of the project was respected • Lessons learned that can inspire the flexible masterplan of other parts of the city

A Flexible Masterplan for a Blue-Green Network for Paramaribo-Noord

7. CONCLUSION The Action Plan includes a study for the development of a Blue-Green Network in Paramaribo (BGN). The BGN interconnects multiple issues and opportunities within the current sanitation system, the green network and the transportation network.

Paramaribo is affected by flooding which makes entire parts of the city inaccessible, hamper vibrant urban live and create unhealthy living environments. These flooding are caused by poor sanitation situation which cause inland flooding, but are also created by sea level rise and poor coastal protection which cause coastal flooding. Due to an increase of urban developments, the urban green decreases. This creates negative conditions for public spaces and air quality but also increase urban temperature. Furthermore, public transportation is poor and the conditions for bicycling are adverse. The development of a BGN provides a sustainable way of overcoming these difficulties.

The exploration of preconditions and the development of the first design concept relies upon spatial analysis and design exploration of Paramaribo North. In this section of the city, a grey-green solution for coastal flooding is proposed in combination of increased retention capacity and the greening of the urban sanitation system. Such environment is not only a way of protecting against climate change risks, but also enhances quality of life, as it leads to a healthier and more agreeable environment. Moreover, the Blue-Green network that gradually will emerge creates an attractive environment to develop a bicycle network - in first instance focussing on recreation and homeschool trajectories - and an improved local public transportation network that connects to a citywide BRT. Transforming Paramaribo North into a Blue-Green Network implies a process of transition, that will take some time, and that highly relies upon commitment and engagement of the local communities and stakeholders. Therefor it is crucial that concepts for transition of this area into a BGN respond to living desires, and acknowledged needs and urgencies. The likeliness of success will depend on the level of support by all partners, governmental, stakeholders, and local communities.

Therefore, the elaboration of the study will rely upon methods of Urban Living Labs, including stakeholder consultations and urban tactics. The process aims at co-designing interventions, that have effects that are immediate, visible, and effective.

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Figure 50 Scheme showing the components of the BGN flexibel masterplan, and the mutual interconnections between the elaboration of the study, strategic actions and implementation

A Flexible Masterplan for a Blue-Green Network for Paramaribo-Noord

Not only support, but also engagement and commitment of involved actors and local communites are required. Therefore, the outcome of the BGN-study is conceived as a flexible masterplan that will act as a basis for neighbourhood contracts, as joined commitment of governmental partners and local actors.

The development of the BGN in Paramaribo-North relies upon a combination of mutual interrelated policy studies, strategic actions, and implementation programs. Together they improve sanitation, urban green and mobility conditions of Paramaribo North and create insights for the development of a broader BGN over the entire city. The scheme below demonstrates how the different studies, strategic actions and implementations are interconnected.

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HOUSING AND LAND USE POLICY STUDIES AND IMPLEMENTATION PROGRAMMES

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1. INTRODUCTION To tackle housing deprivation challenges on the short term the Action Plan proposes a public incentive to encourage home-owners to renew their houses instead of leaving their property for a new house on a remote allotment. Especially the lower middle income and higher middle income households are the ones moving outside the city. Figures not only show a rural – urban drift but also indicate a suburbanisation process.

More and more households are moving towards the fringes as land is cheap and spacious plots can be purchased for prices that are way below prices within the city. Furthermore is the contracting market of Suriname rather oriented towards the construction of new houses than renewal. Most renewal activities are done by home-owners themselves.

Often they lack of technical and architectural knowledge to achieve qualitative and attractive renewal or expansion projects. So although there is a great renewal potential within the urban city of Paramaribo, only few initiatives focus on the urban renewal. There are two renewal initiatives that are both successful: LISP and building subsidies.

Unfortunately these initiatives were only accessible for a specific lower income group within society. Hence, an urban renewal project that supports middle income groups financially and technically to renew the houses of home-owners but also to support landlords to improve their rental estates.

A technical study is required to develop a urban renewal project within PMNA and the suburban perimeter. The study has two working levels: the city level and the neighbourhood level. On the broad level, the preconditions for an urban renewal grant has to be worked out on a technical, financial, institutional and practical level. On the neighbourhood level, the grant can be used to stimulate integrated neighbourhood redevelopment, using neighbourhood contracts.

The technical study concerning the housing issues in Paramaribo, links to the Baseline Study regarding "Land use planning, shaping the compact city". The Action Plan focuses on the densification of the compact city as well as on the reprogramming of the sub-urban perimeter.

Research has shown that housing, together with the retail and infrastructural developments, are drivers for urban sprawl in Paramaribo (Heirman, 2019). Where retailers mainly cause ribbon

Housing and land use policy studies and implementation programmes

development along the main roads, residential development creates a more diffuse intake of rural land for urban land use but also results in ribbon development along the entire road network. Paving the road infrastructure in and around Paramaribo supports both the residential and retail developments.

The goal of this technical study is to asses housing need in Paramaribo more precisely. It is also the ambition to dig deeper into the constrains of the housing market and to detect opportunities to improve the housing conditions within the city this study suggests to start by performing research and developing small scale and short term actions.

The combination of research and direct actions will produce useful insights to develop large scale housing policy and programs which are fit for Paramaribo. Such policy has to address housing needs without feeding the urban spread. The ambition is to elaborate strategies and actions that are supported by actors and ready for implementation.

Furthermore do all activities within this study contribute to the positive influencing of the cost / benefit analysis of suburban urban residential development in such a way that residential peri-urban development loses their position as the most attractive strategy to combat housing needs.

To elaborate following proposals the information from the baselines studies, mostly from the Urban Growth Study, is used but is also complemented with information from former studies, reports and policy documents. The unpublished manuscript of the PhD of Sigrid Heirman is used as a source for many of these documents and insights.

2. URBAN SPRAWL IN PARAMARIBO 2.1 CURRENT SITUATION The Urban Growth Study (Environmental Resource Management inc., 2017) shows that Paramaribo is heavily affected by urban sprawl. The map below shows the urbanisation status of Paramaribo in 2015. It shows that Paramaribo has outgrown its administrative borders and that the city is sprawling to the north, into the valuable but also very vulnerable coastal area. But is also growing to the east and west over the fertile agricultural lands of Commenwijne and Wanica and is also extending towards the south and is expanding on the sandy savannah area in Para.

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Figure 51 Land use map of Paramaribo in 2015 (Environmental Resource Management inc., 2017)

Housing and land use policy studies and implementation programmes

The urban sprawl in Paramaribo can be explained due to the urban primacy of the city. The colonial development pattern of many Caribbean states resulted in the development of many plantations and only one main city that was the hub between the plantation, the colonial ruling and the mother country. Hence, the capital of such colony was often the only urban centre of significance. In some cases, such as Jamaica, was this primacy breached during the 20th century due to touristic development along the coastline. Which resulted in the upraise of new urban centres. In Suriname, Paramaribo is the primate city of the country. Other secondary urban centres are Moengo, Nieuw Nickerie and Albina. None of these centres are vibrant, most of them are in decline due to the decline of the agricultural sector and the bauxite industry. This economic decline supports the urban migration from the rural villages and secondary centres to Paramaribo. This rural – urban migration increases the pressure on Paramaribo and supports urban sprawl developments (Heirman S. , 2019).

2.2 PLANNED AND UNPLANNED GROWTH OF PARAMARIBO, HISTORICAL GROWTH OF PARAMARIBO AND THE DECLINE OF URBAN PLANNING Based upon many sources Heirman reconstructed in her phd the urban growth of Paramaribo from its foundation until present times (Heirman, 2019). This reconstruction links spatial expansion to the amount and type of planning control. Paramaribo was founded in the 17th century and grew as a colonial capital in a very planned manner. Dikland (2004) even detects parallels with the setup of Paramaribo and the urban planning principles of Simon Stevin. For many decades Paramaribo grew in a planned manner. Up until the mid-20th century the colonial ruler used expansions to develop Paramaribo. In the decades before and right after decolonisation, strong planning departments in the Ministry of Public Works worked together with the National Planning Agency negotiated their vision and guidelines a clear with other public and private residential developers. Hence, Paramaribo grew in a collaborative way. These residential expansions occurred on former plantations around the city. Due to the acceleration of urbanisation new legislation was worked out. The urban planning act (GB 1972 no.

96) prescribes structure plans, land use plans, allotment and building permits to control the urban growth. Unfortunately, this law was never fully implemented. Only allotment and building permits were installed.

Not only were the new laws not fully implemented, also the general

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planning capacity declined in the 80s of last century. Due to the military ruling, the planning capacity declined as many public administrators left or were asked to leave their positions within the planning departments.

Corruption in the form of patronage and clientilism entered public administration. Resulting in politically placed, and unqualified, public administrators and the upraise of corruption within permits and public land allocation. Hence, from the early 90s up until the planning capacity was low and the corruption was high. Several attempts have been made to strengthen the capacity, to develop planning instruments and to eradicate corruption. Up until now planning capacity has never been fully restored and corruption has not been eradicated from public administration (Heirman, 2019).

This political, urban planning and public administration context creates the ideal conditions of unbound spatial expansions of Paramaribo. The historical growth map shows this decline of planning and the spurt of urban sprawl.

Figure 52 Table and map: Urbanisation process of Paramaribo from foundation until 2012 (Heirman en Namdar 2012)

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2.3 RESIDENTIAL DEVELOPMENTS AS THE DOMINANT DRIVER OF URBAN SPRAWL AND ITS EFFECTS Urban sprawl can occur due to the unbound growth of several types of land use such as tourism, industry, retail and housing. Whereas tourism is a driver for urban sprawl in Jamaica and industry is a driver in China, these two land use types do not contribute to urban sprawl in Suriname. Only retail and housing development contribute to the urban sprawl in Paramaribo. Residential developments mostly pave the path for commercial developments. Hence, residential developments are the main driver of urban sprawl in Paramaribo. This development is supported by infrastructural developments, mostly pavement of road infrastructure (Heirman S. , 2019).

Urban sprawl has many effects on the functioning of Paramaribo as well on its surroundings. Within the city, urban sprawl creates a highly car dependent urban society. This results in a very high production of greenhouse gasses. In Suriname, transportation is the main producer of greenhouse gasses (Environmental Resource Management inc.

2017, b).

Furthermore does urban sprawl in the north of Paramaribo contributes to the increased vulnerability to natural disasters and coastal flooding.

Also doe it leads to an overuse of all utilities. The sewage system experiences great pressure and is not well maintained due to the extent of the network, which results in inland flooding. The overuse of

Figure 53 Green House Gas Emmissions

by GPC sectors of Paramaribo in 2015 (Environmental Resource Management inc. 2017, b)

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electricity leads to power black outs and the overuse of potable water, leads to water pressure drops.

If urban sprawl in Paramaribo could be halted and even reversed it would have a positive impact on three of the prioritisation areas of the baseline studies: • Mobility/transport • Energy • Vulnerability to natural disatsers As urban sprawl is driven by residential developments, strategies to halt unbound residential greenfield developments in the sub-urban area of Paramaribo is required. This is a complicated endeavour as land use planning and zoning strategies are absent in Paramaribo. In order to halt these residential greenfield developments, it is essential to understand why the citizens, public housing authorities and private developers chose the sub-urban and peri-urban area of Paramaribo as the main location for their residential developments. Hence, an analysis of the housing market in Paramaribo is required. Starting with housing shortages and deprivation moving on to the shortcomings of the housing market that create these shortages and deprivation.

3. HOUSING SHORTAGES AND DEPRIVATION Moving to the fringes of Paramaribo, building new houses on remote location all originates from current shortcomings in the housing market which makes new development necessary to satisfy the current a housing desires. Housing deprivation and housing shortages are important drivers of the housing desire in Paramaribo. Of course there are more motives such as a desire for more luxurious living or countryside living. But in Suriname it appears that the deficit in the housing market results in a housing shortage and housing deprivation that is addressed by building new houses on the fringes of Paramaribo.

Here we discuss the extend of housing need and shortage.

Housing shortage occurs when there are more families than houses.

It can be calculated if the amount of households is substracted from the amount of houses in a city. Not having a house can result in homeless situations or situations where a household develops its own illegal house, mostly on land that is squatted. Several Caribbean

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cities such as Kingston or Port au Prince have mayor issues regarding both homeless citizens and illegal settlements. These issues are less prominent in Paramaribo but little information is available on the extend of the homeless and informal housing situations. Estimations are that here are about 200 homeless in Paramaribo. Only 2 organisations are focussing on the situation of homeless. There is no day or night shelter.

There are targeted areas of informal settlements (eg. Saramacca doorsteekkanaal, Sunny Point), but there are no citywide figures.

The more wider perspective of housing issues is housing deprivation.

This is the result of poor housing situations. In Paramaribo housing deprivation is caused by overcrowding, poor housing quality or insecure housing situation due to adverse rental conditions or inheritance issues. Overcrowding in Suriname often originates from housing situations where several generations live together in one house. Young people find it difficult to enter the housing market because there are hardly any option for starters. Furthermore, the options for the elderly who need an adapted home or additional care are also rather limited.

That is why different generations often live in a home. This causes overcrowding. If the plot are sufficiently spacious an additional home, bungalow or extension can be added to the existing building. These constructions often happen based on their own insights without the support of an architect. Some plots do not allow extra constructions and result in effective overcrowding in one house. Overcrowding in Suriname can be calculated from the statistics of the household survey held in 2012. Illegal and homeless citizens are not included in this survey.

Hence, the amount of families living in an overcrowded situation can be calculated by subtraction the amount of households from the number of houses. The table below shows that 4801 families in the urban area of Paramaribo live in overcrowded situation. Hence, the housing due to overcrowding shortage is 4801 in the urban area of Paramaribo.

Table 1 overcrowding situations in Suriname (own processing based upon Mencke, 2016)

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Also the poor quality of housing can result in a housing shortages as some houses are in such poor shape that they can no longer be repaired and need to be replaced. These numbers contribute to the figure of housing shortage as new houses are required. Other housing units exhibit smaller or larger defects. These houses do not contribute housing shortage but result in a demand for housing improvement.

The table below shows that within the urban area of Paramaribo 982 houses need to be replaced and 33 395 houses need big repairs.

In the table below both figures are combined into one figure that determines a qualitative shortage. In this action plan we do not follow this strategy as we make a clear distinction between new houses and houses that can be improved by renovations.

Besides the current housing issues, demographical projections make it possible to calculate future housing demand. The Urban Growth Study (2017) calculated the additional households in 2056 due to demographic growth. For the entire urban area of Paramaribo ERM calculated that there will be a need for 99 191 additional housing units.

Table 2 Housing quality (Environmental Resource Management inc., 2017)

Table 3 future housing demand due to demographical growth by 2056 (Environmental Resource Management inc., 2017)

Housing and land use policy studies and implementation programmes

Instead of just adding all figures a nuanced summary of housing deprivation is presented. First in the current situation: • the overcrowding and homeless citizens create a need to construct 5001 new houses on new land • the houses beyond repairs create a need to construct 892 houses on existing plots • the poor housing quality creates a renovation need of 33 395 houses on existing plots In the future these figures are supplemented with a need to build 99 191 new housing units on new land. When taking both current and future housing deprivation numbers in account, the new houses far outweigh the numbers of reconstruction and renovation on existing housing plots. But when only looking at the current situation, the demand to act within the existing housing stock and urban tissue is very dominant. In this action plan we argue that in order to halt sprawl in Paramaribo, there is a need to focus parallel on: • the current housing deprivation and focus on investing in the current housing stock within the existing urban tissue.

