3B: what are the problems associated with rapid urbanisation?

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3B what are the problems associated with rapid
urbanisation?
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Here is a spider diagramSo what is missing?
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• Problems associated with rapid urbanisation
  perhaps? Absolutely. And if asked about the
  problems associated with rapid urbanisation,
  these are precisely the ideas you would need to
  explore.
• By implication, this means that as recent
  urbanisation has been most rapid in MICs and
  LICs, that it is mainly the cities in these
  countries that have these problems.

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Landuse in HICs different models
Who devised these?
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Here are a couple of variations for LICs/MICs

• It what ways are these both different from the
  previous models?
• In what ways are they different from each other?

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A bit of explanation

• 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
  social housing 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.

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But MICs/LICs the pattern of land use is different

• 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 shown in the diagram. 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.

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• 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.

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• 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. We will
  look at some examples of this in a later section.

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Introduction

• 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
  materialsoften 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.
• An aside Shanty towns are mostly found in
  developing nations, or partially developed
  nations with an unequal distribution of wealth
  (or, on occasion, developed countries in a severe
  recession as in the US currently)
• See Youtube video on http//newigcsenotes.wikispac
  es.com/6Urbanenvironments

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So what are the drives that force the people to
move into cities where there chances are not good?
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• Mechanisation of farms and shortage of
  alternative jobs results in high unemployment
• High Infant Mortality due to lack of clean water,
  electricity, sewage medical care
• Housing in rural areas even poorer than cities
  also poorer services
• Drought meaning crops failed

• Advertising campaigns were run in rural areas in
  the 1950s 1960s to attract workers to the
  city
• More schools and other services in the city
• Better housing and a chance of obtaining a job
• Successful migrants encourage people to join them

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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.

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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
  shanites 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.

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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.

Return to page 1 of the notes issues
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The results of rapid urbanisation

• 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
  citys workforce. This is partly due to these
  people lacking the education but partly to the
  lack of jobs.

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The start of a case study

• Kabera outside Nairobi in Kenya

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Where is Nairobi?
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• 1. Shanty towns are on the edge of the city
  (except Mathare Valley) where there is space to
  build on.
• 2. Shanty towns are close to rivers. Water is
  needed for drinking and cooking. Sometimes it is
  marsh land where diseases and illness can spread.
  In 1972 a deadly Cholera epidemic spread.
• 3. Shanty towns are close to main roads so people
  can get to the CBD where they can find work.
• 4. Mathare Valley is the most crowded of the four
  shanty towns as it is the closest to the CBD.

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What is it like?

• The CBD of Nairobi looks fairly modern.
• A busy urban centre

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But out in Kibera

• As you can see this is the wet season the
  river valley is fairly flooded
• Not much rubbish collection
• No made up roads
• You cannot see power lines so no electricity

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Matutus the only way for the slum dwellers can
get into the CBD
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An issue and a solution

• ma tatu means for 3 in the beginning you
  could travel anywhere on a route for 3 Kenyan
  shillings.
• Although government is trying to bring in more
  regulations, they are still somewhat chaotic
  but as there is no other public transport system,
  it has to do.
• While the routes are fixed, the timing and the
  stops are not!
• In February 2004 the Ministry of Transport
  introduced new regulations governing the
  operation of Matatus. These regulations include
  the compulsory fitting of safety belts and speed
  governors. In addition, standing on matatus was
  banned. This has led to a number of matutus being
  removed from the roads and a reduction in deaths
  and injuries.
• Before this, the buses were over laden, went too
  fast, broke many traffic violations and were
  subject to paying bribes to the police to let
  then continue.

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But out in Kibera

• Water comes from private standpipes they pay up
  to x10 the amount for water that the better class
  places with running water in the houses pay.
• The other picture shows you the public sewer

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But out in Kibera

• The only solution in some parts are flying
  toilets
• Have any spare plastic bags?
• They do say goats will eat anything!

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But it is not all bad or hopeless

• Two little girls
• A day centre

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But it is not all bad or hopeless

• A music shop,
• Furniture makers
• A bakery

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The problems associated with rapid urbanisation
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A case study of shanty town management in a LIC
city.

• Management is the act of getting people together
  to accomplish desired goals and objectives.
• So to look at the management of a shanty, first
  you need to decide on desired goals and
  objectives.
• If we go back to slide 27, you can see what the
  problems are, and so you can think of ideas that
  help solve these problems pick out 3 really
  good examples of solutions to 3 different
  problems but for now research 2 and borrow some
  more from other people!

http//ih-igcse-geography.wikispaces.com/6.6Alla
boutShantytowns http//lindym.wordpress.com/cate
gory/kibera/
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Homework

• The specification says
• A case study of shanty town management in a LIC
  city.
• So what we need is 2 or 3 really good ways in
  which Kibera is being managed (improved)
• So put in a search for Kibera ?
• I want 3 or so slides explaining what they have
  done for each ONE of TWO of the these then I
  can add them to the wiki for later use.

Only those that arrive on time can be included