Sign up to access the complete lesson and track your progress!
Unlock This CourseRapid growth brings people, workers and ideas to a city. But new arrivals need homes, water, schools and jobs straight away, and building these takes years. In many cities in LICs and MICs, the number of people grows faster than the money and planning needed to look after them. This lesson looks at the main challenges, and at the opportunities that appear alongside them.
Key terms:
Rapid growth often makes the gap between rich and poor more obvious. In São Paulo in Brazil, the favela of Paraisópolis sits right beside a wealthy district of tall apartments with swimming pools. Rich and poor areas can be only a street apart, but their lives are very different.
Water pipes, sewers, clinics and schools are slow to build, so they are soon under pressure. In Kibera, a large informal settlement in Nairobi, Kenya, many homes have no piped water or sewers, and people queue to buy water. Where sanitation is poor, diseases such as cholera spread more easily.
Service provision also means healthcare, schools and electricity. Clinics have long queues, classes are large, and power cuts are common. Poorer areas usually get services last.
There are not enough affordable homes, so there is a shortage. Rents rise and families squeeze into one room, which is overcrowding. Many people cannot afford to rent or buy a legal home, so they build their own.
There are not enough jobs in factories and offices for everyone who arrives, so many people work in the informal sector: street vendors, rickshaw drivers, waste pickers and domestic workers.
| Opportunity | Challenge |
|---|---|
| Work is easy to start with little money or training | Wages are low and income is uncertain |
| It gives migrants a way to earn straight away | No contract, sick pay, pension or safety protection |
| Cheap goods and services for the whole city | No tax is paid, so the city has less money for services |
More people means more vehicles on roads that were not built for them. In Dhaka in Bangladesh, buses, cars and rickshaws fill the streets and journeys are slow. Congestion wastes time and money. Traffic fumes cause air pollution, and cities such as Delhi in India suffer thick smog, which harms people's breathing.
Cities make huge amounts of rubbish, but collection is often patchy in poorer areas. Waste piles up in streets and blocks drains. Open dumps and landfill can pollute water and air and attract rats and flies, spreading disease.
There is an opportunity here too. In Cairo, Egypt, a community called the Zabbaleen collect household rubbish and recycle much of it, making a living and reducing the city's waste.
When people cannot afford a legal home, they build their own on land they do not own or have permission to use, such as steep hillsides, river banks or land beside railways. These are unplanned settlements. Different countries use different names, such as favelas in Brazil, and the syllabus also uses squatter settlement and informal settlement.
Characteristics: homes are made from scrap materials such as wood, metal sheets and bricks; streets are narrow; and there is no legal title to the land. Many are on risky sites. Rocinha in Rio de Janeiro is built on a steep hillside, where homes are cheap and close to jobs, and Makoko in Lagos, Nigeria, has homes on stilts over a lagoon.
Little or no clean water, sewers or electricity. Homes may be pulled down by the authorities, which is called eviction. Hillside homes can be hit by landslides, and low-lying homes by floods. Overcrowding and poor sanitation spread disease.
Housing is cheap, and near to jobs in the city. People start small businesses such as shops, workshops and food stalls, which is called enterprise. Neighbours often help each other, which builds a strong sense of community. Over time, many residents improve their homes.
Do not write only "unplanned settlements are bad". Examiners want both challenges and opportunities, with a named place. Do not say "there are no services": say which services are missing or overloaded.
Fig. 1.1 gives made-up data for City Z, a fast-growing city in an LIC.
| Area of City Z | Households with piped water (%) | Households connected to a sewer (%) |
|---|---|---|
| Central district | 95 | 90 |
| Informal settlement | 15 | 5 |
(a) State the percentage of households in the informal settlement with piped water. [1 mark]
(b) Calculate the difference in piped water provision between the central district and the informal settlement. [2 marks]
(c) Explain two problems caused by a lack of sewers. [4 marks]
(d) To what extent are unplanned settlements a problem rather than an opportunity for the people who live in them? [6 marks]
(a) 15% (1)
(b) 95 - 15 (1) = 80 percentage points (1)
(c) Waste and dirty water collect in the streets and can pollute drinking water (1), so diseases such as cholera spread quickly (1). Without sewers, people may have to use open ground or shared toilets (1), which makes the area unpleasant and unsafe, especially for children (1).
(d) Level 3 answer: Unplanned settlements are a problem because they often have no clean water or sewers, as the table shows for City Z, and homes may be on risky land such as hillsides where landslides happen. Overcrowding spreads disease, and residents can be evicted. However, they are not only a problem. They give poor migrants cheap housing close to jobs, and people can start small businesses such as shops and food stalls. In Rocinha in Rio de Janeiro the homes are cheap and close to jobs, and people can start small businesses. So, to a large extent they are a problem for health and safety, but they also offer opportunities, and the problems are mainly caused by poor service provision rather than by the settlement itself. (6)
On a "to what extent" question, give both sides, use data or a named place, and finish with a judgement that answers the question.