• to develop strategies on the long term in order to figure out how it will be possible to produce 104 192 new houses on new land.

The historic and current production of houses shows that the construction market is not equipped to produce such numbers of houses.

Within these figures of poor housing quality Heirman found explanations of reasons why citizens do not to invest in their houses. One is the weak protection of the renters within the housing rental market and second of all insecure housing situation due to inheritance problems.

Within the private rental market, the main issue is a mismatch between price and quality. According to Maks and De Bruyne (2008) do foreign students and professionals push the prices of the rental estates. Those short term renters seek for qualitative rental estates and are willing to pay European prices for them. In additions are these renters attractive for the landlords as they are often paid directly by the company of the professionals or by the parents of the students. This creates a secure high income of their rental estates. Hence, landlords prefer foreign renters over Surinamese renters. Only the estates that are not attractive for the foreign renters are available for the Surinamese renters. As these estates are not in scope of the foreign market, the prices but also the quality is low. Renting out estates with a poor

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housing quality is possible in Suriname as the renter protection law and its amendments (G.B. 1949 no. 107, G.B. 1951 no. 157) do not forbid it or coerce housing quality in some manner. Hence, landlords outside the international renters market are not urged to maintain their premises.

In addition are renters not protected for sudden eviction by legal frame.

Subsequently, landlords are powerful and renters have a weak position toward the quality of their housing environment and secure tenure.

Therefor renting in Paramaribo creates a precarious and insecure housing situation (De Bruijne & Maks, 2008). A second insecure situation are the inheritance problems with the subdivision of the real estate among several inheritress. In Suriname there are many problems regarding unsolved inheritance due to unknown heirs, too many heirs or a dispute among heirs. Due to either of these three issues the inheritance is left unresolved. There are no exact figures of real estate that is subject to such inheritance problems. But the issue is subject to many research reports and is discussed in many land use policy reports (Chin-A-Lin, 2010). Despite many reports and suggestions, are there no real policy programs or strategies to resolve these inheritance problems.

4. TACKLING HOUSING DEPRIVATION, URBAN GROWTH STUDY VERSUS ACTION PLAN Above the housing deprivation and insecurities within the housing market were elaborated. It showed that the current housing stock has serious quality issues and that the housing market is too limited which creates overcrowding issues. Also an adverse situation on the housing market and a lock in of real estate due to inheritance problems. It also showed that in the current situation the issues are predominantly located within the existing housing stock and the requirements for new development are far smaller in size.

Although the analysis of the current situation is mostly based upon the insights of the Urban Growth Study (Environmental Resource Management inc., 2017), the conclusions were different. The main difference between the Action Plan and the Urban Growth study is that the poor quality of housing does not lead to the calculation of a figure of ‘qualitative shortage’ in houses. The Action Plan choses to label all houses that can be improved through renovation as ‘housing issues that can be resolved within the existing housing stock’. This difference

Housing and land use policy studies and implementation programmes

of opinion of both studies also lead towards different strategies to tackle housing deprivation. The Urban growth study suggests to tackle housing need by densifying the compact city and by reprogram the urban perimeter. These ambitions are translated into three strategies: (1) detect oopportunities of densification of the existing urban tissue, (2) dentification of areas to develop, nearby existing communities, infrastructure, services and economic activities (employment) and (3) development in the peri-urban area through urban farmsteads. In general the Action plan supports these three strategies but due to the difference of opinion on the quality of housing, the Action Plan adds (4) a fourth strategy in which the renovation, expansion or replacement of building that are struggling with a low housing quality.

When digging deeper into the second strategy of the Urban Growth Plan, it appears that the elaboration of this strategy leads toward the support and acceleration of urban sprawl in Paramaribo. The map underneath illustrates the locations of the identified areas for new residential developments. We are very doubtful how the development of Jarikaba, Commewijne, area above Lelydorp and areas along the Indira Ghandi road can be perceived as sustainable. All are greenfield developments that transform fertile agriculture lands into urban settlements. Due to the current potable water, sewage, electricity and public transportation system. Such developments create additional pressure on the existing infrastructure and creates more car dependent residential areas which without a doubt will contribute to the increase of the emission of greenhouse gasses due to transportation.

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Figure 54 Map of potential urban development areas (Environmental Resource Management inc., 2017)

Housing and land use policy studies and implementation programmes

In this Action Plan tackling of housing deprivation can under no circumstances lead towards greenfield developments around Paramaribo that further support urban sprawl. Therefor following four objectives from the different baseline studies are relevant to improve the housing market and make residential suburban greenfield developments on the fringes of Paramaribo no longer the most attractive housing strategy: Concerning the goal to densify the compact city • Detect opportunities to renovate, expand or replace buildings within the existing housing stock • Detect opportunities of densification of the existing urban tissue Concerning the quest for reprogramming the urban perimeter • Development in the peri-urban area through urban farmsteads And concerning the aim for decentralisation of housing market and economic activities • Detect on a national scale communities and secondary urban concentrations that can be activated so the urban primacy of Paramaribo diminishes and a geographical wider housing market can emerge

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5. DENSIFYING THE COMPACT CITY If densifying the compact city was an easy strategy, citizens, policymakers and private developers would have chosen this strategy themselves. Currently there are several bottlenecks that make investments on empty plots in de city difficult or make it uneasy to renovate, expand or replace houses on existing residential plots.

Currently building and renovating within the existing urban tissue is less attractive than greenfield developments on the fringes of Paramaribo.

In order to hals urban sprawl, it is necessary to shift the cost/benefit balance so investing within the city becomes more attractive than greenfield developments on the fringes. In order to make this shift a clear view of the current bottlenecks is needed. In order to overcome these bottlenecks, we will discuss the opportunities within the existing fabric. To link the bottlenecks to the opportunities a more worked out and detailed strategy is worked out. In this strategy identifies the need for additional policy studies but also elaborates on test cases and implementation programs. Each aspect of the strategy will be discussed in content, organisation, timing and budget.

5.1 BOTTLENECKS As stated above, there are bottlenecks that hamper investments in the existing urban tissue by building on empty plots or by renovating, expanding or replacing houses on existing plots. Here we dig deeper into the operational, financial and institutional bottlenecks.

5.1.1 OPERATIONAL BOTTLENECKS The operational bottlenecks were well described by Maks and De Bruyne (2008) and in the Housing Policy Plan (Republiek van Suriname, 2011). There are three operational bottlenecks that hamper the choice of citizens but also public partners and private developers to develop their residential projects within the existing urban tissue: 1. gap between professional knowledge and individual practices 2. expensive building material and poor access to tools 3. construction sites in the city are more difficult to manage than on more remote locations In Paramaribo the knowledge on how to renovate or build a qualitative and sustainable house often is often not available for the broader group

Housing and land use policy studies and implementation programmes

of citizens in Paramaribo. The access to renovation techniques and design opportunities is often limited as the gap between professional knowledge and personal practice is wide. Using an architect for your building activities is not mandatory in Suriname. Hence, only elite or larger residential developers use such professionals in their building process. Most of society does not even use a contractor but builds their houses themselves with the help of friends and family. Hence, the professional knowledge is absent in the mainstream residential building processes. This results in a deprivation of knowledge regarding the best design options and applied construction techniques and materials.

Maks and De Bruyne but also the Housing Policy plan identified that the construction sector hampers individual building activities. If you want to construct, renovate, expand or replace your house individually, you need building materials and tools. Only little construction materials are produced locally. Most of the construction materials are imported into Suriname. Aside from the transportation costs, import taxes need to be paid. This makes the construction materials expensive. Aside from the price of the building materials, does the construction of houses or expansions require the access to building tools. Building tools are expensive and not always available to individual citizens. Building on the finges often happens with prefab systems that enter Suriname readymade. Such prefab systems use materials and construction systems that are more difficult to apply in a renovation of an existing building.

When developing an empty plot in the city or when working existing buildings, all materials, tools and workmen need to enter the construction site on a very regular base. Within the city the traffic jams slow down the transport to the construction site. On top do the construction tools and vehicles need to be parked on or around the construction site. Within the city it will be more difficult to find sufficient space to store and park all construction materials and tools. On the fringes the transportation will also be affected by the congestion created by urban sprawl but will be more on city level than locally. As all national, regional and local traffic passes the inner city of Paramaribo, it is without a doubt that the inner-city construction sites are most vulnerable to congestion. Construction sites of greenfield development are easier to manage than urban construction sites in the city as it is more likely to find sufficient storing space for building materials, vehicles and tools but also they will be less affected by congestion.

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5.1.2. FINANCIAL BOTTLENECKS In Suriname prefabricated construction systems are very attractive, the Public Housing Program (2010 – 2015) even experimented with several of such systems and a large portion of the houses in this program are constructed with prefabricated construction systems. Systems like a steel frame construction are easy to set up in greenfield environments, as there are no prior constructions that need to be taken in account.

Due to the easy onsite construction methods it is possible to create a high paced building process. Prefabricated systems become more challenging when they are used in an environment where there are existing structures that need to be considered. It more difficult to connect prefabricated systems to existing constructions. It is also more difficult to transport these prefabricated construction elements to a building site in the city and to move them on a plot with existing constructions on it than transport them to a pristine environment.

Hence, a prefabricated housing system is faster, easier and more affordable than traditional brick or co more affordable to a wider group than traditional brick or concrete houses but they are more easy to set up on empty plots on the fringes of the city than on plots in the city centre that already contain constructions.

A second bottleneck for constructing within the existing urban tissue is that there are less large plots available that make group developments by a private or public investor possible. The great advantage of larger plots is that they can be part of a group development. In such group developments, private or public investor build an entire new allotment and then sells fully constructed houses. The advantages for the new home-owners is that they avoid double housing costs during the construction period. Since financial resources are often scare, such group developments have an important financial advantage compared to individual developments. In Paramaribo smaller plots with individual houses are mostly developed by the owner of the land. Hence, the owner needs to construct his new house while living elsewhere.

When he can live with family or in a small shed on the plot, there are no double costs. But when they have to pay rent to a landlord or to relatives whom they share a house with, building a house becomes financial less feasible for a large portion of the society.

A third financial bottleneck is that renovation seems more expensive than greenfield development as the externalities of urban sprawl development are not taken in account when calculating the costs of remotely located houses. For example the additional travel cost and

Housing and land use policy studies and implementation programmes

time but also the additionally produced greenhouse gasses are not taken in account. But also the extra public cost due to the construction and maintenance of utilities and public infrastructure and the costs of organizing public services such as public transportation, mail delivery, schools, healthcare institutes. Nor are the societal costs of developing fertile agricultural land or valuable ecosystems considered in the costs of such remote developments. Hence, with remote developments on the fringes of Paramaribo a new home owner only counts the immediate and direct costs for the new home-owner all public, societal and longterm private costs are not taken in account. This makes the comparison between the costs of remotely located houses and centrally located houses unequal and incomplete. Hence, houses in the city seem more expensive because all private, public and societal advantages and financial savings are not calculated or considered.

5.1.3. INSTITUTIONAL BOTTLENECKS The project team detected five institutional bottlenecks that support residential urban sprawl developments in Paramaribo. First of all does the current position of the tenant make renting an unfavorable housing solution. More precise do renters hold a weak position towards landlords which leads to the possibility of sudden eviction but also the absence of monitoring or coercion regarding a good housing and building quality create ideal conditions for landlords to rent out estates that have poor housing quality conditions.

In Suriname the law does not accommodate the purchase of real estate that includes common property like apartments or terraced houses.

This makes the housing market for starters or households with a smaller budget far more limited then when a starter or household with a limited budget could buy an apartment or a detached house.

Besides the general information on the housing conditions from the household survey of ABS from 2012, are there no accurate and objective gathered data regarding the housing quality, prevailing and recurring issues within the housing stock. No information available on the location, types, extend and trends in housing quality issues and renovation demands (difficult to develop policy, strategies, projects‌).

The absence of detailed information makes it difficult to raise awareness or develop policy programs on specific issues regarding the quality of the existing housing stock. Furthermore is data on the quality of housing necessary to develop a monitoring and coercive system.

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Despite homeless and informal settlements in Paramaribo are less pressing urban challenges than in other countries in the region, it remains a topic within the urban society that deserves policy attention.

Although estimations indicate that there are ‘only’ 200 homeless citizens in Paramaribo, they are deprived of social and medical services and cannot rely shelter facilities. More insight in the situation of the homeless and the citizens living in informal settlements is necessary in order to assess the situation more accurate and can form the base to develop policy or for civil society activities.

5.2 OPPORTUNITIES The long list of bottlenecks form an obstacle for individuals, public and private organisations to contribute to the densification of the city through constructing their residential projects. Fortunately, there are also opportunities that can support the development of new civil society and policy activities that contribute to the densification of the compact city.

5.2.1. INSTITUTIONAL OPPORTUNITIES There are two types of institutional opportunities: 1. opportunities that support the development of actual initiatives to invest in the existing housing stock and urban tissue 2. opportunities that support to raise awareness to halt sprawl and to invest in the existing housing stock within the city of Paramaribo • Opportunities that support actual initiatives Knowledge and experiences gained in Low Income Shelter Program (LISP) can be used to support densification activities of individuals on plots in the city. LISP was initiated in 2001 by signing a loan agreement between the state of Suriname and the Inter-American Development Bank. This loan was part of a public-private partnership in which the Surinamese State and the Dutch government provided (co-financing) funds to support low middle class families to improve their housing situation. This financial support can be used to construct a new house of to renovate an existing one. The program started in 2003. Up until now several LISP programs have been worked out where low middle income households receive financial support for the renovation or

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expansion of an existing house or to build a new one. In all programmes the income of the applicants is limited, also are the surfaces of the houses restricted. Also do all applicants need to own or have a title to the plot they want to perform construction activities (De Graaf, et al., 2005) (www.lisp.sr sd). Hence, only a small portion of the society have access to LISP grants. Yet, the experiences of the LISP programme can be used to expand such program over a broader group of housing deprived citizens in Paramaribo.

LISP is not the only experience there is with policy programs that support renovation within the city. In the period between 2013 and 2015, it was possible to request a "building grant" through the Ministry of Social Affairs and Public housing. The building grant was focused on ‘Families with less financial means’. To be eligible for assistance of the Ministry, these families had to submit an application to the Minister of Social Affairs and Public housing. Through a technical, social and financial assessment, the applications were evaluated based on the socio-economic situation of the family and the living and living conditions. On the basis of this assessments the ministry decided if and to what extent applicants were eligible for technical assistance andr financial assistance from the Ministry. (Republiek van Suriname , 2013) This grant is not mentioned in any of the policy documents.

This was discovered during the workshop for the preparation of this Action Plan in January 2019. During a conversation with the public administrator, it became clear that over the three years that the grant existed for three yeards and within that time 89 homes were supported.

Within this 89 households that received support, several households lost or had a damaged house due to a crisis situation such as a fire.

Both the administrative and technical staff of this program are still employed by the Ministry and could use their expertise when starting the construction and renovation of houses.

Figure 55 LISP 2 project (www.LISP.org, 2018)

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Besides policy programs, are there also many inspiring case studies available to densify the city. Both from policy documents as from academic studies research by design was performed which lead to the development of many inspiring ideas to for example densify empty plots, to redevelop insides of housing blocks, to densify on plots with existing constructions on it. These cases can be used to raise awareness on the opportunities of the existing fabric. The actual examples of these studies will be discussed further on in the spatial opportunities. • Opportunities that raise awareness to halt sprawl and invest in the city Halting sprawl and the effects of urban sprawl on the valuable coastal zone and fertile agricultural lands have been subject of public programs. For example, 2008 the Republic of Suriname approved its Climate action plan 2008 – 2013 that was the implementation of the ambitions United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). This documents pleas for the half of residential developments in Paramaribo – North and to protect the vulnerable coastal estuaries and mangroves. Also does this document in general plea to halt sprawl in order to halt sprawl through improved land use planning. In 2012 the former Ministry of Labor, Technological developments and Environment developed a capacity strengthening program. Despite the limited effects of these plans, the information and capacity remains available. Hence, raising awareness on the adverse effects of urban sprawl is not a clean canvas but the disperse initiatives can be identified and can be used to build on when assessing the effects of sprawl and when awareness is raised.

