Urban deprivation in LEDCs

By Peter

Introduction.

The majority of people living in cities in LEDCs are unable to afford houses that have been professionally built.

Large numbers of people are so poor, they are forced to live on the streets or in a makeshift, temporary shelters.

• The fact that about 50 percent of city dwellers in LEDCs live in sub standard housing makes the housing crisis probably the most serious problem for the authorities in charge of cities in the LEDW.

• Deprivation in cities in the LEDW is concentrated in shantytowns that have mushroomed since the 1950s.

Proportion living in shantytowns, squatters settlements and slums in

selected cities.Location Shantytown proportion

(%of city)

Calcutta, India 33

Jakarta, Indonesia 25

Rio De Janeiro, Brazil 27

Santiago, Chile 25

Mexico City, Mexico 46

Lima, Peru 36

Caracus, Venezuela 35

Maraccuto, Venezuela 50

Shantytow n proportion (% of city)

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Calcutta Jakarta Rio De janeiro Santiago Mexico City Lima Caracus Maraccuto

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What have the Governments done about the poor conditions?

• Many Governments in the LEDW have attempted to solve the housing crisis in their cities with a variety of approaches.

• Many early schemes involved the clearance of the shanties and their replacement with high-rise flats such as the super blocks in Caracus and Rio De Janeiro.

• In Rio this was part of a process of Gentrification. The City Centre slums were cleared and replaced by up-market apartments to extend the high-class zone close to the CBD.

• The former residents of the shanties either became homeless or were moved to other government housing schemes where they often couldn’t afford to pay the rents.

In the Philippines

• Over 3000 shacks were demolished in two week period. Clearing shanty towns was a feature of policies in the 1940s and 50s that has largely ceased today

Since the 1960s

• A more positive view of squatter settlements and shanty towns has been taken in many LEDCs.

• Upgrading existing shanty towns aims to improve the housing and facilities in an area through self-help schemes.

• The physical layout of the area is planned to reduce the very high density and lots are defined around houses, taking care to achieve minimum disruption to existing homes.

• Families are offered ownership rights or long leases to give them security of tenure and basic services such as water and electricity.

• A good example of an upgrading scheme took place in manila in the Philippines.

• The area of re-claimed land close to the port was home to 27,000 squatter families.

• Millions were invested to upgrade 12,000 homes and to re-house 4,000 families.

• Five years after the programme began over 97 percent of families had improved their dwellings and 12.5 per cent had built entirely new homes.

Site and Services.• Site and Services schemes use new land often on

the edges of cities. Houses are built on planned plots or sites and provided with service.

• Sometimes the people are left to build their own homes. They often begin with a small home that they can afford and add to it later as circumstances change.

• The schemes are mostly successful although some have been abandoned because they moved people away from their work in the city centres and did not provide suitable locations for them to carry out their informal employment activities.

Core housing schemes

• Core housing schemes are similar to site and services schemes but the first stages of the house are also provided.

• These usually include the bathroom and toilet.

• Often a mixture of starter homes is provided to cater for different incomes; the poorest are only able to afford the minimum toilet and bathroom.

Case Studies: Chennai (India)

• Population in Chennai has rapidly increased as a result of rural to urban migration. Also high birth rates have contributed to the rising population.

• The rapid increase in population has been mirrored by a rapid growth in the slums in Chennai.

• About one third of the Chennai population live in slums.

Planning solutions

• Initial schemes involved the building of four- to- six storey tenements but these largely failed because of poor maintenance,

• Upgrading of some slums took place with the aims of providing 1 bath and 1 toilet per 10 families. 1 public fountain per 20 families. 1 street light per 40m of road and 1 pre-school per 200 families.

Site and services schemes

• Were implemented with finance provided for the acquisition of land, purchase of buildings materials.

• The new owners were then responsible for building the property on the plot they had been allocated.

• The upgrading that took place often led to the sale of the homes to higher income groups.

• This generated some money for poor families and allowed the Board to re-invest in new schemes.

In some LEDCs

Plans to provide housing for the urban poor have involved schemes outside of the main city. Examples include:

• Satellite or dormitory settlements such as 10th ramadam near Cairo.

• Building new towns. E.G. Brasilia.• Improving life in the rural areas to prevent

growth of shantytowns.• Transmigration policies such as Indonesia and

Brazil where city residents are attracted by government packages back into the rural areas.

Cairo

• Cairo is one of the world’s megacities. The city’s population has grown rapidly, since the 1950s reaching over twelve million at the beginning of the twenty-first century.

• The rapid rate of growth has outstripped the authority’s efforts to increase services and there are increasing demands for piped water, sewers, schools, paved roads and electricity.

• Traffic congestion, air and water pollution add to the massive problems in the city.

• Cairo’s poorest citizens have chosen to also live in two other unusual locations. In the cities of the dead and estimated two to three million people have taken up residence in the tombs of Old Cairo and about half a million people occupy home-made huts on roof tops or in roof spaces in the city centre.

• Despite a shortage of finance the Egyptian authorities have implemented a number of projects in an attempt to tackle Cairo’s problems.

• New Satelite and dormitory settlements such as 10th Ramadam and 15th May have been built in an effort to disperse some of the city’s population.

• The scheme aimed to house up to 300,000 people in six neighbourhood units. However, the scheme initally had great difficulty attracting residents and only had 30,000 people after eight years.

• Many of the apartments were too expensive for the intended residents and the costs of travelling to work in Cairo were prohibitive

• Despite government aid, new industries were slow to move into the New town, which proved disincentive for people to move out of Cairo.

• A massive new ring road has been built in an effort to easy traffic congestions and a modern metro system is being constructed and already carries over a million commuters everyday.

Brasilia, a new town.

• In 1952 the brazzilian government narrowly voted to move the capital city from Rio de Janeiro to Brasilia.

• The aims were to achieve a more even distribution of wealth and development within the country and to divert growth away from the rapidly growing south east.

• Construction of Brasilia began in 1957 following an aeroplane design and layout. It contained housing superblocks in in the “wings”.

• The city’s first residents arrived in1960 and by 1986 the population had reached one million. This reflects some success in redistributing the country’s population but many of those who works in Brasilia still commute between Brasilia and Rio where they prefer to live.

Caracus, the high rise blocks.

• Venezuela has fared better than many LEDCs because of it’s wealth from large reserves of oil.

• In 1950s, 97 superblocks, 15 storeys high, were built in Caracus.

• The superblocks were built in mind to re-house up to 180,000 people from the rancheros.

• The new flats had basic services and between two and four rooms.

• However, initially the scheme was not a success. It encouraged even more migrants to flock to the city and rents were often too high for the ranchero dwellers, which led to sub-letting and overcrowding.

• The superblocks were poorly constructed and rarely repaired; there were few social facilities and the blocks were built too close together leaving no open space and affected lighting in the apartments.

• Despite this rural migrants flocked to he area and several thousand were left squatting illegally.

Summary

• Improving conditions for urban poor in cities of the LEDW remains a key issue for many goverments and local authorities.

• The most successfuk projects have revolved around self-help schemes that can be made affordable.

• The less succesful schemes include high rise flats and those involving the re-housing of the squatters on the periphery of cities or beyond.