Community perceptions of environmental and living conditions in the Alexandra informal settlements, Johannesburg, South Africa

M.A.The informal settlement’s environment present multiple disadvantages that include missing and inadequate infrastructure and services, and vulnerability to environmental shocks. The congested urban environments are especially risk ridden from pollution, sewage and crime. Most of these places are in variously steep, low-lying areas, and too close to waterways. The worst depravation that come with living in this areas are seasonal in nature, including damage by flood and unsanitary conditions from flood water mixed with sewage. Most of the urban poor are endangered by the places and the physical conditions where they live. They experience problems with water, precarious shelter, poor sanitation and dangerous electrical connections. The poor communities build improper shelter out of the material they collect from around their place, which lack infrastructure and services provided for the better off. Perception is the process by which individuals organise and interpret the sensory impression in order to give a meaning to their environment. People’s judgement and actions are based on perception. Perceptions vary from person to person. Different people perceive different things about the same situation. But more than that, people assign different meanings to what they perceive. And the meanings might change for a certain person. One might change one's perspective or simply make things mean something else. The study describes the living and environmental conditions in the Alexandra informal settlement. It also describes the way in which the people of Alexandra interpret the situation around them, how they survive and what they do to improve the situation. In order to improve and sustain the quality of the surrounding environment and housing, one needs to have perceived that there is something wrong