For long the spatial planning professionals in Suriname had no civil society organisation that gave them voice to ventilate their opion and suggestions regarding urban sprawl policy and initiatives. Since 2015 the spatial planning association of Suriname (SpaSU) has been founded. This organization is young but organizes many activities to raise awareness on the need of urban planning but also on specific issues related to urban planning and also the unbound growth of Paramaribo and its adverse effects. Hence, the urban planning professionals are developing a spokes arena and create a civil society basis from which urban planning and housing challenges can be related to urban planning and the long term effect of all the individual residential land use choices.

Housing and land use policy studies and implementation programmes

5.2.2. SPATIAL OPPORTUNITIES The city of Paramaribo has many spatial opportunities. Several of these opportunities have been listed in structure plans but also in academic studies (Blufpand, 2005) (Claes & Debaene, 2009) (Jankipersadsingh, Verkuyl, & Lutchman, 1993) (Ministerie van Openbare Werken Suriname, Technische Universiteit Delft, Universiteit van Suriname, 1992) (PHI Archtecture for Inter American Development Bank, 2005).

Without digging deeper in all of these reports, it appears that there are four spatial opportunities within Paramaribo to densify the urban fabric: 1. Even in the inner-city there are many large building plots. These accommodate extended families, developing the core of building block. Despite the construction of often several houses or sheds on a plot, are there still many opportunities to raise the density and thus the capacity of the plot by good designs.

2. Paramaribo is a low rise city. There are building height restrictions in the UNESCO heritage sites, but in other parts of the city there are no strict limitations of building heights. Without directly looking into the possibilities of skyscrapers, simple topping up of building by one or two building layers increases the capacity of the existing urban fabric and might create a wider housing market.

3. As mentioned above, there are still many empty plots in the Paramaribo. These plots create a great densification potential in the Paramaribo. The PURP study made a recent inventory of the available existing plots. Speculation and inheritance problems are related to motives to leave such plots empty. An institutional strategy is necessary to overcome the inheritance problems but speculation can be done by more business like approaches to convince land-owners to develop or sell their plots.

4. Within the inner-city of Paramaribo there are several larger building that are un- or underused. These often belong to public administration or religious organizations and include for example offices, schools or monasteries. Such buildings create opportunities for redevelopment and increase of housing opportunities within the compact city.

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Figure 56 strategy to combine policy studies, test cases and implementation programs to densify the compact city (ISTT, 2019)

Housing and land use policy studies and implementation programmes

5.3 STRATEGY In order to create densification opportunities in order to widen the housing market within Paramaribo, an strategy has been developed.

Using all insights three types of activities are suggested to be worked out parallel and in relation to each other. A combination between policy studies, test cases and policy implementation programs creates a basis to gather more information, to test new policy approaches in smaller cases and to implement all insights in broader policy programs.

In the policy studies the above described bottlenecks have to be assessed more profound and the preconditions of the opportunities will be explored. Hence, the policy studies will make it possible to develop adaptive strategies that overcome bottlenecks and uses opportunities. In order to test the validity and the preconditions of the policy strategies, test cases will be used. These will be actual projects in the city. In addition these test cases will make it possible to use its results to raise awareness on the potentials of the formulated adaptive strategies. In order to make connections with other parts of the EMSC program, test cases will be sought in areas that are also identified in other parts of the Action Plan or in the PURP project. To evaluate the test cases SMART indicators will be used. Using the insights of the policy studies and the experiences of the test cases, implementation programs will be designed. These implementation programs combine output of the policy studies and the test cases into multi annual policy implementation programs. These programs will implement new policy, organizations, instruments and practices Evaluation of the programs creates feedback for adaptation of the program but also looks for opportunities to institutionalize the program in regular policy and public administration.

5.4 POLICY STUDIES Six policy studies have been identified by the project team. They are necessary to provide more information on specific toppics, bottlenecks and opportunities. Each of these six policy studies will be discussed briefly. Further technical cooperation’s are required to work out the TORs of these policy studies.

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5.4.1. HOUSING QUALITY STUDY DESCRIPTION As the bottlenecks indicated, there is too little information regarding the housing quality within the existing urban tissue. The absence of detailed information makes it difficult to raise awareness or develop policy programs on specific issues regarding the quality of the existing housing stock. Furthermore is data on the quality of housing necessary to develop a monitoring and coercive system. Hence, if one wants to move forward in investing in the existing urban tissue, a housing quality study for Paramaribo is necessary.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE STUDY Scope • Identifying indicator set for housing quality • Setting up a geographical data model for housing quality • Gathering detailed data on the location, extend, type of housing quality issues in compact city of PMNA • Development of governance strategies to develop housing quality policy, based upon the present and difficult institutional context • Raising awareness on the importance of housing quality: tactical urbanism - assistance program for housing quality by installing a tentative ‘bouwwinkel’.

Organisation • external consultancy of urban planners, architect and social geographer (incl. GIS expertise system) • The study concurs with test case 1 (Latour housing testcase). There is mutual exchange of findings and lessons learned so that both actions inform each other (see Figure 56).

Timing • Total: 2,4 years • Select consultant (M1 – M4): 4 months • Identifying indicator set and setting up geographical data model (M5 – M7): 3 months • Gathering (M8 – M20) and processing field data(M20 – M24): 12 + 5 months • Governance strategies (M25 – M28): 4 months • Tactical assistance program for housing quality and unburdening ‘bouwwinkel’ (M 13 – M28): 12 months

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Budget Housing quality study

Identifying indicator set Setting up geographical data model (including processing field data) Gathering field data Adaptive strategies Tactical assistance program for housing quality and unburdening ‘bouwwinkel’

0,025 0,030 0,250 0,020 0,075

0,400 M USD

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5.4.2. RENOVATION AND DENSIFICATION STUDY DESCRIPTION Despite all the opportunities and the pressing problems in the existing housing stock, renovation and densification strategies face several challenges. Hence, a policy study regarding renovation and densification that mainly focusses on the feasibility and preconditions of both development strategies within the existing institutional context of Paramaribo.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE STUDY Scope • Financial feasibility and operational preconditions to support citizens administrative, technical and financial in their renovation, densification or rebuilding projects • Governance strategies to develop renovation and densification policy and practices (generic or area specific program? Individual or neighborhood approach? Extent of support? Preconditions to the provided support?)

• Raising awareness within public sector for more renovation and densification oriented housing policies Organisation • external consultancy of urban planners, architect and political scientist specialised in urban policy • The study concurs with test case 1 (Latour housing testcase), test case 2 (Inner City) and test case 3 (Clevia integrated PPP actions).

There is mutual exchange of findings and lessons learned so that all actions inform each other (see Figure 56).

Timing • Total: 1 year • Select consultant (1M - 4M): 4 months • Financial feasibility and operational preconditions (5M – 12 M): 8 months • Governance strategies and operational preparations (5M – 12 M): 8 months • Raising awareness for public authorities (9M – 12M): 4 months

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Budget Renovation and densification study

Feasibility study Governance strategies and working out regulations Awareness program

0,035 0,050 0,005

0,090 M USD

146

5.4.3. VACANCY STUDY DESCRIPTION Despite the many spatial opportunities, do several institutional and operational bottlenecks hamper the development of vacant plots and empty buildings. In order to activate these plots and buildings more information regarding plots, the reason for being vacant and possible strategies to activate these plots. Hence, a vacancy study is required.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE STUDY: Scope • Setting up data model to map empty plots and empty buildings, including all empty public and religious buildings • Data gathering empty plots in PMNA • Detecting the drivers for not developing the plots (speculation, inheritance,…)

• Developing strategies to activate the empty plots, based upon the present and difficult institutional context • Developing business cases and general strategies for the empty public houses and religious buildings to implement these business cases (5 business cases), which can form input for test cases Organisation • external consultancy of urban planners, architect and social geographer (incl. GIS) • The study concurs with test case 1 (Latour housing testcase), test case 2 (Inner City) and test case 3 (Clevia integrated PPP actions).

There is mutual exchange of findings and lessons learned so that all actions inform each other (see Figure 56) Timing • 2 years and 2 months • Select consultant (1M - 4M): 4 months • Setting up data model (5M - 7M): 3 months • Gathering data PMNA (9M - 18M): 12 months • Data processing (20M - 25M): 6 months • Detecting drivers of vacancy (10M - 19M): 10 months • Governance strategy (25M - 28M): 4 months • Develop business cases (23M - 28M): 6 months

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Budget vacancy study Setting up geographical data model (including processing field data) Gathering field data Policy study on drivers and strategies Developing 5 business cases

0,010 0,125 0,030 0,100

0,265 M USD

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5.4.4. HOMELESS AND INFORMAL HOUSING STUDY DESCRIPTION As the number of homeless citizens and illegal settlements are rather low, only few policy programs and attentions is drawn to these issues.

More information is needed in order to develop more indepth insights in both situations and to develop locally adapted policies and projects.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE STUDY Scope • Mapping the current extend of homeless and informal housing situations • Mapping and assessing current policy and practices • Developing strategies to improve the situation of homeless citizens and citizens living in informal housing situations • Raising awareness on the precarious situation of the homeless and the informal housing within society Organisation • external consultancy of urban planner, social geographer and social worker • The study concurs with test case 2 (Inner City). There is mutual exchange of findings and lessons learned so that both actions inform each other (see Figure 56) Timing • Total: 1 year

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Budget Homeless and informal housing study

Data gathering of current situation, policy and practices Developing supported strategies Awareness program

0,025 0,045 0,020

0,090 M USD

150

5.4.5. INSTITUTIONAL STUDY OF INTEGRATED PPP ACTIONS IN SPECIFIC AREAS DESCRIPTION Densifying an entire building block, creating renovation support for an entire neighbourhood combined with improvements on the public domain are only two of the many integrated actions that can be developed within a specific area. In such areas different focus areas of other parts of the Action Plan can come together and strengthen each other. In other cities such activities were developed through for example neighbourhood contracts. Due to the societal and cultural complexity, an institutional study is required to identify the opportunities and preconditions to develop integrated PPP actions in specific areas within the city.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE STUDY Scope • Mapping potential areas, where all focus themes of IDB are integrated • Mapping public, private and civil society investments in integrated projects or stakeholders that could invest in these areas • Mapping all civil society engagements that act on urban level • Developing policy strategies for PPP actions in specific areas Organisation • external consultancy of urban planner, social geographer and social worker • The study concurs with test case case 3 (Clevia integrated PPP actions). There is mutual exchange of findings and lessons learned so that both actions inform each other (see Figure 56) Timing • total: 1 year • Selecting consultant (1M -2M): 2 months • Mapping potential neighborhoods (3M – 5M): 3 months • Mapping succesfull PPP initiatives in Suriname (M6 – M8): 3 months • Mapping succesfull civil society initiatives in Suriname (M6 – M8): 3 months • Developing PPP and civil society strategies (M9 – M12): 4 months

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Budget Institutional study of integrated PPP actions in specific areas Mapping potential areas, where several focus themes of IDB are integrated

Mapping public, private and civil society investments in integrated projects or stakeholders that could invest in these areas Mapping inspiring civil society engagements that act on urban level Developing policy strategies for PPP actions in specific areas

0,025 0,050

0,025 0,025

0,125 M USD

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5.4.6. COST OF SPRAWL CALCULATION FOR PARAMARIBO DESCRIPTION To move beyond the normative discussions regarding the costs and benefits of cost and sprawl in Paramaribo, more insight in the extend of all costs and benefits on the short and long term are required. The outcome of the urban growth study can form the base for this more detailed policy study.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE STUDY Scope • Drafting all generic public costs of urban sprawl for Paramaribo • Drafting all environmental costs of urban sprawl for Paramaribo • Drafting all societal costs of urban sprawl for Paramaribo • Calculating the cost of sprawl for particular allotments (3 private and 3 public) on the fringes of Paramaribo for all involved stakeholders, including the residents • Developing anti-sprawl awareness strategies for citizens, civil society, professionals and public stakeholders, including implementation Organisation • external consultancy of urban planner/social geographer (GIS), economist and political scientist • The study concurs with test case 3 (Clevia integrated PPP actions).

There is mutual exchange of findings and lessons learned so that both actions inform each other (see Figure 56) Timing • total: 1,5 year • Selecting consultants (1M – 2M): 2 months • Drafting generic public, environmental and societal costs of sprawl (3M – 8M)= 6 months • Calculating costs of 3 public and private allotments for all stakeholders (9M – 14M)= 6 months • Developing anti-sprawl awareness strategies and implementing them (6M – 18M) = 18 months

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Budget Cost of sprawl calculation for Paramaribo Drafting generic public, environmental and societal costs of sprawl Calculating the cost of sprawl for 3 public and private allotment Calculating the cost of sprawl for citizens living on these allotments Developing anti-sprawl awareness strategies for citizens, civil society, professionals and public stakeholders

0,060 0,060 0,060 0,030

0,210 M USD

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5.5 IMPLEMENTATION PROGRAMS 5.5.1. HOUSING QUALITY PROGRAM Based upon the insights of the policy studies and the test cases, a housing quality program is suggested. The objective of this implementation program is to monitor the housing quality on a citywide level. Using the insights on the housing quality the prevailing quality issues can be tackled through regular policy instruments, programs and/or projects can be developed.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE IMPLEMENTATION PROGRAM Scope • Monitoring housing quality • Training public officers to staff the housing quality project team • Gathering data and identification of precarious situations and referring to unburdening program • Maintenance of data model and updating data • Developing policies and instruments to start an enforcement system Organisation • public office for housing quality, projectteam of SoZaVo and OW, maybe GLIS for data modeling Timing • total: 60 months • Selecting consultants (10M – 12M): 3 months • Expanding data model of test cases (13M – 15M): 3 months • Training public servants (16M – 18M): 3 months • Data gathering and processing (22M – 69M): 48 months • Developing and implementing institutional strategies (22M – 69M): 48 months • Evaluation (22M, 34M, 45M, 56M, 67M – 69M): 7 months

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Budget Housing quality implementation program Training public officers to staff the housing quality project team Staff costs (topping up) Gathering, processing and maintenance of data and data model Developing policies and instruments to start an enforcement system:

0,050 0,250 0,250 0,100

0,675 M USD

156

5.5.2 UNBURDENING PROGRAM RENOVATION, EXPANSION, REPLACEMENT AND DENSIFICATION OF HOUSING DESCRIPTION Using the insights of the policy studies and test cases, an unburdening program will be developed. This implementation program focusses on the technical, administrative and financial support of the citizens that are facing housing deprivation due to overcrowding or housing quality issues or for citizens that want to build on an empty plot. The program does not only focus on home-owners but also land-lords. For the land-lords special preconditions will be linked to the unburdening support, as the program wants to improve the housing market for Surinamese citizens and not for tourists, foreign students or expads.

