6.6+All+about+Shanty+towns

=6. Where do you find shanty towns? What are the problems and how can they be improved? =

The urban landuse of LICs/MICs
The central business district is still at the centre But this time much of the nicer housing in grouped around it, so that they have access for all the shops and cinemas and banks and offices. In addition, more nice housing takes over the best land spreading outwards along a hillside or close to a beautiful part of town. The industry needs good transport so tends to develop in wedges along the main routes to the city. People who moved to the town for work early on built houses for themselves or it was provided as rented accomadation by landlords when the city growth was much slower. These areas tend to have most of the essential services such as clean water and sanitation and roads. But once urbanisation really took off, people arrived from the rural areas, made shacks wherever they could, often in areas prone to flooding for example or subject to other forms of pollution that no-one else wanted, using whatever materials were around. They lacked paved roads and fresh water or any of the other main services, like schools and health care. It is in the outer shanty towns that you find most of problems we have already talked about. The poor housing, lack of fresh water and sanitation, no electricity and unmade up roads are obvious problems. Why did they occur? The people arrived faster than the city could cope – and in the early days, many cities were unwilling to try too hard. Then there was employment issues. The migrants from rural areas thought that they would be much better off in the city, where there were lots of well-paid jobs – or so they believed. However, while there were jobs for the trained and educated, these rural people lacked the skills to make them employable in any of the available roles. So they are often left trying scratch a living from the informal economy (jobs that do not appear on government statistics and are often very hard and can be dangerous as there is no legal protection) as street vendors and cleaners or working in sweatshops down to picking up rubbish to recycle from the city tips. Some could not make enough feed their families and so turned to crime, pick-pocketing in the CBD or prostitution or dealing drugs. Hence crime was a big problem in some of the shanty towns. As we have mentioned there are few made-up roads in this area so public transport has to manage with narrow, muddy rutted roads. Once the buses are on their way into the city, the roads are crammed with every sort of vehicle wanting to get into the centre - congestions and polluted air are common place. However, this has become a major issue for the UN Millennium goals. Also the countries themselves see it in their own interests to have a healthier, better educated, law abiding population, and while such an enormous problem cannot be solved overnight, by joining with the people in these areas, a lot has been achieved, in some areas at least.

What is a shanty town?
Shantytowns (also called slums, squatter settlements camps, favelas), are settlements (usually illegal or at best unauthorized) of poor who live in improvised dwellings made from scrap materials—often plywood, corrugated metal, and sheets of plastic. Shanty towns, which are usually built on the periphery (edge) of cities, often do not have proper sanitation, electricity, or telephone services

The advantages of the growth
Even the informal sector in many shanties pays more money than being a farmer in the rural areas and is seen as better than the life of a landless peasant farmer. Growth of urban areas eases the pressure on the rural area so there are more jobs available and less people to feed.

Disadvantages of growth
The high expectations of life in urban areas are not fulfilled. They do not usually have the skills needed to carry out the well-paid jobs in the cities. Therefore they do not have enough money to buy a home or to go back to the rural area. Shanty towns become the residence of many. These are small, makeshift homes with one or two rooms only. They are made of wood, corrugated iron and cardboard found lying around the area. The favellas have no electricity or clean running water. The rivers running through the city are polluted with sewage and waste from the favelas. Agricultural production in rural areas might decrease as so many of the young adults have moved away. Shortage of housing.

The results of rapid urbanisation
1. Inadequate housing and services. 40% live in shanty towns or favelas. 2. The shanty town services are non-existent or incapable of maintaining a basic standard of living. The lack of basic services like a clean water supply, rubbish collection and sewerage disposal mean that the risks of disease are very high. In storms sewers block and flood. 3. Shortage of affordable formal housing. 4. The shanty town is likely to be found on inappropriate land. Maybe it is prone to flooding or is very steeply sloping, increasing the chances of a landslip. It could be on a piece of land that has been badly polluted by a neighbouring industry. The shelters made of wood and high population densities increase the risk of fire. 5. Because the growth is so rapid, the government does not have enough money to maintain the existing facilities, let alone improve them. 6. Increasing levels of pollution. Pollution of air, land and water is a major problem. Air pollution is second only to Los Angeles. Laws to protect the environment are either non-existent or rarely enforced. The back street workshops of the informal economy add to the problem 7. Increased volume of traffic on poorly maintained roads. 8. The informal economy employs over half the city’s workforce. This is partly due to these people lacking the education but partly to the lack of jobs.

[[image:Kibera_map.png width="805" height="323"]]
Link to this map that you can search in more detail:HERE

What is Kibera like?


