For the first time in human history, there are now more people living in towns than villages. Urban areas are struggling to cope as more and more rural dwellers drift to city-margins in search of better prospects. In slums and shantytowns services like sewage, housing and waste barely exist. Hands On - City Slickers visits five cities around the world where citizens groups and neighbourhood committees are finding ways of working with cash-strapped local councils to help realise their dream of a roof over their heads, a decent job and clean, safe streets.

Home Zone

Bristol, a densely populated city in the west of the UK. Like many urban areas, affordable housing here is in short supply. Rising house prices make it very hard for young people to buy their first home, but in a disused yard a group of people are proving the housing crisis can be beaten - by building it themselves.

Ashley Vale is an inner city district of Bristol. When a local scaffolder's yard became vacant, residents got together to stop a commercial developer building high-density housing for big profit. The protest group ended up submitting their own plans for a more unusual development based on energy efficiency and local community needs.

The residents have clubbed together to win discounts on building materials and fittings and to gather reclaimed materials that would otherwise be thrown away. Although each house reflects the different needs of its residents, they have a number of features in common. The site was already covered with thick concrete so the foundations were quick and easy to make. The house frames were constructed on concrete blocks using sustainably managed timber, a quick job if ready-made sections are used. These houses boast the very latest in sustainable building techniques and will save money for the residents as well as minimising the environmental impact.

The group plans to transform an old office block on the site into small business units to rent out to people who otherwise would have to commute. These house builders took a gamble by buying plots of land, before planning permission was finalised, but this may not be the best model for creating long-term affordable housing. A housing association has bought several plots to build affordable accommodation in the future. The other self-builders hope the development's benefits will spread into the wider community.

As the people at Ashley Vale have found, spare time, vision, and a shared building experience makes a strong sense of community.

Bamboo Breakthrough

Sprawling suburbs of makeshift homes surround Guayaquil, Ecuador's biggest city, and the worst economic conditions in the country's history have created a housing crisis. Forty-five percent of Guayaquil's population live in shacks. But now an ambitious programme will create new homes using one of the world's oldest building materials - bamboo.

Every year another 50,000 people migrate to the city. The squatters build ramshackle huts that lack basic services like electricity and clean water. There's little protection from the elements. After three years, squatters can gain ownership of their land, but even then a proper house is out of their reach.

Hogar De Christo is a non-profit organisation which works with the government to develop housing programmes. They are operating an innovative scheme to get people into decent housing as quickly as possible, using factory-made bamboo homes. Fifty prefabricated houses are produced a day. They last less than ten years, but they are very cheap - around $400. The cost is covered by an interest-free loan.

Two weeks after their loan is approved, clients come to the factory to pick up their flat pack self-assembling house kit. Everything is included, even the nails. One woman plans to put up her house in just two days.

Families often struggle to repay the house loan, so Hogar De Christo offers training and additional loans to help start up micro-enterprises. By saving even small amounts, people can keep ahead.

Bamboo has always been valued for house-building in rural areas, where it's freely available. But now it's beginning to be grown commercially. There is a downside. Some of the timber used is from an endangered tree, the rosafora mangel. Even though it provides a durable building material, it is expected that Hogar De Christo will stop using it for the sake of the environment.

Thanks to Hogar de Christo's housing programme, many more of Guayaquil's shack-dwellers will have a comfortable place to call home.

Clean Klong

Chiang Mai, Thailand, once part of the ancient kingdom of Lana Tai. This city of 1,000 temples is no longer a sleepy provincial capital and the remaining fragments of the city's ancient heritage now drive a booming tourist industry. Job opportunities have attracted migrants from afar, but with the shortage of housing, impoverished newcomers have squatted in areas of historic importance along the city's canals, known as klongs. Now a new project plans to secure the city's heritage and protect its most vulnerable inhabitants.

The settlement of Klong Makar spans a narrow strip of land between the historical Makar canal and the ancient city wall. For the authorities, the area is an eyesore, polluting the klong, spreading disease and damaging the city wall. Fed up with the constant threat of eviction, Klong Makar's residents decided to take action. Their strategy was to prove they could be trusted as custodians of the city's heritage by repairing the historical wall and cleaning up the klong.