Such support can be developed either centrally through a city-wide housing and building support service – office or through neighborhood based support offices. The results of the policy studies and test cases will give more clarity on the best formula and strategy to develop this unburdening program.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE IMPLEMENTATION PROGRAM Scope • Training public officers to staff of the project team • Setting up a regulation for the selection of cases and support conditions • Launching and running unburdening program for 4 years • Supporting at least 100 cases per year • Annually evaluating the program Organisation • public office for housing quality, project team of SoZaVo and OW Timing • total: 5 year • selecting consultants (M16 – M18): 3 months • training public administrators (M19 – M24): 6 months • Launching and running program (M25 – M72): 48 months • Evaluation (M25, M37, M49, M61, M73, M74, M75): 7 months

Housing and land use policy studies and implementation programmes

Budget Unburdening program renovation, expansion, replacement and densification of housing 4,275 M USD Training public officers to staff the unburdening project team Prescribing regulations Running program, funding families Evaluation

0,100

0,050 4,000 0,125

157

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5.5.3. INTEGRATED PPP ACTIONS IN SPECIFIC AREAS DESCRIPTION Throughout the Action plan Clevia and Latour are identified as two specific areas for integrated actions. Hence, in these areas but also in other strategic areas in Paramaribo can be subject of integrated PPP actions. In these areas housing actions will be combined with actions of other subjects in this Action Plan. Here all housing implementation plans or test cases can be combined with actions or programs that improve the green blue network and that improve the mobility situation of the specific area. The most important aspect in this implementation program is coordination. A neighborhood manager will be appointed and supported by public offices to support, develop and coordinate all activities and projects through PPP action plans within the specific area.

Hence, neighborhood manager also coordinates the communication with other private and public stakeholders. The housing program supports development of a public project team, using public servant of the ministry of SoZaVo and Regional Development but also to identify, train and support the neighborhood managers during the activities undertaken in a specific area.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE IMPLEMENTATION PROGRAM Scope • Training public officers to staff of the project team • Setting up a regulation for the selection of cases and support conditions • Launching and running PPP action program, by appointing area management programs • Supporting at least 5 projects for 4 years • Annually evaluating the program Organisation • public office for PPP action, project team of SoZaVo and RO

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Timing: 5 year • Selecting consultants (M27 – M29): 3 months • Training public officers (M30 – M35): 6 months • Launching and running PPP action program, by appointing area management programs (M36 – M83): 48 months • Evaluation: (M84 – M86): 3 months Budget Integrated PPP actions in specific areas Training public officers to staff the unburdening project team Prescribing regulations Appointing area managers for 4 years, at least 5 projects Evaluation

0,100 0,050 0,400 0,125

0,675 M USD

160

Figure 57 schematic overview of interrelationship between policy studies, test case, and implementation program regarding urban farmstead

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6. REPROGRAMMING THE SUBURBAN PERIMETER 6.1 CONTEXT AND STRATEGY TO MOVE FROM BASELINE TO ACTION PLAN Reprogramming the suburban perimeter aims to halt urban sprawl by identifying a more sustainable and fitting development of the fringes of Paramaribo. This ambition works within the same bottlenecks, opportunities and strategy as the densification of the compact city.

Reprogramming the suburban perimeter is mainly translated in action that are related to mobility and the blue green network. Residential developments have to fit in the suburban perimeter characteristics of the fringes and have to be a more sustainable alternative for the random allotments. The Urban Growth study identified the opportunities of developing urban farmsteads. Here, we focus on the elaboration of the development of an urban farmstead typology and policy programs to introduce urban farmsteads in the peri-urban area of Paramaribo through the development of a policy study, a test case and the development of implementation program.

6.2 POLICY STUDIES Although this policy studies chapter elaborates only the opportunities to develop urban farmstead on the fringes of Paramaribo, two other policy studies are closely related: the costs of sprawl and green – blue network. Both policy studies set important preconditions that make the development of urban farmsteads attractive and feasible.

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6.2.1. STUDY ON THE OPPORTUNITIES FOR URBAN FARMSTEAD DESCRIPTION The urban farmstead is a new typology for Paramaribo. Many citizens have small kitchen gardens next to their house or have midsize agricultural land on the fringes of the city were they grow vegatables, fruits and herbs for own consumption and to sell small quantities on the local market. There is need for a modern and attractive typology that combines housing with local small scale agricultural activities in Paramaribo. Within this typology study, the local housing preferences of different groups within the Surinamese society have to be taken in account.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE POLICY STUDY Scope • Spatial analysis to select potential locations for urban farmsteads • Institutional triage of the spatial longlist of locations to identify locations where urban farmstead are feasibible to implement • Design and constructive detailing of urban farmstead typology • The study concurs with test case 4: Urban Farmstead Clevia. There is mutual exchange of findings and lessons learned so that both actions inform each other Organisation • Concultancy team architect, agricultural expert, spatial planner, construction engineer • The study concurs with test case 4: Urban Farmstead Clevia. There is mutual exchange of findings and lessons learned so that both actions inform each other Timing • 2 years • Select consultant (1M – 3M): 3 months • Spatial analysis of potential locations, longlist (4M – 13M): 10 months • Institutional triage of potential locations, short list (14M – 19M): 6 months • Design and constructive detailing of urban farmstead typology (20M -24M): 5 months

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Budget Study on the opportunities for urban farmstead Spatial analysis to select potential locations for urban farmsteads Institutional triage of the spatial long list of locations to identify locations where urban farmstead are feasible to implement Design and constructive detailing of urban farmstead typology

0,050 0,080

0,050

0,180 M USD

164

6.3 IMPLEMENTATION PROGRAM 6.3.1. IMPLEMENTATION PROGRAM: URBAN FARMSTEAD DESCRIPTION After researching and testing the opportunities, bottlenecks and preconditions of urban farmsteads in Paramaribo, an implementation program is developed to implement this new typology. The implementation plan has the ambition to develop annually 25 urban farmstead projects. The implementation plan has the ambition to run for at least four years.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE IMPLEMENTATION PROGRAM Scope • Training public officers to staff of the project team • Setting up a regulation for the selection of locations and setting up urban farmsteads • Launching and running urban farmstead program for 4 years • Supporting at least 25 cases per year • Annually valuating the program Organisation • public office for housing quality, project team of SoZaVo, LVV and OW Timing • 5 years • Select consultant (32M – 35M): 3 months • Setting up regulations (36M – 38M): 3 months • Training public officers (39M – 41 M): 3 months • Launching and running urban farmstead implementation program (41M – 89M): 48 months • Evaluation (42M, 43M, 53M, 54M, 65M, 66M, 77M, 78M, 89M, 90M, 91M): 11 months

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Budget Implementation program: urban farmstead

Training public officers Staff costs (topping up) Construction of 25 farmsteads per year (100 in 4 years) Evaluation

0,050 0,500 6,000 0,125

6,675 M USD

SMART indicators • Number of households interested • Number of households engaging to construct • Number of farmsteads constructed • Timing of the project was respected • Lessons learned result in the possibility to multiply the approach to other empty buildings

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7. CONCLUSION This set of actions focusses on the land use and housing situation in Paramaribo. In this chapter we tried to illustrate the interconnectivity between many urban and peri-urban bottlenecks and urban sprawl.

Hence, most of the urban problems are somehow related to the effects of the unbound growth of the capital of Suriname. Looking at the drivers of urban sprawl, it appears that residential developments along with infrastructural and commercial developments are the most important drivers. Commercial developments mostly follow residential developments. So in order to overcome these bottlenecks, citizens living in the city and arriving citizens should stop choosing to live on the periurban fringes of Paramaribo. Residential developments and the logic behind the housing market is essential in order to combat urban sprawl and to combat all adverse effects of urban sprawl in Paramaribo.

In this chapter the housing market was analysed, its bottlenecks and opportunities were elaborated and showed that the housing market is too narrow. For example renting creates an insecure living situation, real estate market is expensive but also renovation is also expensive and complex. Hence, the narrow housing market makes the amount of housing deprived citizens high and the quality of the available houses low. The dominant strategy to combat this deprivation is by building new allotments on the fringes of Paramaribo. As these allotments appear in an unplanned manner, they support urban sprawl in Paramaribo. In order to combat urban sprawl, new urban housing strategies, projects and policies need to be developed so housing deprived citizens will have more options on the housing market within the city. A wider urban housing market aims to make other options more attractive then a peri-urban allotment to solve the housing deprivation of the citizens or arriving citizens of Paramaribo.

Underneath a scheme shows how policy studies, test cases and implementation programs work together to improve the conditions of the housing market and to help solving the housing deprivation of the citizens of Paramaribo without supporting and contributing to the increase of urban sprawl in Paramaribo.

This scheme is not open-ended. It needs to be understood as a precondition to halt urban sprawl. Without improving the housing market, urban sprawl cannot be halted. Other parts of this action plan can

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improve the quality of the city dramatically and sincerely mitigate adverse effects of Paramaribo but this chapter is the only chapter that uproots the main driver of urban sprawl. Improving the housing market is a precondition for a more sustainable and resilient Paramaribo. Not investing in the housing market, means not investing in stopping sprawl.

Figure 58 synoptic overview of the policy studies related to housing and land use, and how they interrelate with test cases and implementation programmes (ISTT, 2019)

BRT AS A NEW BACKBONE FOR URBAN MOBILITY

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1. INTRODUCTION Bus rapid transit (BRT) systems have become an increasingly popular approach to addressingmobility and environmental problems in urban areas in Latin America and around the world.1 Currently such a system doesn’t exist in Paramaribo. Bus services are limited to some ‘traditional’ urban bus lines, microbuses in the city and regional busses. All these buses take part in the motorized traffic flows, characterized by increasing congestion, especially during peak hours on the main arteries.

In the following chapters we develop the concept of a BRT North-South corridor in the city as a game changer for mobility in the city, offering a way of breaking through the gridlock of traffic in Paramaribo.

BRT corridors consist of dedicated, physically demarcated bus lanes that are aligned to the center of a street or a functionally equivalent configuration for the majority of the corridor. BRT is a bus-based rapid transit system that can achieve high capacity and speed at relatively low cost by combining segregated bus lanes that are typically median aligned, off-board fare collection, level boarding, bus priority at intersections, and other quality-of-service elements (such as information technology and strong branding).2 Apart from separated demarcated bus lanes other essential elements put the ‘rapid’ in BRT, one of them being turn restrictions and bus priority at intersections to reduce delay at intersections from red signals. A more detailed discussion of what constitutes a BRT corridor can be found in the BRT Standard (http://brtstandard.org).

1 Inter-American Development Bank, Comparative Case Studies of Three IDB-supported Urban Transport Projects, June 2015 2 Institute for Transportation and Development Policy, The Bus Rapid Transit Standard, 2015, http://brtstandard.org

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2. MOBILITY SCENARIOS FOR PARAMARIBO Two meta contrasting scenarios for the evolution of the mobility in Paramaribo can be distinguished: 1. A unimodal car oriented scenario: investments, regulations and road and street design (almost) exclusively limited to facilitating car flows. As these new facilities will welcome a growing demand for car traffic new bottlenecks will come, deteriorating traffic conditions and livability, leading to more GHG emissions and heavier noise and air quality impacts…

2. A multimodal scenario: the investments, regulations and road and street design include a focus on the need for structural quality improvement of urban public transport, especially of the ‘traffic conditions’, service levels and organisation.

Both scenarios have to build on the existing conditions and trends. In the report (Verkeerscirculatieplan Binnenstad, Prosur N.V., May 2012)3 an indication of the rapid shift of the modal distribution is given. For typical short trips the mode of transport is given in the figure below. The left figure is for home-work trips and the right figure is for home-school trips. Car use shifted from less than 40% of all home-work trips in 2005 to 60% in 2011. It appears also that the use of public transport has decreased dramatically in the past decade (from 42% in 2005 to 18% in 2011 for home-work commute). The same source mentions that in 2011 only 1 on 4 of work trips to the city centre were made by public transport.

3

Prosur N.V., Verkeerscirculatieplan Binnenstad, May 2012

Figure 59 indication of rapid shift away from public transport to increase of car use (Source: Verkeerscirculatieplan Binnenstad, Prosur, May 2012)

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Figure 60 Cars clogging of the streets in Paramaribo

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Furthermore a more recent report on the mobility in Paramaribo states: ‘Private transport (cars, scooters, etc.) has increased over the past decades and is now used by more than 60% of the population. This is both work as well as other related. The modal share of public transport has decreased in the past years. Very few people use bicycles. There are ample bus routes going to the different areas in and out of the city center. The bus routes pass through the main and larger secondary roads. These routes have sufficient intermediate bus stops (“halte”) and stops at important and institutional buildings where a larger number of passengers get on and off the bus. However, less than 20% of the population makes use of public transport, government and private buses. It is a cheap way of transporting people, but not so much used probably due to lack of reliability during off-peak hours and relative long walking distances (under harsh weather conditions) to/from the main routes to origin and final destination. Another possible reason could be the influx of cheap and affordable second hand cars in the past 25 years and increased economic conditions in the period between 2005 and 2014.’1 Al these trends have led to an increasing clogging of the main arteries in the city.

Many studies and policy reports show the limits of the first scenario: ‘The existing high levels of traffic in many industrialized cities are not sustainable globally’.2 Following the growing car traffic demand in the process of broadening road space and adding lanes on urban roads seems to give no way out of traffic congestion. The same report states: The dominant investment in transport has conventionally been in highway building. However, a revised approach is emerging that advocates managing the transport system in a way that supports sustainable urban living. A better focus for policy and investment would be packaged strategies that include urban planning to support transport, traffic demand management, mass rapid transit, light rapid transit, bus rapid transit, informal non-motorized transit (such as walking and bycycling), low-emission vehicles and alternative fuels, and freight planning.’

Also in Paramaribo the problem of road safety – especially for children - urges traffic calming measures and redesign of streets. No studies exist on the contribution of (road) transport to air pollution in the 1 ESC Mobility, Study on Characterization of Mobility in Paramaribo, Final report: Review of studies and available information & Field research and Characterization of mobility, 2018 2

ADB, Changing Course in Urban Transport, An Illustrated Guide, 2011

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city but given the fact that transport is by far the main contributor of greenhouse gas emissions one can assume that car traffic is a main contributor to health problems for vulnerable people as children and the elderly.

Figure 61 2015 Emissions by GPC sector for Paramaribo. The sectors that are primarily addressed by the Action Plan are indicated in red (source: GHG baseline study, 2017, modified by ISTT)

So there’s a need for a second scenario, aiming at a multimodal accessible city, by introducing a high quality public transport alternative.

This system must be robust enough to change the current modal shift towards increasing car traffic and less public transport – suffering from more and more deteriorating traffic conditions.

Figure 62 Efficiency of BRT and other public transport. (Source Taotao Deng & John D. Nelson, 2011)

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Empirical findings – of projects in North America but also SE Asia and Latin America – show that appropriately designed and operated BRT systems offer an innovative approach to providing a high-quality transport service, comparable to a rail service but at a relatively low cost and short implementation time. In common with other forms of mass transit, a full-featured BRT has the potential to offer significant effects on land development.

3.THE BRT IN THE PUBLIC TRANSPORT SYSTEM OF PARAMARIBO We refer to the new Ferry for a positioning of this project in relation to prior studies and the resulting global vision regarding a transportation network for Paramaribo.

4. WHY A BRT NORTH-SOUTH BACKBONE FOR PARAMARIBO? Introducing a fast, reliable and clean system of public transport based on allocation of budget and space for BRT has an expected positive (cost)/benefit, see the action plan baseline study.

