Slums, Its Causes and Countermeasures
- 1. SLUMS MUDASSIR HAQQANI COURSE: URBAN AND REGIONAL PLANNING NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF URBAN INFRASTRUCTURE PLANNING
- 2. SLUMS
- 3. INTRODUCTION • Slum is a predominantly overcrowded area where dwelling are unfit for human habitation. • UN-Habitat defines a slum household as a group of individuals living under the same roof in an urban area who lack one or more of the following: • Durable housing of a permanent nature that protects against extreme climate conditions. • Sufficient living space (not more than three people sharing the same room). • Easy access to safe water and sanitation in the form of a private or public toilet shared by a reasonable number of people.
- 6. CHARACTERISTICS OF SLUMS • The Slums are unpleasant on the eyes, the structures appear to be deteriorated and to be of over-age. • The standards of sanitation are very low in slums, the sickness and death rates are very high. • The slum is overcrowded with buildings and the buildings are overcrowded with people. • The slum is an area of the poor, occupied by people with the lowest income. • Extreme poverty means high crime rate and disorganized masses.
- 7. GLOBAL URBAN POPULATION LIVING IN SLUMS
- 8. CAUSES THAT CREATE SLUM 1. URBANIZATION: • The formation of slums is closely linked to urbanization. • Urbanization might also force some people to live in slums when it influences land use by transforming agricultural land into urban areas and increases land value. • The transformation of agricultural land also provides surplus labor, as peasants have to seek jobs in urban areas as rural-urban migrant workers. 2. POOR HOUSING PLANNING • Lack of affordable low cost housing and poor planning encourages the supply side of slums. • Insufficient financial resources and lack of coordination in government bureaucracy are two main causes of poor housing planning.
- 9. CAUSES THAT CREATE SLUM(CONT.) 3. POOR INFRASTRUCTURE AND ECONOMIC STAGNATION: • Poor infrastructure forces the poor to adapt to conditions beyond his or her control. Poor families that cannot afford transportation, or those who simply lack any form of affordable public transportation, generally end up in squat settlements within walking distance or close enough to the place of their formal or informal employment. • A growing economy that creates jobs at rate faster than population growth, offers people opportunities and incentive to relocate from poor slum to more developed neighborhoods. Economic stagnation, in contrast, creates uncertainties and risks for the poor, encouraging people to stay in the slums.
- 10. CAUSES THAT CREATE SLUM(CONT.) 4. POVERTY: • Urban poverty encourages the formation and demand for slums. With rapid shift from rural to urban life, poverty migrates to urban areas. The urban poor arrives with hope, and very little of anything else. They typically have no access to shelter, basic urban services and social amenities. Slums are often the only option for the urban poor. 5. SOCIAL CONFLICTS AND NATURAL DISASTERS: • Slums are formed as the result of social conflicts or wars as well as well as natural disasters in poor nations. • People escape their houses to temporary tent cities and slums which eventually tend to become permanent because the residents do not want to leave because their houses are damaged and they cannot afford to rebuild them.
- 11. COUNTERMEASURES 1. SLUM REMOVAL • This strategy for dealing with slums is rooted in the fact that slums typically start illegally on someone else’s land property, and they are not recognized by the state. As the slum started by violating another's property rights, the residents have no legal claim to the land. • Slum clearance removes the slum, but it does not remove the causes that create and maintain the slum.
- 12. COUNTERMEASURES(CONT.) 2. SLUM RELOCATION • Slum relocation strategies rely on removing the slums and relocating the slum poor to free semi-rural peripheries of cities, sometimes in free housing. • This strategy ignores several dimensions of a slum life. The strategy sees slum as merely a place where the poor lives.
- 13. COUNTERMEASURES(CONT.) 3. SLUM UPGRADING • Some governments have begun to approach slums as a possible opportunity to urban development by slum upgrading. • The approach seeks to upgrade the slum with basic infrastructure such as sanitation, safe drinking water, safe electricity distribution, paved roads, rain water drainage system, and bus/metro stops. • The assumption behind this approach is that if slums are given basic services and tenure security – that is, the slum will not be destroyed and slum residents will not be evicted, then the residents will rebuild their own housing.
- 14. BIGGEST SLUMS IN WORLD • Khayeltisha, Cape Town, South Africa • Kibera, Nairobi, Kenya • Dharavi, Mumbai, India • Orangi Town, Karachi, Pakistan • Neza-Chalco-Itza, Mexico City, Mexico
- 15. SLUMS IN PAKISTAN 1. ORANGI TOWN, KARACHI, PAKISTAN • Widely cited as Asia’s largest slum, Orangi Town is believed to be home to around 2.4 million people according to the report although the exact figure remains unknown. • The settlement’s population exploded in the early 1970s, when thousands of people migrated from East Pakistan after the 1971 war of independence.
- 16. SLUMS IN PAKISTAN(CONT.) 2. MACHAR COLONY • Machar Colony (or Machiara Colony) is one of the biggest slums in Karachi where many people in are involved in the fishing industry. • Machar Colony's total population is estimated to be over 700,000 people which includes several ethnic groups like Bengalis, Muhajirs, Sindhis, Punjabis, Kashmiris, Memons, Ismailis and Christians etc.
- 17. THE END