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[[image:6.6G_Kibera2.png align="left"]]
= = = = = = = = = Watch this - it is pretty upsetting - so be warned: media type="custom" key="7238515" =

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= **WATCH THIS SPACE FOR WHAT CAN BE DONE!** =

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This one explains it even better
media type="youtube" key="oz2KikG6fyY" height="611" width="767" = = media type="youtube" key="J0Y7ORnwnKI" height="385" width="640" media type="youtube" key="35vA6-M1Yog" height="535" width="670" A very vibrant place! media type="youtube" key="BmDE5yV35a8" height="613" width="768" @http://redrosechildren.blogspot.com/ is the blog for the Red Rose School submitted by Ines media type="youtube" key="1neYXUKbdKg" height="613" width="768" media type="file" key="AfricaNews - Kenya Kibera develops own renewable energy - The AfricaNews articles of Omunya.flv" width="570" height="570" media type="youtube" key="QZWe33fToPo" height="537" width="672" Another example of self help to work for a better future: @http://curiousloveofgreen.wordpress.com/2010/05/16/kibera-paper/ media type="file" key="AfricaNews - Kibera embracing cheap and clean energy.flv" width="420" height="420" media type="custom" key="6207889" media type="custom" key="6208015" = = KENSUP Project Update

Y10 student somewhere did this great slide show with music on posterous

Just had to add this link about Amani Kibera resource centre - you will see why when you check it out and find out which Kibera village it serves!

__**Added June27th**__ : Remember Kibera Community Youth Programme were making the solar power lamps? Well they have moved on a bit – big screen TV with life coverage of the World Cup! @http://lindym.wordpress.com/2010/06/27/kenya-the-world-cup-goes-solar-in-africa%E2%80%99s-largest-slum/

**__Added July 18th__** : @http://rikimtembezi.wordpress.com/2010/07/18/the-cock-is-crowing-in-kibera/ Chicken farming has come to Kibera - so far it is another way to raise the quality of the diet of the poorest, but they aim to become national producers soon = = = = =A case study of shanty town management in a MIC city - you do not need this but it was the case study from the old syllabus and could be of use ) = It all started in 1850 when coffee became the big money spinner. The land around Sao Paulo was good for growing coffee. The plantation owners became very rich.  Sao Paulo was the port used to export all the coffee and the plantation owners built beautiful houses there – it was their city place for culture and leisure!  It continued to be an upmarket playground and even became a tourist resort for the very rich in the 1920s and 1930s.  Then in the 1950s, LEDCs started to think that instead of exporting cheap raw materials, thus allowing the developed countries to make all the money by processing them, wouldn’t it be much better to do the processing themselves?  It so happens that Sao Paulo had locally sourced minerals, iron ore and ample cheap energy (mostly HEP), and this made it an ideal spot to develop an iron and steel trade. Iron and steel and engineering businesses were set up and were soon followed by Ford, General motors and Mercedes all have building factories there. The labour was cheap and willing and Brazil was a big market longing to buy more goods as the country developed. It started slowly, but soon more labour was needed. New housing developments grew up. Although the wages were low on the world stage, they were much better than in many other parts of Brazil, especially the North East. To begin with the need for more labour meant that the factories trained up the new arrivals. Universities and research establishments around the city generated new ideas. This area has the greatest concentration of paved roads anywhere in Brazil. Whilst best know as a centre of the car industry, Sao Paulo produces everything from satellite dishes to canned drinks. The head quarters of many of the major companies in Brazil are found in and around the Central Business District (CBD) of Sao Paulo. Also it is a centre for banking and other financial services
 * Sao Paulo – urban growth: ** Why is it like that?

So thousands have continued to pour in, more than there factory jobs for. There was not enough housing so they built their own on any piece of spare land.The city authorities have been unable to keep up with demands for housing, schools, health care, water, sewage and other waste management. Air, water and land pollution are all major problems. The roads are so crowded that many rich business men have resorted to getting to work by helicopter.

**Edward Lee - the push-Pull Model of Migration** Population: Sao Paulo from 7 million in 1970 to 19 million in 2000 – a rate of about 500,000 a year. The reason why so many people moved from the rural areas to the urban areas was explored by Edward Lee in the 1960s. This is known as the Push-Pull model of migration. It can refer to people moving from one country to another or from one part of their own country to another. The idea behind this model is that there usually more than one type of reason why people move from their homes. Often people are attached to their own area and to its culture, and so in general are unwilling to move. But circumstances can encourage them to overcome their reluctance. It might be that the situation is so bad where they are, that they feel they have to find a better place to live – these bad conditions push them away. However, having decided they need to go, they must find somewhere suitable. There will usually be a choice of places and so they will look for the one with the best chance of a better life. So of the choices they have, each will have attraction, but one place will pull them more than their other options. Pushes may include extreme poverty, natural disasters like drought or floods or earthquakes, and lack of education, health care and other important services. Pulls may include a variety of jobs, better services, a more varied lifestyle.