Figure 63 identified mitigations under an intelligent growth scenario, as identified by IDB GHG Baseline stud. The sectors that are primarily addressed by the Action Plan are indicated in red (graph ISTT, based upon GHG study, 2017, pp.31-32)

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The multimodal scenario – based on the introduction of a BRT system in Paramaribo - has to be developed in a step by step approach. A North-South BRT corridor in the city will be developed as a first but high impact step towards a consistent and city wide high quality public transport network.

This approach will allow to implement the introduction within the existing road and traffic conditions (the east west axis being characterized by heavier traffic and thus hard conditions for prioritizing public transport. Starting a transition towards a well-structured high quality public transport network in a step by step process with this backbone allows to involve stakeholders in a process of adaptation instead of opposition to the new system. Especially micro bus and taxi services can be reorganized via multimodal exchange points as feeders e.g. for ‘last and first mile’, complementary to the BRT. Shared use of the bus lanes in the corridor by these services and the BRT system can be considered.

An adapted BRT scenario Paramaribo combines ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ elements in the planning process. Some ‘hard’, top down decisions and actions have to be taken in order to introduce basic elements essential to guarantee the quality of the system: they relate to the physical reorganization of some roads and crossing and the building of multimodal transport nodes.

The soft elements refer to a bottom-up involvement of stakeholders in a co-creative and co-operative process. But they also refer to the a step by step adaptation of the system, evolving from hybrid to trunk and feeder concept. In its hybrid form a multimodal use of the dedicated BRT lane with taxis and microbuses may be an option, not to be excluded as a starting point for the study and first implementation.

Describing the concept as ‘soft’ also refers to the fact that the BRT infrastructure is integrated in the existing road infrastructure and contrary to (heavy) rail system doesn’t need ‘cutting’ through the existing urban tissue. And last but not least the ‘soft’ elements refer to the synergy with the blue and green network strategy.3 Some indicators show that a sufficient transport demand on the North-South corridor exists in order to implement a BRT line4. Based on 3

see the Clevia and Latour focus studies

4 Of course this indicative approach has to be followed by a feasibility study based on a more extended empirical base.

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Figure 64 Hybrid and trunk and feeder UPT systems, (ITDP)

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several existing data sources, mainly assembled in the Prosur study5 it is clear that travel demand from the southern part of the city is growing: the number of trips crossing the Sarmanca Kanaal increased with 35% between 2004 and 2012. In the morning peak hour some 4000 people in cars (drivers + passengers) and some 2000 public transport users (urban busses and micro busses) cross the canal. Also some figures indicating the traffic generations in the zones directly concerned show the potential for a high quality transport services • • • •

number of student places Centrum: 18400 number of jobs Centrum: 30600 inhabitants Latour: 26000 inhabitants Clevia: 28000

Taking into account the capacity of a BRT line the following transport loading numbers can be minimum requirements: 1200 ppdph (passengers per direction peak hour), including latent demand that can be only realized after some time of operation a minimum of 1000 ppdph first year of operation can be presupposed.6 In a hybrid concept the merged use of the dedicated infrastructure can be envisaged with a BRT operation with year 5 buses per direction per hour during the first year, allowing also micro buses on the bus lane. Supposing a 25 minutes ride (8 km) and a 10 minutes peak hour interval could be implemented with 10 buses.7 A 15 minutes reserve time per trip allows to cope with some disruptions of the service a minimum rest time for the drivers or time to change drivers. With a metrobus type of vehicle (18m length, capacity of 150 passengers with standard design, seats for 40 to 50 persons) a capacity of 900 ppdph (seated 300) can be offered (to be studied more in detail in a next phase).

5 Prosur N.V., Verkeerscirculatieplan Binnenstad, May 2012 and ESC Mobility, Study on Characterization of Mobility in Paramaribo, Final report: Review of studies and available information & Field research and Characterization of mobility, 2018 6

IDTP, BRT Planning Guide, 2015

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probably the minimum number of buses needed in the fleet will be higher

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5. OUTLINE OF A BRT BACKBONE FOR PARAMARIBO The basic scheme of the North-South BRT backbone stretches from Clevia via the city Centre (with an interchange point at the proposed Ferry terminal at Waterkant) to Latour in the South.

The backbone can be conceived as stretch of bus lanes, integrated in the road space of the existing street network. The following 14 streets form part of the BRT line (from North to South): • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Morgenstondstraat Kristalstraat R.W. Thurkowstraat Wilhelminastraat Kleine Waterstraat Waterkant Saramaccastraat Zwartenhovebrugstraat Vanhogerhuysstraat Kankantriestraat Calcuttastraat Slangenhoutstraat Oude Pad van Wanica Indira Ghandiweg

Figure 65 Scheme of the BRT backbone

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Figure 66 trajectory of the BRT line

The BRT infrastructure consisting of bus lanes and bus stop facilities have to be integrated in existing road profiles within a multimodal concept for the streets and roads concerned and of the accessibility structure of the city. The scheme below shows that North-South BRT backbone is complementary to a road structure scheme allowing (international and regional) through traffic passing the city in East-West direction without crossing the city centre. A Southern bypass road has to be built up (upgrading existing streets/roads). Traffic with destination in the city can approach the city areas via arterial ‘antenna’s’ (access road, yellow colored in the scheme), without driving through the local streets.

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Figure 67 arterial antennas (yellow) branching off the east-west passaage

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Though the car traffic main network and BRT backbone are clearly avoiding conflicting areas, one bottleneck exits near Willem Campagnestraat – Vanhogerhuysstraat, for the bus coming from the Kankantriestraat. A grade separated crossing (BRT in tunnel or more probably on a viaduct) seems unavoidable to guarantee necessary unimpeded flow quality of the BRT service in that area.

Figure 68 separated crossing, tunnel/ Viaduct at crossing Willem CampagnestraatVanhogerhuysstraat, for the bus coming from the Kankantriestraat

The North-South backbone can be conceived as a first line within a the perspective BRT network covering the urbanized areas of Paramaribo.

The Adekus campus and the AZ Paramaribo can be developed as nodal centres in the West. Meerzorg is connected via the ferry. A western tangential line and radial lines connecting the western hubs with the city centre complete in the proposed concept the BRT network, of which the North-South backbone is a common trunk and separate additional line.

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Figure 69 North-South backbone within the perspective of a city wide BRT network

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6. IMPLEMENTATION PROGRAM: BRT BACKBONE DESCRIPTION The introduction of a BRT system in Paramaribo has to be developed in a step by step approach. A North-South BRT corridor stretching from Clevia via the city Centre (with an interchange point at the proposed Ferry terminal at Waterkant) to Latour in the South will be developed as a first but high impact step towards a consistent and city wide high quality public transport network. This approach will allow to implement the introduction of reliable and qualitative public transport services within the existing road and traffic conditions and involving stakeholders in a process of adaptation instead of opposition to the new system. Especially micro bus and taxi services can be reorganized via multimodal exchange points as feeders e.g. for ‘last and first mile’ part of trips, complementary to the BRT. Shared use of the bus lanes in the corridor by these services and the BRT system can be considered.

The physical elaboration of the backbone can be conceived as stretch of bus lanes, integrated in the road space of the existing street network.

In order to achieve a maximum positive impact on the environmental quality in the city a service with electric busses is proposed.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE IMPLEMENTATION PROGRAM Scope • Setting up an organization for the management of planning, building and service of the BRT backbone line, integration of the service in an existing organization as the NVB (National Transport Company) • Feasibility and predesign study work • Design study and construction of a strecch of North South buslanes and busstops and terminal buildings, P+R parking lots and public spaces • Study and implementation of a traffic management system (including traffic lights) along the backbone • Design and building of a grade separated crossing Vantrahogerhuyssat Kankantriestraat • Acquisition of busses and other equipment among others electric

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loading system • Training of drivers and other personnel Organisation • Department of Public Works, Transport and Communication in cooperation with NVB and bus companies Timing and activities The planning schedule to prepare and deliver a BRT backbone project for Paramaribo is described in the table below.

The total time to deliver the BRT backbone project is estimated to 30 months, bridge time for political/technical decisions between phases not included. In a preliminary phase the installing of a BRT Taskforce that will prepare and manage the next phases is proposed. First task is the terms of reference for the phase 1 studies. In the different project phases two parallel activity tracks are foreseen: a design track and an organisation and finance track. The first phase consists of a conceptual design study of the backbone route and a pre- feasibility study. The first study has to elaborate the concepts for the bus lanes in the different streets, taken into account first estimations of traffic load, parking needs etc (based on existing data and terrain observations).

If too complex to decide different concepts for some streets may be considered without final decision on which one to choose. The same

Figure 70 Overview of planning

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approach counts for the different bottlenecks. For some sections bus priority regulation principles will have to be described.

The second study deals with pre-feasibility: including a stakeholder mapping and some exploratory workshops with the stakeholders. A concept of the business case and governance will be the outcome of this phase.

The second phase contains the same two tracks and content lines, but the concepts from the previous phase will be elaborated based on surveys and more detailed cost calculations and clear governance decisions.

Also the third phase will elaborate further on the same working lines, resulting in the technical project description allowing in a next step to launch the tendering procedures to build the different project infrastructure elements and to start the tendering for the busses and devices to operate the BRT service. Also the governance structure (could be a Public Private Partnership) has to be clearly defined and agreed upon.

The forth phase and fifth phase consists of tendering, building and delivering of the BRT elements.

In the sixth phase BRT service is operational accompanied with a monitoring and evaluation activities.

Budget BRT urban backbone Latour – Paramaribo-North study cost pre-tender (predesign, feasibility) study cost design till tender realisation cost

metrobusses (12) changes to existing roads (8 km) underpass (1) bus stops (16 stops) transfer stations (3) finalization of stops (ticket boots, camera, info, restrooms) bicycle parkings depots (1) contingency

12,000 2,000 3,500 3,200 1,200 0,900 0,130 5,000 3,000

35,93 M USD 0,500 4,500 30,930

BRT as a new backbone for urban mobility

A first estimation of the investment costs for the North-South BRT backbone infrastructure and fleet is given in the table on the previous page. The total amount is 37.100 USD, including the under- or overpass construction mentioned before, the adaptation of the existing roads in order to provide separated bus lanes (more detailed concepts of some typical cross sections can be found in the Clevia and Latour focus chapters of this report). Also three transfer stations are included: the terminus stations in Clevia and Latour, including P+R en bus (microand urban) connections, and a transfer to the Ferry and microbuses in the city centre. The investment amount takes into account the acquisition cost of twelve electric buses and the depot construction and equipment with a loading infrastructure for the electric buses is included in the investment. Fifteen bus stops allow a distance between them of some 600m.

SMART indicators • Documents to select consultants (M1) • Results of the selecting procedures and contracts (M3) • Architectural and engineering designs (M7) • Architectural and engineering contracting documents (M9) • Selection of contractors for civil works (M12) • Delivery of the architectural and civil works (M24) • Selection and contracting the organization consultant (M15) • Design of a BRT organization which is acceptable for the stakeholders (M20) • Documents for the establishment of the BRT organization (M21) • Proposal for busses to be acquired (M8) • Contract for the electric busses (M10) • Delivery of the busses (M24) • Design of a training programme for personnel (M16) • Delivery of the training for personnel (M25) • Contracting personnel In Operational Phase • Number of passengers in first month, after 1,2, … year • Frequency of bus rides along BRT backbone/day after one month, 1,2,3 … years • Number of shops in transit hubs after one month, after x year, …

• Number of feeder lines in operation after one month, 1,2;3,… years

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A NEW FERRY SERVICE FOR MEERZORG – OLD JETTY

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1. INTRODUCTION In 1915 the former sugar plantation Meerzorg is bought by the government for the purpose of agriculture by contract labourers who finished their contracts. Soon agriculture at Meerzorg is a success, possible because of the near market in Paramaribo. Deze landbouw wordt een succes, mogelijk ook vanwege de nabijheid van Paramaribo.

In 1929 newspaper De West refers to Meerzorg as a prospering settlement. Two thousand people are living there. The existing boats that connect Paramaribo and Meerzorg are not considered appropriate. A Royal Decree to configure a new ferry mentiones that the private services do not meet the standards and that they are not able to modernize. Besides the new ferry should be a car-ferry (Dikland archives, 2002). This car-ferry is closed in May 2000 when the Wijdenbosch-bridge was opened. The bridge caused a strong growth of the population of the district Commewijne from 24649 in 2004 to 31987 in 2012, a growth of 26,1%1. Continuing growth can lead to 49000 people in the district Commewijne in the year 2030, with a growth of traffic over the bridge.

Till the year 2020 every hour 80 cars in each direction could be transported by ferry and unknown numbers of mopeds and pedestrians.

Besides 400 pedestrians were transported each hour by the so called korjalen, in the morning to Paramaribo, in the afternoon back to Commewijne.

In the year 2011 Prosur N.V.2 counted 1587 pae3 between 6.30 a.m. and 9.00 a.m. and 733 pae between 7.00 a.m. and 8.00 a.m., all in the direction of Paramaribo while less than half of these vehicles go to Commewijne. The increased congestion leads to the supposition that the number of vehicles on the bridges has increased since 2011.

Numbers are not counted, but people from Commewijne say that many of them try to avoid the rush-hours.

1

Bureau of Statistics, census 2004 and census 2012

2

Consultancy for the Ministry of Public Works

3 Pae = personenautoequivalent, the total number of different vehicles, converted to a number of passenger cars.

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After the year 2000 the private “korjalen” stayed and they still transport 400 passengers during a rush-hour. The “korjalen” are more or less the same boats as the so called “tentboten”, 200 years ago used by the plantation owners for their transport, except for the rowers who are replaced by outboard engines.

Figure 71 “Tentboot” at Waterfront Paramaribo, litho by Jacob Eduard van Heemskerck, 18601862

Figure 72 Private “korjalen” ParamariboMeerzorg, 2019 (ISTT)

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Several times use of the Wijdenbosch bridge by freight traffic has led to dangerous situations, mostly due to mechanical problems. Since December 2018 heavy trucks are only allowed to pass the bridge when accompanied by police.

In October 2018 the Ministry of Public Works, Transport and Communication announced through the press that it wanted to reinstate the ferry between Paramaribo and Meerzorg to diminish congestion on the Wijdenboschbridge.

Figure 73 Traffic on the Wijdenboschbridge (foto Starnieuws 22 December 2018)

Figure 74 Newspaper item regarding reinstatement of the ferry (website De Ware Tijd 1 October 2018)

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The announcements regarding reinstatement of the ferry give no indications about a chosen location. The former location at the Waterfront is in the city-center, near shops and busses, but also near the historic center of Paramaribo.

Figure 75 Landing stages Paramaribo side

Figure 76 left: Platte brug Paramaribo; middle: Former car-ferry Paramaribo; right: Waterfront Paramaribo

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Figure 77 Landing stages Meerzorg side

Figure 78 left: Wooden jetty at Meerzorg, middle: Entry to the ferry at Meerzorg; right: Former entry to the car-ferry at Meerzorg

At the Meerzorg side the ferry-place is still intact, except for the floating jetty. At that place small restaurants can be found, a place where bikes and mopeds can be stalled and there is a bus-station. On the former road to the ferry not more than 20 cars could wait for their turn, and sometimes, before the year 2000 when the ferry still functioned, a long row of cars waited besides the road to the ferry-place.

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2. THE FERRY IN THE PUBLIC TRANSPORT SYSTEM OF PARAMARIBO This ferry for pedestrians should be considered as a line in the public transportation system of greater Paramaribo. In the year 2014 a transportation study was carried out by the Institute for Graduate Studies and Research for the former Ministry of Transport, Communication and Tone of the conclusions was that a competitive public transportation in Paramaribo demands a complete new organization. A suitable model was found at Jago Dodson in the publication The principles of public transport network planning published in 2011. A recommendation was a transformation to a Rapid Bus System with fast trunk lines complimented by feeder lines.