The next step was to enlist the help of the Chiang Mai community network. The inhabitants of Klong Makar needed credibility with the local authority before they could lobby for long-term land rights. The local authority was so impressed it granted the community a 30-year lease, securing the future of this once illegal settlement. Residents can now invest in the community, safe in the knowledge their homes are here to stay.

Now with secure homes, the community has turned its energy to earning a better living. A recycling plant, owned and maintained by community members, provides jobs and collective bargaining power gives them a better price when selling to merchants. The Chiang Mai community network has also set up a lucrative water bottling plant selling clean drinking water throughout the city. A group of migrants from a hill tribe also make traditional handicrafts for the tourists.

Every night they make the short journey to Chiang Mai's famous night market to sell their distinctive products. A savings group organised by community members means they can borrow money for long-term projects like home improvements, and for unexpected emergencies. By making themselves part of the solution, the community has achieved not only a clean klong but also a more secure future. All in all life is better for everyone.

VIP Treatment

Lusaka, Zambia, a bustling African city with a problem to match. Lusaka's poor sanitation can be a killer, but now a partnership is proving a big success in combating the city's health crisis. The Mandevu compound is home to 20,000 people. Joyce Phiri and her family have endured poor sanitation since they moved here over 30 years ago.

But thanks to a scheme backed by DFID's City Community Challenge Fund, or C3, a global initiative designed to encourage partnership between communities and councils, the risk of disease is being cut dramatically. The residents of Mandevu have embraced the project enthusiastically. Giving their labour for free, they've embarked on an ambitious programme to construct and maintain nearly 1500 metres of flood-resistant drainage.

The residents' development committee meets regularly to discuss progress on the project. The funds are administered by Care International, which organises drop-in sessions to train community members in project management.

In the bustling marketplace of Chazanga, challenge funds are also being used to construct a ventilated improved pit latrine, or VIP for short. Local residents' committees choose projects themselves, ensuring they'll be followed through. Unlike the traditional pit latrine, the VIP toilet is carefully sited, so it doesn't contaminate the water table. It's also designed so there's no chance of a leak.

After all their hard work to build the latrines, residents have a powerful motivation to make sure they stay well maintained, and now they can begin to enjoy the health benefits of proper sanitation.

Return of the Vacutugs

Kalyanpur slum in Dhaka, Bangladesh, is home to 10,000 people. The narrow crowded streets are permanently crammed with rickshaws but there are new kids on the block causing quite a stir. It's the first ever visit to this slum by the Vacutugs, or the "mother and baby" as they're more affectionately known. They are machines that suck the human waste sludge from latrine pits.

Only one third of the city is connected to the main sewers, leaving the rest of the population to rely on pit latrines and septic tanks. Traditionally septic tanks are emptied by people called sweepers, but the job is hazardous to their health, takes many hours to do, and the excrement is tipped into the nearest pond or ditch, creating unpleasant and unsanitary conditions for those living nearby. Sewage disposal is not only a problem for slum dwellers. Many middle and upper class homes in Dhaka also rely on pit latrines and sweepers to get rid of their toilet waste. Now sweepers can use the Vacutug machines to do the job in a much healthier way. Richer people pay the market rate for sewage removal but slum areas are subsidised by only being charged operating costs.

In 1999, Water Aid Bangladesh, with its national partner DSK, Dushtha Shasthya Kendra, imported Vacutug Mark 1 from Ireland. It's doing a fine job in other parts of Dhaka, but in Kalyanpur its two foot wide streets are just too narrow for such a large tug. So Vacutug Mark 2, a combined main and satellite model, was designed and manufactured locally.

The small or baby model is ideal for single family pit latrines. It can reach parts mother can't reach, but for bigger jobs like a community toilet block, mother is best. It can handle almost 2,000 litres of sewage, about four times Vacutug Mark 1. The combination is a great success. The satellite tank simply empties its sewage load into the waiting mother tank, it then heads off down the narrow lanes to clean out yet another pit latrine. After that wobbly journey, the next job is to de-slush the latrine.

After a hectic day in Kalyanpur, the Vacutugs are sedately driven off to Dhaka's sewage treatment plant, where they safely and hygienically disgorge their load.