Informal Settlements in Johannesburg - Annotated Bibliography Example

Informal Settlements in Johannesburg Introduction Ashipala, N. N., & Armitage, N. P. . Impediments to the adoption of alternative sewerage in South African urban informal settlements. Water Science & Technology, 64(9), 1781-1789. Ashipala is an affiliate from the department of civil Engineering at the University of Cape Town. The author has provided a focus on the informal settlement in Johannesburg. Whereby, informal settlement involves violating established housing standards as well as constructing slums illegally. In addition, the land where the building has been constructed may not be registered as required by the law. Additionally, the rules that govern constructions of building could have been violated (Ashipala & Armitage, 2011). Connectively, various factors are believed to be the cause informal settlement in Johannesburg. Among those factors include; increase in urbanization, whereby, the number of people who were migrated from rural areas to the town was very high as compared to the number of houses available in Johannesburg town. Berry, M. G., Robertson, B. L., & Campbell, E. E. (2004). Aspects on the History and Development of Informal Settlements in the South-Eastern Cape Coastal Zone. South African Geographical Journal, 86(1), 23-29. In addition, lack of sufficient financial resources to compensate the population in acquiring land could have led to an increase in informal settlement (Berry, Robertson & Campbell, 2004). Research indicates that poverty and social cultural factors contributed significantly to an increase in informal settlements in Johannesburg town. The impacts of informal settlement have been discussed among those impacts; increase environmental pollution, increase in social evils such theft, increase in spread of diseases such as HIV/AIDS, Cholera, typhoid to mention just but a few (Berry, Robertson & Campbell, 2004). Therefore, this study aims to provide an insight of the topics discussed below. 1. Find a case study of the NIMBY effect in Canada. Define NIMBY and analyze and determine the underlying issues in your chosen community in light of course concept. Barry.R. (2013). Beyond Nimby: Participatory Approaches to Hazardous Waste Management in Canada. Retrieved :< http://www.cpn.org/topics/environment/beyondnimby.html on 11th June 2013. pp. 622-643. The case study on participatory approaches to hazardous waste management in Canada was put forth to explore the areas of disagreement in setting up a hazardous waste among the Canadian communities (Barry, 2013). Whereby, Albert case has been utilized to provide a future remedy to the areas of disagreement with respect to hazardous waste management. In addition, maturities in terms of thinking and Policy Corporation may be utilized to enhance successful establishment of a hazardous waste facility. Research indicates that there was a shortage in the number of hazardous metric tones that were being treated in Canada. However, through the establishment of modern facility the capacity of hazardous waste treated increased to over 5 metric tones (Barry, 2013).In addition, the case of hazardous waste management in the U.S and Canada has been put forth. Whereby, the two states have tried to establish participatory measures that could help to ensure proper disposal of hazardous waste. However, despite these efforts some communities in parts of Canada and the U.S were unwilling to accept the disposal facility to be located in their area of residents due to the fear of incurring substantial cost at the expense of the entire community (Barry, 2013). This implies that the communities where the facility could have been located were unwilling to accept the project due to such high maintenance cost at the expense of the entire community. For instance, they could have incurred the cost of maintaining the facility as well as the relocating into another region. In addition, staying adjacent to the disposal facility may adversely affect their health. Breukers, S. C. (2006). Changing institutional landscapes for implementing wind power: a geographical comparison of institutional capacity building: the Netherlands, England and North Rhine-Westphalia. Amsterdam: Vossiuspers UvA. Breukers provided a clear insight environmental case of hazardous waste management in Canada and the U.S. whereby, nimby involves the act of opposing a particular idea/ project or a proposal for own selfish motives. For example, certain community or group of people may oppose a particular project to be located in a certain area due to the fear that such a project may benefit a large group of people at their expense (Breukers, 2006). 2. Choose one aspect of medical tourism (e.g. cosmetic surgeries, transplants, pharmaceutical testing) and discuss in light of global inequalities of health access to health care. Turner. (2010).First World Health Care at Third World Prices: Globolisation, Bioethics and Medical Tourism.Retrieved :< http://www.ahc.umn.edu/bioethics/prod/grou ps/ahc/@pub/ @ahc/@bioethics/documents/asset/ahc_asset_177834.pdf> on 11th June 2013. Turner is an affiliate of Mc Grill University in the department of medicine. The author has put a thorough scrutiny of the global inequalities that exist in cosmetic surgery. Whereby, Medical tourism has been common as most patient move from less developed region in terms of health care to more developed regions (Turner, 2010). However, only the rich may afford to movement. This further creates inequalities between poor and the rich Americans in accessing health care services. In addition, reduction of health benefits has further led to an increase in global inequalities in accessing health care (Turner, 2010). This is because most of the patients who may want to access plastic surgery may opt to go foreign private health care systems which are less expensive. Research indicates further that most of the plastic surgeries in the U.S may require the patient to pay some down payment before any operation is carried. In addition, the cost for carrying out the surgery may substantially higher as compared to other health systems in the global markets (Turner, 2010). 3. Choose a city with large informal settlements (e.g. slums, shantytowns, favelas). Discuss the relationship between the elements of these settlements and the health of those that reside within them. Katherin.P. Marcie.S.D., Japhet.W. & Edward.T.R (2013). Informal Urban Settlements and Cholera Risk in Dar se Salaam Tanzania. Retrieved: on 11th June 2013. Katherine and Marcie are affiliates of Harvard school of public health; both have an extensive knowledge in infectious diseases. On the other hand, Japhet is an affiliate from Tanzania Dares Salam in the ministry of land and human settlement while Edward is affiliate of Masschute general hospital under the department of infectious diseases. Therefore, based on their research it can be scrutinized that Dares Salaam is among the cities with the largest informal settlements in the world. For instance, in 1950 the population of people in this city was reported to be seventy six million. However, recent statistics that were taken in 2008 indicated that the population had grown up to 3.31 million people (Katherine et al, 2013). This increase in informal settlement in Dares Salaam was brought up by poor economic conditions. In addition, the income pa capita was substantially lower. This made majority of the Johannesburg residents unable to afford a decent housing. On the other hand, Social cultural factors were found to increase the numbers informal settlement. Whereby, some communities felt satisfied with the standard of leaving in the Ashanti’s (Katherine et al, 2013). The informal settlement was further found to have adverse effects not only to the country at large but also among the individuals who were living in those Ashanti’s. Cholera cases were reported to increase due to poor sanitation and drainage system. In addition, water and infrastructure was found to be inadequate to serve the large population size. Connectively, crime and other social evils such as prostitution were found to be very prevalent. This in turn led to an increase spread of sexually transmitted infections and HIV/AIDS (Katherine et al, 2013). Additionally, other infectious ailments such as typhoid, meningitis, influenza and cholera were reported to increase significantly. Therefore, the government should put forth measures to address the above problems by providing the residents with better housing and drainage systems. Additionally, the government should provide its people with clean water through the establishing water programs. The government should further establish economic stimulant programs in order to create employment and increase the purchasing power of its people (Katherine et al, 2013). Conclusion Informal settlement involves violating established housing standards through construction of illegal housing facilities such as slums/Ashanti’s. In addition, the land where the buildings have been constructed may not have been registered as required by the law. Connectively, the causes and the effects of informal settlements in Johannesburg have been put forth. In addition, a case on the effects of Nimby in Canada has discussed. Additionally, the global inequalities that exist when accessing health care have been discussed. Conclusively, Dare Salaam was selected in this study as the city with the largest informal settlement whereby, relationships between the elements in this city and the health of those that reside in this city were discussed. Read More