The trunk lines should be distincted by speed, a high frequency and a high capacity. The feeder lines are distincted by deep penetration of the neighborhoods and reliability. Inherent to this system are several changes, needed to the destinations. Those changes demand short waiting times, short distances to walk, comfort, and, very important, tickets that enables the passenger to pay once for the whole ride.

Figure 79 Unconsolidated and consolidated line structure (Dodson)

The existing structure of public transportation is an unconsolidated line structure, according to the distinction showed above. This structure is not efficient, but its logic lies in the past.

In the year 1853 28000 people live in Paramaribo. The city center is the Waterfront and its close proximity. To reach that center the time to walk is never more than half an hour. When the city grows, the demand for public transportation grows with it. In 1933 public transportation is regulated with the Autobusverordening (G.B. 1933 No. 100). All lines are directed to the only center of the city.

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Through the years destinations are spread over the urban area of Paramaribo, but still each ride by bus goes through the city center, which is a general complaint nowadays. The ideal model shows networks of lines on several levels, in the urban area a level with rapid bus of light-rail systems and a level with micro-networks to get to the final destinations.

Figure 80 left: Plan of Paramaribo, litho

by Elias Spanier, 1853, with the former business center in blue; right: Detailed map of Paramaribo, 1916 – 1917, with the focus on the city center

A new ferry service for Meerzorg – Old Jetty

3. CONSIDERATIONS Requirements for rapid bus systems are rapidity, high frequency, high capacity and comfort. For the ferry the requirements should be the same. Also the requirements for the landing places of the ferry are more or less the same as the requirements for the bus stops where people change busses: short walking distances, limited waiting times and comfort. It is not possible to meet these requirements with the present “korjalen�. They are slow and a trip costs 20 minutes, while 5 to 10 minutes would be more appropriate, engines are noisy (in one case 100 dB was measured on 19 March 2019 on a distance of 2 meters from the engine), CO2 emissions are high, boarding costs much time and comfort is low. At Meerzorg passengers can find shelter against sun and rain, busses can be found on a short distance and there are possibilities to buy food and drinks. At Paramaribo facilities lack and people have to walk far for busses. There is hardly any shelter and the environment is filthy and sloppy.

It is obvious that a landing place for pedestrian will have a location in or near the city center, unless the city center is not able to accommodate further transportation. Further transportation of a good quality and near the landing place and a high quality of the public space around the landing place are conditions for success for an improved ferry.

During consultations, the option to consider next to the ferry for pedestrians, bikes and light motorbikes, also a ferry for car transport.

This ferry would serve for emergency transport, for instance by ambulance, when traffic on the bridge is blocked. It could also be used for heavier transport. It is crucial however, to realize that both ferry services should not share the same trajectory, nor serve the same destinations. For a car-ferry, especially when it is used by trucks, a landing place in the city centre is not appropriate, because of the heavy traffic in the inner city and its foreseen conflict with adequate management of the inner city, especially regarding the World Heritage Site. A better place for a car-ferry could be Soeki Baka at Kleine Saramaccastraat. At the Meerzorg side free space (however not public owned) is available immediately south of the existing landing space.

This gives the possibility to use the existing landing space for bus passengers and pedestrians and the free space for parking and for the landing of a car-ferry.

CO2 emissions can be reduced by using electric boats, driven by solar energy or hybrid systems. Solar panels can be placed on the roofs

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of the boats or on the land-side, in which case loading facilities are needed. Combinations are possible.

4. VISION In the situation to be realized boats are used with a flat deck on the same level as the jetty, which enables passengers to board or unboard without obstacles. Boats have a capacity of approximately 60 passengers and are able to have a double number of departures compared with the “korjalen”. Floating jetties are used, connected to the land with hinged bridges.

At the Paramaribo landing place passengers walk straight into a terminal building, with a ticket office an information boot and restrooms. At the other side of the terminal building busses and taxis are available for further transport. The Waterfront is not open for through traffic. Without hindrance by cars public transportation is fast and a fine walkable public space is realized.

There is not enough room for a terminal building at the Meerzorg landing place. For the new situation the choice had been that the public space with the busses is changed into a good walkable place with trees and the busstations, while the entrepreneurs around this place are stimulated to invest in new buildings. Except for busses and taxis this place is forbidden for cars. Cars can be parked on a lot immediately south of the Meerzorg landing space. This parking lot is also the entry for car-ferry which is re-opened for trucks and emergency-vehicles and which has its other landing place at Soekibaka. The car-ferry is however not included in this project.

The floating jetties can accommodate two ferries at a time, with, at the Paramaribo side, a third place for loading batteries of the electric boats.

For the daily services the boats are fitted with solar panels on the roofs. On rainy days and during the evenings and the nights the loading facilities on the jetty are used.

The present owners of the “korjalen” are trained to be the captains of the new boats. They are employed by the new boat company, which company is intregrated in the system of public transportation in Paramaribo. Owners of “korjalen” who refuse to be part of this transition are allowed to organize trips with tourist. For those trips they use the present landing places for the “‘korjalen”.

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5. ACTIONS For the implementation eight electric boats must be bought, each boat with a capacity of 60 passengers. A training in handling these boats in accordance with the rules and requirements of the Maritime Authority is needed. An organization must be established for the exploitation of the boats, linked to the future organization model for public transportation in Paramaribo.

Interventions at the landing places are: • Clearing away the former jetties • Demolition of a small terminal buildimg at the Paramaribo side • Demolition of pavements which are not needed in the new situation • Construction of new jetties • Construction of a terminal building at the Paramaribo side • Construction of sheltered walkways at the Meerzorg side • Construction of a parking lot at the Meerzorg side • Modification of roads at Waterfront Paramaribo • Redesign and reconstruction of public space at and around both landing places, included planting trees • Provision of loading facilities for electric boats at Paramaribo side.

• Adjustments side Waterkant

Figure 81 Sketch of the locations for the pedestrians-ferry and the car ferry

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Figure 82 Sketch of set up at Paramaribo side

Figure 83 Sketch of set up at Meerzorg side

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Figure 84 Reference for Dubai (section) (design by Sybvanbreda &Co, 2016)

Figure 85 Electric Ferry (pictures from the websites https://plugboats.com/ this-solar-ferry-in-india-runs-on2-60-a-day/ and http://navaltboats. com/navalt-first-solar-ferryintroduction/ (visited 3 May 2019)

Figure 86 Former green environment of the landing place (Vailliantsplein, 1920)

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6. CROSS-SECTORAL AND TRANSVERSAL PRIORITIES The proposed actions relate transversally to other priorities identified in the IDB Baseline Studies. The priorities that are addresses include Mobility/transport, Landuse planning/zoning, Energy, -Vulnerability to natural disasters, Education.

MOBILITY AND TRANSPORT The plan aims to contribute to a reversal in the choice of transport modalities by offering good public transportation, also when crossing the Suriname River. With eight boats for 60 passengers each a440 passengers can be transported in one direction per hour. With good connections by public transportation and with attractive areas to be and to walk, the plan can offer an alternative for the use of private cars when passing the Wijdenbosch Bridge.

The plan does not include a car-ferry, especially for trucks and emergancy vehicles, but its leaves the possibilities for a car-ferry fully open.

LANDUSE PLANNING AND ZONING This project relates to landuse planning and zoning one the microscale of the use and the design of public space. Also expectations are that good public transportation will disburden the city center from heavy traffic and parked cars, so the quality of the city center can be improved.

ENERGY This plan aims to be a example for others to promote electric propulsion as a clean and good alternative for propulsion by engines with internal combustion.

Trees on the landing places will raise the environmental quality with lower temperatures and a lower use of energy.

Vulnerability natural disasters Not applicable for this project.

A new ferry service for Meerzorg – Old Jetty

EDUCATION This plan aims to be an example towards acceptation of new ideas. It involves training of boat-personnel targeting safer crossing over the river.

7. CONDITIONS A condition for the success for this project is transformation of public transportation in Paramaribo.

As the representative of the Presidents’ office stated, is the priority for an improved ferry very high, and there is no time wait for transformation of public transportation. This could be overcome by rerouting buslines, so all busses pass the landing place.

A second condition towards acceptation by the government is the establishment for a ferry for freight trucks. In 2011 Prosur counted 27 and 26 heavy trucks in both directions between 6.30 a.m. and 9,00 a.m. Taken into account a growth since 2011, a capacity of 24 trucks each hour is estimated. Two boats per hour with a capacity of 12 boats should be sufficient. A roll on roll off system is needed to guarantee two departures each hour with two boats. Further study is needed.

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8. IMPLEMENTATION PROGRAM DESCRIPTION After the Wijdenboschbrug was built the car ferry between Paramaribo and Meerzorg was closed. The bridge cause a strong growth of the population in the district of Commewijne and an increase of traffic on the bridge with daily traffic jams. Now the Government wants to re-open the ferry, hoping to relieve the traffic problems. When considering this the conclusion is that a ferry for pedestrians and bikers will be more effective and sustainable, when integrated in an improved system of public transportation in Paramaribo. The action plan describes the construction of two landing stages, one at each side of the river, a terminal building at the Paramaribo side, with arrangements for the public space around the terminal building, arrangements for the public space at Meerzorg, the so called Veerplein with a parking lot near that space, and eight sun-powered boats for at least 50i paasengers each.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE IMPLEMENTATION PROGRAM Scope • Setting up an organization for the management of the ferryservices, integration of the services in an existing organization as the NVB (National Transport Company) • Design and construction of landing stages, a terminal building, a parking lot and public space • Acquisition of boats • Training of boat personnel Organisation • Department of Public Works, Transport and Communication in cooperation with NVB and the organization of boat owners, and the Maritime Authority Suriname Timing • pre-feasibility study (3 months) - M1-3 • conceptual design study (3 months) - M4-6 • acquisition of land Meerzorg (7 months) - M6-12 • predesign and feasibility study (4 months) - M6-10 • design Meerzorg jetty and public space (5 months)- M10-14

A new ferry service for Meerzorg – Old Jetty

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• • • • • • •

design Paramaribo jetty and public space (5 months) - M10-14 tendering new fleet of boats (5 months) - M10-14 tendering Meerzorg jetty and public space (3 months) - M14-16 tendering Paramaribo jetty and terminal (3 months) - M14-16 construction Meerzorg jetty and public space (12 months) M17-28 construction Paramaribo jetty + public space (12 months) - M17-28 training and support (2 months training abroad (e.g. India) + 12 months in Suriname - total 14 months) - M17-28 • adjustment of public transport services near the landing places – stakeholders (4 months) - M7-10 • adjustment of public transport services near the landing places – execution (4 months) – M20-24 • purchase of a new fleet of boats (taking into account limited capacity for building boats. Construction time: 2 months per boat + 2 months completion and solar equipment. First set of 6 boats can be expected after 14 months, 2 additional boats after 4 more months. Total for fleet: 18 months) - M15-18/32 Budget Ferry Veerplein/Old Jetty acquisition and construction parking studies realization

terminal Old jetty terminal meerzorg termingal building Old Jetty public space Meerzorg public space Old Jetty boats (fleet of 8 boats) infrastructure electricity and solar installations training and implementation contingencies

2,000 2,000 1,500 1,500 1,500 8,000 1,600 0,150 4,000

25,50 M USD 3,000 0,250 22,250

SMART indicators • Documents to select consultants (M1) • Results of the selecting procedures and contracts (M3) • Architectural and engineering designs (M7) • Architectural and engineering contracting documents (M9) • Selection of contractors (M12) • Delivery of the architectural and civil works (M24) • Selection and contracting the organization consultant (M15) • Design of an organization accepted by stakeholders (M20) • Documents for the establishment of the organization (M21) • Proposal for boats to be acquired (M8) • Contract for the boats (M10) • Delivery of the boats (M24) • Design of a training for personnel (M16) • Delivery of the training for personnel (M25)

LATOUR AS A NODE IN A POLYCENTRIC PMNA

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1. INTRODUCTION The ressort Latour is bound by the Saramacca canal in the North, Menkendam and Nieuw Weergevondenweg in the South, the Martin Luther Kingweg in the East and the district Wanica in the West. For this project the Indira Gandhiweg is chosen as the boundary in the West.

The Inditra Gandhiweg and the Coesewijnestraat together divide the ressort in an eastern and a western part, of which the eastern part is subject in this project.

Figure 87 left: Topographic map of Paramaribo, 1916-1917; right: The plantation Beekhuizen on the map by Bouwmeester, 1907 (archive Dikland)

The maps show that 100 years ago Paramaribos ends at Poelepantje, except for some houses along the Hernhutterstraat. This street is in the southern direction connected with Pad van Wanica (former name of the Indira Gandhiweg) and it connects Paramaribo with settlements in the south, especially through a railway. Another road from Awarradam through Slangenhoutstraat till the place where later the Bruynzeel sawmill was built, gave access to plantations along the Surinameriver. The railway came from pad van Wanica, went through Slangenhioutstraat, Zwartenhovenbrugstraat and Saramaccastraat and ended at the railway station Heiligenweg.

The former pad van Wanica is the western border of the project-area.

Except for the road to the plantations along the Suriname river it was the only road from Paramaribo to the South. From the Hernhutterstraat to the South the Pad van Wanica had four by-roads, Slangenhoutstraat, Toekomstweg, Around Ramgoelamweg and Menkendan neighborhoods were formed in a vishbone structure with blind alleys in abundancy.

Around 1960 several infrastructural projects were carried out with Nieuwe haven, Saramaccadoorsteek, Van ’t Hogerhuysstraat and Martin Luther Kingweg. Slangenhoutstraat, Toekomstweg,

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Ramgoelamweg and Menkendam were cut through by the Van ’t Hogerhuysstraat and the Martin L:uther Kingweg.

Constructing Saramaccadoorsteek made it possible to build an industry parc along the canal with roads to the Martin Luther Kingweg. One of these roads were a new connection between Indira Gandhiweg and Martin Luther Kingweg. A second connection, Latourweg, was constructed immediately North of the streets of Menkendam, which were connected by the Latourweg. A housing project was initiated between Latourweg and the streets of Ramgoelamweg. The southern streets of Ramgoelamweg (Frigiterestraat and Kanhaiweg) were however not connected with the housing project Latour.

Figure 88 Saramaccadoorsteek on the map of Duif and Schalken

Figure 89 Street map of the project area. (www.openstreetmap.org, )

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Figure 90 The four parts of the project area, cut through by the Martin Luther Kingweg

Figure 91 left: Closed Industrieweg at Saronbridge; right: Ramgoelamweg

Latour as a node in a polycentric PMNA

2. PROBLEMS The project area is situated between two main roads from Paramaribo to the South, the Indira Gandhiweg and the Martin Luther Kingweg.

Main connection between these two roads is the Latourweg. Earlier the Industrieweg was a second connection, but this one was closed when the Saronbridge was built. This closure resulted in use of the narrow Ramgoelamweg by through traffic.

Besides the Ramgoelamweg is the main entrance to the neighborhood.

The Latourweg is the main road for through traffic, but is at the same moment main street with a fast development of restaurants and shops.

Visitors park their cars in front of the restaurants and the shops. It hinders other traffic. Trough traffic is also hindered at the crossing with the Indira Gandhiweg and the Martin Luther Kingweg. These crossings have the attention of the government and plans for adaptation are in process, so the crossings are not included in this project.

