🚗 Air pollution
Huge numbers of cars, buses, taxis and lorries burn fuel and release exhaust fumes. Factories, building work and power generation add smoke and dust. Some people burn rubbish or wood for cooking, which adds smoke too.
Urban Challenges » Pollution and Quality of Life in a Developing City
What you'll learn this session
Study time: 30 minutes
Edexcel spec: 6.2 Cities face a range of social and environmental challenges resulting from rapid growth and resource demands (c)
- The types and causes of urban pollution in Mumbai, India
- How pollution harms health and the environment
- Why quality of life is low for many people, especially in squatter settlements
- How to write a developed answer using a named city
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This lesson finishes the case study of Mumbai, the same city as in Squatter Settlements and the Informal Economy. Mumbai is in India, an emerging country. Millions of people have moved to the city for work, and it has grown faster than it can build clean systems for water, waste and transport. The result is urban pollution and a low quality of life for many residents.
Key terms:
- Urban pollution: harmful substances or noise produced in a city that damage people's health or the environment.
- Quality of life: how well off people are, including their health, housing, income, education, safety and surroundings.
- Sanitation: the systems that remove human waste and sewage, such as toilets and drains.
Urban pollution in Mumbai
There are several kinds of pollution in a large city. Mumbai has all of them.
💦 Water pollution
Much of the city's sewage and waste water is not fully treated. Sewage and factory waste flow into rivers, creeks and the sea. The Mithi River, which runs through the city, is badly polluted in this way.
🗑 Land pollution
Mumbai produces a huge amount of rubbish. Not all of it is collected, so it piles up in streets and drains. For many years much of the rest went to large open dumps, such as the one at Deonar, where waste leaked into the ground and fires broke out.
🔊 Noise pollution
Traffic horns, building work and crowded streets make Mumbai very noisy, day and night.
Why is pollution so bad?
- Rapid growth: the population grew faster than the city could build sewers, treatment plants and rubbish services.
- Traffic: more people means more vehicles on roads that are already full. Slow, stop-start traffic releases more fumes.
- Lack of money: a developing or emerging city has many demands on its budget, so waste and sanitation systems are not always improved quickly enough.
- Informal housing: squatter settlements are often not connected to proper sewers, so waste water runs into open drains and nearby water.
- Weak enforcement: rules on dumping and emissions exist, but they are not always followed or checked.
Effects of pollution
Health
Polluted air can cause breathing problems such as asthma and coughs. Dirty water spreads diseases, such as cholera and typhoid, that cause diarrhoea and sickness.
Environment
Polluted rivers and creeks damage wildlife and fish. Rubbish blocks drains and spoils beaches and open land.
Daily life
Blocked drains make flooding worse in the monsoon rains. Smoke haze and bad smells make the city unpleasant to live in.
The poorest people usually suffer most. They live closest to open drains, dumps and busy roads, and they cannot afford to move away or pay for medicine.
Low quality of life
Mumbai is rich in some ways. It has wealthy business districts, the film industry and expensive flats. But quality of life is very unequal. For many people, especially those in squatter settlements such as Dharavi, it is low.
Signs of low quality of life
- Housing: small, overcrowded homes, often one room for a whole family, with weak walls and roofs.
- Services: many homes have no private tap or toilet, so people queue at shared taps and toilets. This is poor sanitation.
- Health: overcrowding, dirty water and polluted air make illness common, and getting to a good hospital can be hard or costly.
- Income: jobs in the informal economy are often low paid, uncertain and have no sick pay.
- Education: some children leave school early to earn money for their families.
- Transport: the trains and buses that carry workers are very crowded, and journeys can be long and tiring.
- Safety: fires and monsoon flooding are risks in poorly built areas.
A fair picture
Quality of life is not low for everyone in Mumbai. Wealthier residents live in modern flats with clean water and good healthcare. This gap between rich and poor is part of the challenge. Even in poor areas there are positives, such as community spirit and work close to home.
Linking it together
Pollution and low quality of life feed each other. A family in a squatter settlement with no sanitation gets ill from dirty water. Illness means missed work and lower income. Lower income means they cannot afford better housing, so they stay in the same place. Examiners like answers that show these links.
Common mistakes
- Writing only "Mumbai is polluted". Name the type (air, water or land), the cause and the effect.
- Saying everyone in the city has a low quality of life. Strong answers show it varies, with squatter settlements worst affected.
- Switching between cities. Use the one developing or emerging city you have studied for the whole case study.
- Listing facts without explaining. Use "because", "so" and "which leads to" to link cause and effect.
Exam-style question
(a) For a named city in a developing or emerging country, describe two types of urban pollution. [2 marks]
(b) Explain why quality of life is low for many people in squatter settlements in your named city. [4 marks]
Model answer
(a) In Mumbai, air pollution is caused by exhaust fumes from the huge number of vehicles on crowded roads. (1) Water pollution happens because sewage and factory waste flow untreated into rivers such as the Mithi. (1)
(b) In Dharavi, homes are small and overcrowded, often one room for a whole family, so diseases spread quickly. (1) Many homes have no private tap or toilet, so people share them and dirty water collects in open drains. (1) Most jobs are in the informal economy, so pay is low and uncertain, with no sick pay. (1) This means families cannot afford better housing or healthcare, so quality of life stays low. (1)
Exam tip
For a "named city" question, use the city or area name in your answer, and give a cause and an effect for each point. A "type of pollution" alone earns one mark at most.