**The problems with rapid migration** As we saw in 6.3. Rapid urbanisation, this rapid and unplanned growth leads to a number of problems **Housing:** on arriving from the country, they are looking for low cost housing. The only choice they have is find a patch of ground that no-one else wants – on the outskirts or steep slopes or in places liable to flood, where they build a shelter with whatever happens to be around – cardboard, wood, corrugated sheets. About 1 billion people, one sixth of the world live in such ‘temporary’ dwellings. The shanty towns are know as are called Favelas in Brazil, bustees in India (Slumdog Millionaire) and barriadas in Peru. **Access to services**: having built their shack, the new comers rarely have access to water, electricity or sewage disposal. Often their only source of heat is an open fire – dangerous inside a hut made of combustible material. Traffic congestion and transport: shanty towns have few roads and do not generally have access to public transport. The existing road and transport systems are often overloaded. Everyone. Rich and poor suffer from congestion and air pollution, which often leads to smog **Health care:** there are insufficient doctors and clinics to deal with the expanding population. Poor sanitation leads to out breaks of cholera and typhoid. Air pollution exacerbates reparatory problems. **Employment:** While people were attracted by their belief that life was better in the city, often there were more people than jobs in the formal economy. So they are forced to make a living from whatever chances they can find in the informal economy, e.g. shoe-shiners, street vendors selling snacks or even picking over rubbish from the tips to see what they can recycle. **Education:** rapid population growth means that there are not enough schools. Most manage to get some primary schooling of a sort, but few can afford to pay for secondary education (which is not free as in the UK) and in any case they usually have to work to support their families. **Social problems:** The difficulty of getting work that pays enough to live on leads to crime and drug trafficking. Often this is controlled by street gangs and the violence that tend to accompany it

**Urban problems and solution: LEDCs – Sao Paulo - What can the planners do?** Sao Paulo’s repaid growth and the influx of the poor from rural areas has led to the rise of favelas on the edge of the city, along the main roads, on steep slopes liable to landslides or flat land given to floods. 20% come from poorer areas, end up in favelas, work in the informal economy but are still better off than they were before. Sao Paulo has approximately 2500 favelas – some are quite large e.g. Helipolis (50-60,000). Besides the lack of services, having no legal place to live meant that this shut the residents off from certain kinds of employment and also from free medical care, which required proof of legal occupancy. The latter was concerning, as the poor sanitation and water supply made them more susceptible to typhoid and cholera and similar diseases.

Early on, the planners were so overwhelmed by the size of the problem that in the 1970s, bulldozers were brought in to flatten the favelas - if they are not there, we don't have a problem. However, this did not stop people building elsewhere. Then the government changed and the policy became more one of improving the favelas.

(a) Some these larger ones are outside the main city but are close to some of the factories. Having been around for 40 years, they are the most improved. They started off with little but over time organised. E.g. Jaguare has a strong neighbourhood association, persuaded federal government to help reduce crime and provide sporting and other activities for children. (b) Improving the housing: (i)The city authorities set about improving the housing stock by providing the basic services of water, sewage and electricity. In a number of self-help schemes, the city or NGO provide the materials which the local people use to build better homes. Once built, water, sewage and electricity would be installed. These were very successful the peole has some controll over their lives and working on a common project bound the community together.These are know as **Site and Service Schemes**. (ii) Other schemes such, Favela Monte Azula use **rehabilitation** rather than replacement. The authorities proved materilas to modernise the area. But this was not entirely sucessful, as the underlying problems were not solves - it was more 'papering over the crack' to coin a phrase. (iii) There were further self help schemes such as **CINGAPURA HOUSING Scheme - this should have involved building 140,000 apartments in large blocks** ( see what has occured in the right og the picture above) (c) In some favelas, once illegal building was made legal and the residents got legal rights to their property, which meant that they had more reason to improve it, and could later sell it and move on if that was what they wanted. (d)Other schemes include microfinance, where small amounts are leant to people without security – those the banks would not touch with a three-metre pole – to improve their situation and/or start small businesses, such as bakeries and grocery stores. (e)However as the favelas improve, more people will be attracted to migrate there and this is not sustainable. What is really needed is to develop the areas that the migrants are coming from. (f) Adding satellite cites to the main big city may help the situation, e.g. Berrini and Jardines on the outskirts of Sao Paulo. People may be encouraged to move out of Sao Paulo, and businesses are also setting up factories there, so that local jobs will be available.