There is few public space in the project area. Most streets are divided in a paved part and unpaved sidewalks. Mostly those sidewalks are not walkable because of a lack of maintenance, so pedestrians are forced to use the paved parts with the dominant cars. Besides the lack of green in the streets make them hot and very unpleasant for pedestrians and bikers, For the drainage of the area three pumping stations are available, one at Spoorsloot opposite of the Tamanoeaweg, another also at Spoorsloot opposite of the Ramgoelamweg and the third at Saramaccacanal opposite of the Knikkerstraat. There is a backlog in maintenance of the pumping stations. In the Ramgoelamweg and the side streets drain pipes are repaired, and inundations in the Ramgoelamweg are not expected after these repairs.

In the Latourweg problems are more complex. The middle of the road is the lowest part, causing a low speed of the drainage. Inundations are frequent and places to store and overrun water are not available.

The quality of the public space in the project area is low. Figure 9 shows how public space can change in accordance with changes on the private properties along that public space. Through adequate and coordinated transformations a good quality of the whole area can be maintained. The Latourweg however is the same as 60 years ago and did not change with its environment.

211

212

Figure 92 Drainage scheme Latour (from Masterplan Ontwatering Groot Paramaribo, 2000)

Figure 93 Transformation of public space (Ruimtelijke Ontwikkelingsstrategie Woningbouw for Greater Paramaribo, city of Amsterdam, 2011)

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3. VISION A future Latour is developed around that part of the Latourweg with the strong development of shops and restaurants. This part is marked by high quality and walkable public space. Through traffic can not be avoided, but by prohibiting parking in the Latourweg enough space for pedestrians and several activities by people in the streets, can be found. The sports field in the center which is hardly used, is transformed into a city plaza with shops around it. Parking facilities are built on empty plots near the city plaza. A first proposal was to place the busstation in the Latourweg opposite of the new city plaza, is abandoned because of the limited space in the Latourweg. A good place for the busstation is found near the roundabout in the Indira Gandhiweg. This place is big enough to accommodate all busses from the South and the North and also shuttle busses into the neighborhoods in and around the project area.

The project area is in this vision car-free except for local traffic. Two routes for pedestrians and bikers are designed, to enable people to visit schools and shops walking or by bike on a safe and pleasant way.

One route goes along the city plaza and the other along the central bus station. The drainage problem is solved by storing abundant rain-water in infiltration-crates under the pavement of the Latourweg. A repaired pumping station is able to lower the waterlevel to create the conditions for a good functioning of the infiltration-crates. The second intervention to improve drainage in the project area is to plant trees as much as possible. Those trees promote evaporation of water which eases the job of the pumping stations.

The adaptations cause other behaviour of road users with respect to hierarchy of cars, bikers and pedestrians, supported by a changed legislation. Legislation is also changed with respect to parking and establishment of dedicated bus-lanes.

Figure 94 left: Internal connections related to center; right: City Plaza in former vision with bus-station

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4. INTERVENTIONS • Reparation of three pumping stations • Construction of deep drainpipes towards the Tamanoeastraat pumping station • Construction of water crates under the pavement of the Latourweg • Refurbishment of the Ramgoelamweg, the Toekomstweg and side streets for pedestrians and local traffic with special attention for trees • Establishment of routes for pedestrians and bikers • Refurbishment of the Latourweg for pedestrians and trough traffic • Adaptation of the network for electricity in the Latourweg, bringing it under street level • Acquisition of the land for the central bus station, the parking lots and the City Plaza • Establishment of a central bus station, parking garages and the city plaza.

• Establishment of a special code for building shops and houses around the city plaza and the bus station • Design the bus routes from the central bus station to the surrounding neighborhoods with preference for electric driven shuttle busses.

• Installing lading facilities for electric busses • Adaptation of the legislation on traffic with emphasis on parking and hierarchy of road users on dedicated roads

Latour as a node in a polycentric PMNA

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Figure 95 Most important interventions summarized. Bike lanes drawn in red

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5. CROSS-SECTORAL AND TRANSVERSAL PRIORITIES The proposed actions relate transversally to other priorities identified in the IDB Baseline Studies. The priorities that are addresses include Mobility/transport, Landuse planning/zoning, Energy, -Vulnerability to natural disasters, Education

MOBILITY EN TRANSPORT Mobility and transport is addressed by concentrating through traffic on the roads around the project area, by refurbishing the other streets for local traffic, bikers and pedestrians. Another alternative for the use of private cars is the provision of good public transportation, not only in the neighborhood itself, but also with connections to the other parts of Paramaribo.

LANDUSE PLANNING/ZONING Land use planning/zoning is addressed by a policy to propose to discourage the establishment of enterprises, which attract much traffic and to promote housing on empty plots.

ENERGY Energy is addressed by interventions which invite people to chose for walking, biking and use of public transportation instead of the use of private cars. The second invention of planting trees aimes on high evaporation and lower temperatures. The third intervention promotes the use of electric vehicles in public transportation.

VULNERABILITY FOR NATURAL DISASTERS In the project area three sorts of disasters are most expected. First are stormwind with blown away roofs as the common damage. Prevention should be found in the building code and accomplishment of the law.

The building code is not in this project. Second disaster is see-levelrising with a risen level of the Suriname River, resulting in problems with management of the canal-levels. Canal management is not in this project too, but repairing the pumping stations will diminish of water-

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management in the project area on weaknesses in canal-management.

The third disaster is a result of heavier rainstorms, causing inundations.

Rehabilitation of the drainage-system with especially storage in watercrates improves resilience, together with increased evaporation by trees.

EDUCATION Education is not directly addressed, except for the pilot function to show new practises.

6. CONDITIONS There are three important conditions for success. First is a modification of the legislation in traffic, second is a policy on licensing of functions in the project area and enforcement of that policy; and third is transformation of the system of public transportation in Paramaribo

Figure 96 Installing infiltration crates (www.indra-infra.com)

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7. IMPLEMENTATION PROGRAM DESCRIPTION The neighbourhood Latour is a result of private development initiatives and a number of projects by the government around 1960, as the elongation of the Saramacca Canal, the construction of the Martin Luther Kingweg and a housing project along the Latourweg. At the moment Latour is confronted with inundations, a low quality of the public space and problems caused by traffic and parked cars. At the same time entrepreneurs are investing along the Latourweg, however without a vision on spatial and sustainable development of Latour.

Latour is a node in traffic And several buslines from Paramaribo to the South cross Latour.

In this project through traffic on the Latourweg will be addressed together with a further development of a Latour center, public transportation, parking, bikes routes through the neighbourhood. Part of the project aims at the problems of inundations, the need to design for pedestrians and the need to create a green environment.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE IMPLEMENTATION PROGRAM Scope • Addressing water management with reparation of pumping stations and the construction of deep drainpipes and watercrates, • Refurbishment of the Latourweg for through traffic and pedestrians, with parking garages and a city plaza.

• Refurbishment of other streets for pedestrians, bikers and local traffic with special attention for trees.

• Design and construction of a busstation with loading facilities for electric busses.

• Design of busroutes.

• Establishment of adapted building codes for Latour and adaptation of legislation on driving with an emphasis on parking and use of roads.

Organisation • A project team in cooperation with the Department of Public Works, Communications and Transport. This team will hire consultants and contractors for the subprojects.

Latour as a node in a polycentric PMNA

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Timing The project starts with acquisition of adjoining land for the transfer node. Therefore, this project is proposed to start after 24 months – hence the indication “(24+)” in the timing below. This time shift allows the design of this project to go along with findings from the Latour housing quality and unburdening test case (see “strategic actions”) • Acquisition park area (within the period of two year) - M1-24 • Acquisition parking facilities Latour (same period) - M1-24 • Pre-design Latour Neighborhood (stakeholder mapping and consultation) - (24+) M1-3 • Design latourweg, square, parking, traffic routes (4 months) - (24+) M4-7 • Design multimodal transfer node (4 months) - (24+) M4-7 • tendering Latourweg - square - parking - slow traffic routes (3 months) - (24+) M7-10 • preparatory work services in Latourweg (3 months) - (24+) M7-10 • construction works Latourweg - square (18 months) - (24+) 12-30 • construction works transfer-node (14 months) - (24+) 17-30 • inventory and design pumping stations (4 months) - (24+) M1-3 • tendering pumping stations (3 months) - (24+) M4-7 • construction works pumping stations (5 months) - (24+) M12-16 • Construction slow traffic routes (bikers and pedestrians) (4 months) - (24+) M26-30 • Construction parking facilities along Latourweg (4 months) - (24+) M26-30 Budget Latour neighbourhood project studies and fee realization

busterminal with parking upgrade Latourweg public square slow traffic pump station housing project

4,850 3,700 4,000 2,000 4,500 0,250

21,70 M USD 2,400 19,300

SMART indicators • Documents to select consultants (M1) • Results of the selecting procedures and contracts (M4) • Architectural and engineering designs (M9) • Architectural and engineering contracting documents (M11) • Selection of contractors (M16) • Delivery of the architectural and civil works (M36) • A new scheme for public transportation implemented (M30) • New and adapted legislation published in the governmental paper Staatsblad (M28)

STRATEGIC ACTION 1: TEST CASE HOUSING QUALITY AND UNBURDENING HOUSING PROGRAM IN LATOUR

222

DESCRIPTION In this first test case, insights, opportunities and bottlenecks faced in policy studies regarding housing quality assessment and renovation and densification are tested. Here both the assessment and monitoring system for housing quality is tested but also a program to support and encourage renovation and densification is tested. Through a project in which landlords and home-owners are technical, administrative and financial unburdened by an onsite ‘housing and construction store’ ran by public servants combined with external experts. An assessment of their current living situation in which their housing quality issues, their desires and deprivation is discussed with owners and residents.

Through design the options of the existing constructions and plot are explored. Together it will be decided if new buildings will be constructed, existing buildings will be replaced, topped-up, expanded or will be renovated within the existing volume of the building.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE TEST CASE Scope • Housing quality: assessing the housing quality of the entire neighborhood through field research, analyzing field research • Selecting 10 - 20 individual test cases or 4 groups of houses in Latour => minimum objective: 10 individual houses or 2 groups of houses • Evaluation of the applied strategy and outcome of the test case

Figure 97 Housing stock in Latour (source: Laporte, 2019)

Strategic Action 1: test case housing quality and unburdening housing program in Latour

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Figure 97 Housing stock in Latour (source: Laporte, 2019)

Figure 97 Housing stock in Latour (source: Laporte, 2019)

224

Figure 98 conceptual visualisation of the renovation options within Latour (source: Heirman, 2019)

Strategic Action 1: test case housing quality and unburdening housing program in Latour

Relation to the policy studies • Housing quality assessment, renovation and densification through unburdening of landlords and home-owners.

Organisation • Tentative ‘housing quality and unburdening program’ public projectteam (SVS, OW and LISP + external project manager) + professional project members: project management, architecture and policy development Timing • Total: 28 months • Selecting consultant (1M – 3M): three months • Setting up data monitoring system and gathering data regarding housing quality (4M – 15M): 12 months • Selecting families and houses (8M – 15M): 8 months • Design, administrative, financial and technical support (12M – 23M): 12 months • Evaluation (24M – 28M): 5 months Budget Latour housing test case

Setting up data monitoring system and gathering data regarding housing quality Design, administrative, financial and technical support Construction costs of extensions, renovations or replacements Evaluation

0,075

0,450 M USD

0,100 0,250 0,025

SMART indicators • Number of households interested to enter the test case • Number of houses/plots that were improved or constructed within the test case • Number of households living in improved living conditions • Timing of the project was respected • Lessons learned result in the possibility to multiply the approach to other neighborhoods or citywide implementation programs

225

STRATEGIC ACTION 2: TEST CASE DENSIFYING THE CITY CENTRE: HOUSING AND ADAPTIVE REUSE

228

This case concerns opportunities for housing and homeless shelter in RK Bisdom Monastery (sisters of Paramaribo) and Boarding school Henck Arronstreet 70 - 74

DESCRIPTION In order to make the reuse of empty buildings within the compact city more tangible, one case has been worked out. The case used here was brought to us by RK Bisdom themselves. They have two buildings within the compact city that need to be reprogrammed. One building is a monastery that was that was constructed in traditional wooden materials at the end of the nineteenth century ( protected as historical heritage) and a chapel from the 1950’s. The second building is a former boarding school that has a restored wooden front building with a large concrete extension. Both buildings are very spacious and in good conditions.

Within the test case a new renting model will be tested. The monastery will be leased to the Ministry of SoZaVo for a long period or to an interested ngo or private investor to install housing for students, starters, single parent families and/or elderly. The ministry received support (grant or loan) from IDB or other financial organisations to reprogram the monastery. The newly programmed building will be subject for leasing out housing units to students, starters, single parent families and/or elderly. The exact target group of renters needs to be assessed during the elaboration of the test case. Within the conditions of the financial support preconditions for the lease contracts must be included. The beneficiary (SoZaVo, ngo or private investor) is obliged to rent to specific target group with leasing contracts that include more regulations to secure housing quality and secure tenure for the renters.

Due to the structure of the building, the boarding school is more suitable for a group accommodation and social functions such as a homeless shelter. The boarding school is situated in an area where homeless citizens sleep on the porches of the public buildings in the inner city. The new homeless shelter can be managed by SoZaVo or by other ngo’s, foundations or interested private companies. The project starts with a long lease of the building to the new managing institute of the homeless shelter. Then this institution can receive financial support (grant or loan) from IDB or other financial organisations to reprogram the boarding school into a homeless shelter with night shelter but also additional services such as a basic medical assistance, psychological counselling or social services. Then a management plan to run the homeless shelter will be worked out. If SoZaVo is renter of RK Bisdom and manager of the project, they can still seek support from civil society organisations to support them in running the homeless shelter.

Strategic Action 2: Test case densifying the city centre: housing and adaptive reuse

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Figure 99 pictures of the monastery and boarding school, Henk Arronstreet (Dirk Laporte, 2019)

Figure 100 conceptual presentation of the new renting model (source: Heirman, 2019)

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CHARACTERISTICS OF THE TEST CASE Scope • Testing and raising awareness for a new rental model: grant for rental with conditions • Boarding school: homeless shelter and care units (administration, doctor, administrator of social services, medication unit (locked), pedicure, dressing room for staff and security, diner, kitchen, bedrooms (men and women separate), units for showers ) • Monastery and chapel (monument): housing units for Surinamese students, starters or elderly • Institutional strategy to regulate: leasing of common properties, selling of potential individual properties on the plot of the monastery, and contracts, monitoring if the preconditions of the leasing, selling and maintenance are followed • Evaluation of the applied strategy and outcome of the test case Relation to studies • renovation and densification through activating empty public and religious buildings, homeless and informal housing Organization • Professional project team with expertise in heritage, architecture and housing – homeless policy to work out a restoration and redevelopment plan (housing opportunities and opportunities for shelter of the homeless) Timing • Total: 40 months • Selecting consultant (1M – 3M): three months • Research, design of reprogramming monastery and boarding school (4M – 15M): 12 months • Construction of shelter and rental housing units (16M – 34M): 18 months • Evaluation (35M – 40M): 6 months

Strategic Action 2: Test case densifying the city centre: housing and adaptive reuse

Budget Innercity densification and adaptive reuse test case Renovation, restoration and design of reprogramming study Renovation for homeless shelter for 50 homeless (fire safety, kitchen, dining room, sanitair, recreation, support): Restoration of monastery and chapel (monument) for rental housing Development of business plans Evaluation

0,075

0,900 M USD

0,350

0,400 0,050 0,025

SMART indicators • Number of houses constructed, number of homeless that can be accommodated in the shelter • Number of homeless people that use the shelter • Number of interested households to rent housing units in monastery, number of households living on site • Timing of the project was respected • Lessons learned result in the possibility to multiply the approach to other empty buildings

231

STRATEGIC ACTION 3: TEST CASE INTEGRATED PPP ACTIONS IN CLEVIA, INCLUDING HOUSING DENSIFICATION ON EMPTY PLOTS

234

DESCRIPTION Within Clevia group housing of Javanese families was detected. Here, different families live together on one building plot by building several smaller houses or sheds together. Hence, overcrowded and low housing quality situations can appear. In order to overcome these issues and to anticipate on current but also future housing demand, a new housing system has been developed by studenten of the University of Antwerp in which traditional Javanese housing culture aspects are combined with housing quality aspects. Working out and actually supporting the construction of a qualitative and flexible group housing project can result in a representative project that can be an inspiration to others.

This housing project can be linked to other neighborhood improvement activities. Such area specific activities and investments should be explored further.

Figure 101 design impressions of qualitative and flexible Javanese group Housing (Peeters and Voorspoels 2017)

Strategic Action 3: Test case integrated PPP actions in Clevia, including housing densification on empty plots

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Figure 102 design impressions of qualitative and flexible Javanese group Housing (Peeters and Voorspoels 2017)

Figure 103 design impressions of qualitative and flexible Javanese group Housing (Peeters and Voorspoels 2017)

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CHARACTERISTICS OF THE TEST CASE Scope • Selecting empty plots and negotiating with land owners to develop on conditions of the project • Designing and constructing at least 5 and maximum 10 houses • Regulation of preconditions related to the administrative, financial and technical support for constructing new housing on empty plots • Detecting opportunities for PPP actions • Appointing neighborhood manager • Setting up neighborhood initiatives and managing them (mobility, sports, water sanitation and retention)…

• Evaluation of the applied strategy and outcome of the testcase Relation to studies • renovation and densification through unburdening of landlords and home-owners, integrated PPP actions in specific areas Organization • Tentative ‘densifying by resolving vacant plots’ public projectteam (SVS, OW + external project manager) + professional project members: project management, architecture and policy development Timing • Total: 38 months • Selecting consultant (1M – 3M): three months • Research, design and development (4M – 15M): 12 months • Construction (16M – 33M): 18 months • Selection and design of neighborhood actions (7M – 12M): 6 months • Implementation of neighbourhood actions (13M – 24M): 12 months • Neighborhood management (13M – 36M): 24 months • Evaluation (34M – 38M): 5 months

Strategic Action 3: Test case integrated PPP actions in Clevia, including housing densification on empty plots

Budget Integrated PPP actions in Clevia including housing densification on empty plots 0,585 M USD Selecting plots, negotiations, design of new houses Construction of min. 5 and max. 10 group houses Evaluation:

Costs of PPP actions are included in the integrated project of Clevia Evaluation

0,050 0,500 0,010 0,000 0,025

SMART indicators • Number of households interested for housing and PPP actions • Number of households engaging to construct new houses and participate in PPP actions • Number of houses constructed • Number of PPP actions elaborated • Timing of the project was respected • Lessons learned result in the possibility to multiply the approach to other neighborhoods

237

STRATEGIC ACTION 4: TEST CASE SMALL AND MID-SIZE RESIDENTIAL FARMSTEAD IN CLEVIA

240

DESCRIPTION For the implementation of residential farmsteads in an urbanized or urbanizing area, few references and models are available, particularly when taking into account the specific conditions of Suriname. There is a need for the development of new models and typologies. In order to have a proper underpinning of the rationales of such new models and typologies, it is necessary to test its preconditions within the field. A test case can contribute to the detection of these preconditions. As Clevia is located in Paramaribo – North, close to the vulnerable wetlands, it is an opportunity to reprogram the open plots on the edges of the community of Clevia. Hence, a more sustainable manner to finish the edges of the community and to preserve further developments can start by introducing the urban farmsteads in Clevia. By positioning them in Clevia, they also make a symbioses with all other activities from this Action Plan.

Strategic Action 4: Test case small and mid-size residential farmstead in Clevia

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Figure 104 conceptual urban farmstead allotment and plot – axonometry of a productive entity (De Feyter, 2017)

Figure 105 conceptual urban farmstead allotment and plot – axonometry of a one-house productive unit (De Feyter, 2017)

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CHARACTERISTICS OF THE TEST CASE Scope • Selecting 2 larger plots to develop urban farmstead allotment => objective 1 plot with 10 farmsteads • Negotiation on preconditions of the design, designing the urban farmstead • Constructing urban farmstead • Evaluation of the applied strategy and outcome of the test case Relation to studies • densification through urban farmstead, unburdening of landlords and home-owners.

Organisation • Tentative ‘housing unburdening program’ public projectteam (SVS, LVV, OW and LISP + external project manager) + professional project members: project management, architecture and policy development Timing • Total: 3 years • Select consultants (1M – 3M): 3 months • Research, design and develop construction plans (4M – 15M): 12 months • Construction (16M – 33M): 18 months • Evaluation (34M – 36M): 3 months

Strategic Action 4: Test case small and mid-size residential farmstead in Clevia

Budget Small and mid-size residential farmstead in Clevia test case Construction of 1 allotment with 10 farmsteads Evaluation

0,600 0,010

0,610 M USD

SMART indicators • Number of households interested • Number of households engaging to construct • Number of farmsteads constructed • Timing of the project was respected • Lessons learned result in the possibility to multiply the approach to other empty building

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STRATEGIC ACTION 5: BICYCLE PROMOTION

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DESCRIPTION OF THE ACTION The network of bicycle trails (dedicated lane on a road) and bicycle streets (mixed system, bikers can take priority on the cars) in Paramaribo-Noord make part of the blue-green network. Although cycling can reduce traffic jams and greenhouse gas pollution, Surinamers generally don’t use the bicycle for home-work-school transport because the roads are unsafe and the climate is too hot.

Hence recreational bicycle use is becoming more popular. Safer bicycle streets and electric bikes might stimulate bicycle use, but participatory design with inhabitants, schools, companies, during urban living labs in the neighbourhoods will be needed to instigate a real mind shift. This strategic action is about accomplishing a living lab on the realization of a test case of two north-south bicycle arteries - one through the western neighbourhoods and one through the eastern neighbourhoods - and several east-west connections. The eastern artery is located on calm secondary residential roads, along canals and parallel to the main car arteries of the wilheminastraat and the Anton Drachtenweg. Street cuts, bicycle bridges over canals and one-way streets for cars will prevent cut-through traffic that circumvent congestion on the main arteries. The western artery is a bicycle trail on the Tourtonnelaan. The unroll of the bicycle-street network should start with the access of the schools.

Strategic Action 5: Bicycle promotion

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Figure 106 Proposal for a bicycle street in Clevia (De Feyter 2019)

Figure 107 Network of bicycle trails: two north-south arteries and several east-west connections (ISTT, 2019)

248

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE TEST CASE: Scope The development of the strategic action for bicycle promotion includes: • Use the preliminary insights of the Blue-Green Network to design a network of bicycle trails (dedicated lane on a road) and bicycle streets (mixed system, bikers can take priority on the cars) • Identify try – out locations for bicycle streets and bicycle trails in Paramaribo North through discussing potential routes for the bicycle network with resort boards, school and neighbourhood groups • Designing an adapted car and bicycle circulation plan for Paramaribo-Noord • Designing wooden bicycle canal bridges • Discuss the new circulation plan with resort boards, school and neighbourhood groups etc.

• Realize the layout of the bicycle arteries using paint and concrete barriers • Building wooden bicycle canal bridges • Setting up information campaigns • Stimulate bicycle use by organizing a serise of car free Sundays, including the organization of a set of recreational activities to promote the advantages of a car free urban environment. A potential location can be Tourtonne (car-free Tourtonne market on Sunday morning) or Josephine Samson Greenstraat (a collective car-free terrace for all warungs on Saturday evening)(connects with strategic action “Urban tactics car-free public domain -Tourtonne market – Warung action”) • valuation of the applied strategy and outcome of the testcase Relation to studies • Development of strategic action for bicycle promotion links to following baseline studies: • Green House Gas report • Hazard and Risk study • Mobility Study • Prioritization filter report

Strategic Action 5: Bicycle promotion

249

Organisation • External consultancy including a multi-disciplinary team: landscape architect and/or urban planner, transportation expert, communication specialist or event manager • The external consultancy cooperates with existing initiatives and local experts in the field of bicycle transportation and civil engagement initiatives in Paramaribo Timing • total: 1 year • Selecting consultant (1M -2M): 2 months • Analysis and design of bicycle network (3M – 5M): 3 months • Organization of bicycle promoting initiatives (day, evening, morning…) (6M – 11M): 6 months • Organization of tentative bicycle streets (6M – 11M): 6 months • Evaluation (12M): 1 month Budget Bicycle promotion actions

consultancy, organisation of activities slow network interventions, bicycle bridges, and other small interventions

0,050 0,050

0,100 M USD

SMART indicators • Number of bicycle streets that have been set up • Number of car free days and other bicycle promoting activities that have been organized • Number of people attending the car free days and other bicycle promoting activities • Number of civilian initiatives organized during car free days

STRATEGIC ACTION 6 URBAN TACTICS CAR-FREE PUBLIC DOMAIN – TOURTONNE MARKET/WARUNG NEIGHBORHOOD

252

DESCRIPTION OF THE ACTION The strategic action (5) of the realization of a network of bicycle trails in Paramaribo-Noord should be preceded by strategic action (6): placemaking events /urban tactics that promote bicycle use and change mentality regarding use of car. The idea is to organize recreative events that stimulate residents to discover the potentialities of cycling and walking in a car-free urban public space.

E.g a try-out of a car-free Tourtonnemarkt and a temporary transformation of the Josephine Samson Greenstaat in a collective carfree terrace for all the warungs on a Saturday evening.

Figure 108 Proposal for a car-free Sunday at the Tourtonne market

Strategic action 6: Urban tactics car-free public domain – Tourtonne Market/Warung neighborhood

253

Figure 109 Tourtonne market in ParamariboNoord

Figure 110 Reference for a temporary transformation of the Josephine Samson Greenstaat in a collective car-free terrace for all the warungs on a Saturday evening (reference: Rua Mamede SimĂľes, Recife, Brazil)

254

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE ACTION Scope • Observation and social analysis of the two locations • Discussing and adjusting the urban tactics ideas with stakeholders (market board, warung proprietor, police, resort boards etc.)

• Iterative design for the lay-out of the urban tactics • Asking permission for temporary closing of the streets • Promotion campaign to invite people to build and to attend the events • Realize the urban tactics together with residents, children • Evaluation of the events Relation to studies • Relation to the baseline studies • Green House Gas report • Hazard and Risk study • Mobility Study • Prioritization filter report Relation to other studies in the action plan • Flexible masterplan BGN Paramaribo - North Organisation • External consultancy including a multi-disciplinary team: event manager, communication specialist, landscape architect and/or urban planner • The consultancy team cooperates with the consultancy team of the BRT, BGN and the strategic action for promoting bicycle use in Paramaribo • The consultancy team cooperates with existing initiatives and local experts in the field of bicycle transportation and civil engagement initiatives in Paramaribo

Strategic action 6: Urban tactics car-free public domain – Tourtonne Market/Warung neighborhood

Timing • total: 1 year • Selecting consultant (1M -2M): 2 months • Conceptualizing and preparation of the organization of a car-free Tourtonne market (3M – 5M): 3 months • Conceptualizing and preparation of the organization of a car-free Warung street terrace (3M – 5M): 3 months • Organization of at least 6 car-free Tourtonne market and 6 car-free Warung street terrace (day, evening, morning…) (6M – 11M): 6 months • Evaluation (12M): 1 month Budget Urban tactics car-free public domain Tourtonne market – Warung nbh urban tactics

0,050

0,050 M USD

SMART indicators • Number of car free days that have been organized • Number of people attending the car free days • Number of civilian initiatives organized during car-free activities • Number of civil society organizations that contributed to the organization of the car-free activities • Number of feedback by regular and social media

255

ANNEX

258

IDB ESC Action Plan Paramaribo Gantt chart - overview of the actions 11.07.2019

Blue-Green Network for Paramaribo-North study masterplan construction studies Living Labs construction housing and landuse study Housing quality study Renovation and densification study vacancy study Homeless and informal housing study Institutional study of integrated PPP actions in specific areas Cost of sprawl calculation for Paramaribo Housing quality implementation program Unburdening program renovation, expansion, replacement and densification of housing Integrated PPP actions in specific areas Study on the opportunities for urban farmstead Implementation program: urban farmstead BRT as a new backbone for urban mobility pre-tender study design study for tender realization Ferry Old Jetty-Meerzorg pre-tender study design study for tender realization Latour Neigborhood project pre-tender study and acquisition design study for tender realization Strategic actions Latour housing test case Innercity densification and adaptive reuse test case (RK Bisdom) Integrated PPP actions in Clevia including housing densification on empty plots Small and mid-size residential farmstead in Clevia test case Bicycle promotion actions.

Tourtonne market.

legenda study/research/evalution living labs/urban tactics/small interventions construction works

Gantt chart overview of the Action Plan

YEARYEAR 1 1 I II IIIII months months 1 14 47

quarters quarters I

YEARYEAR 2 2 YEARYEAR 3 3 YEARYEAR 4 4 YEARYEAR 5 5 >5 year >5 year IIIIV IVI I II IIIII IIIIV IVI I II IIIII IIIIV IVI I II IIIII IIIIV IVI I II IIIII IIIIV IV 710 10 13 13 16 16 19 19 22 22 25 25 28 28 31 31 34 34 37 37 40 40 43 43 46 46 49 49 52 52 55 55 58 58

259

260

Global overview of the budget of the Action Pla

261

IDB ESCI Action Plan Paramaribo overview budget - detail per action 10/07/2019

studies a flexible masterplan towards a Blue-Green Network for Paramaribo-North study cost masterplan study costs construction works Living Labs construction costs Housing and land use policy and implementation study

73,81 M USD 0,200 3,960 3,650 66,000 13,66 M USD

Housing quality study

0,400 M USD

Renovation and densification study

0,090 M USD

vacancy study

0,265 M USD

Homeless and informal housing study

0,090 M USD

Institutional study of integrated PPP actions in specific areas

0,125 M USD

Cost of sprawl calculation for Paramaribo

0,210 M USD

Housing quality implementation program

0,675 M USD

Unburdening program renovation, expansion, replacement and densification of housing

4,275 M USD

Integrated PPP actions in specific areas

0,675 M USD

Study on the opportunities for urban farmstead

0,180 M USD

Implementation program: urban farmstead

6,675 M USD

BRT urban backbone Latour – Paramaribo-North study cost pre-tender (predesign, feasibility) study cost design till tender realisation cost projects Ferry Veerplein/Old Jetty acquisition and construction parking studies realization

35,93 M USD 0,500 4,500 30,930

Latour neighbourhood project studies and fee realization strategic actions total strategic actions

21,70 M USD 2,400 19,300

25,50 M USD 3,000 0,250 22,250

2,70 M USD

Latour housing test case

0,450 M USD

Innercity densification and adaptive reuse test case

0,900 M USD

Integrated PPP actions in Clevia including housing densification on empty plots

0,585 M USD

Small and mid-size residential farmstead in Clevia test case

0,610 M USD

Bicycle promotion actions

0,100 M USD

Urban tactics car-free public domain Tourtonne market – Warung neighborhood

0,050 M USD

ACTION PLAN FOR PARAMARIBO 2019