Poverty and the Population Problem of the Countries of the Third World - Assignment Example

Essay 2 Many urban areas in the Third World are currently experiencing very high rates of economic and demographic growth. The vast majorities livein poverty and are particularly susceptible to a wide range of natural and human-caused hazards. i) Explain the growth of most cities in the Third World in relation to the high level of migration from rural areas to urban areas. ii) Explain why the poor are particularly vulnerable to these hazards. Be specific. iii) What strategies can be followed to improve the standard of living of the urban poor? When third world countries come into contact with more developed countries there are number of predictable consequences. A shift in population away from rural areas and into city areas appears to be one of the most common human behaviors in this situation, and there are many reasons why this is so. The consequences are not always positive for the people who migrate, however, and there is also an impact on those already in the cities who then have to share their urban environment with increasing numbers of immigrants. This paper explains the factors which drive this migration to cities, and enumerates the potential hazards which can arise in urban environments. The especial vulnerabilities of the poor in this situation are highlighted, along with a number of strategies which can be followed to improve the standard of living of the urban poor. This paper contends that the best strategy to address urban poverty is to invest in environmental infrastructure such as waste disposal, clean water provision, transport systems and renewable energy sources but that the detail of such a strategy will be different for each major city in the world. . Third world countries traditionally have large proportion of people who make their living by subsistence farming. This is a hard and unpredictable way of life which wears people out and makes them dissatisfied. One important factor is the tendency of families to have many children, which ensures the security of the older generation in the short term, but creates an ever greater pressure on basic resources in the countryside like food, fuel, and water. This is what creates the so called ‘population problem’ of the third world. (Anand and Morduch, 1998) Over time it becomes harder and harder to maintain the large families and so people drift to the cities to find ways of supporting themselves and their relatives. Weather catastrophes, wars and competition for scarce resources also drive people out of rural environments and these can occur suddenly, encouraging rapid and chaotic immigration to cities. Additionally there are factors which pull people towards cities, such as the possibility of new employment opportunities, a steady wage and broader horizons for personal development. The lure of products and services from the developed world is also very powerful, but often the aspirations of the migrants are not met by the reality of urban poverty. The economic effects of migration to cities can be very severe, as for example when the number of workers in an area rises, the level of wages is driven in a downwards direction, and the overall poverty in the area for long-term urban dwellers and new arrivals increases. These demographic effects have a different effect on women than on men, with women often suffering a hidden burden because of the demand to bear children, and pressure to produce sons causing lower survival rates in girls. (Anand and Morduch, 1998) It is the men who are able to migrate and take up new possibilities in the cities while women and girls are confined to domestic roles and are less able to benefit economically and culturally. Empirical studies on megacities, defined as cities which have a population of at least 10 million in 2000, have shown that the poor are at risk from many hazards. (Cohen, 1993) Size in itself is not necessarily an impoverishing factor, since civilizations who possess appropriate technologies sustain wealthy megacities such as Tokyo and New York. In Mexico city, however, the expansion has taken place without due care for the rivers and plants that support the ecosystem of the whole basin. Extreme overcrowding and lack of proper sanitation create a situation where the poor are exposed to increased levels of pathogens, , erosion caused by expansion from flatlands into the surrounding hillsides and loss of green areas generally all of which contribute in the medium term to the biggest problem of all which is the exhaustion of the water supply (Ezcurra. E. et al., 1998). Those who can afford proper plumbing do not face the same exposure to the pathogens as those who live in slum conditions. With increasing road building at the very end of the twentieth century this was being exacerbated by declining air quality. This example shows that a combination of factors can build up into an unsustainable situation with poor suffering the ills of a developing country such as water borne diseases, along with the cancers and heart disease of a developed country due to the pollution. Those who have reached an income level above the poverty line may choose to migrate out beyond the crowded suburbs or further afield, but the poor lack the means to make this change. Globalization and economic pressures on megacities to keep up with the standards of western cities leads to investment in high status architecture and verticalization, (Melchert,2005) which in turn leaves less resource for the poor and makes the gap between rich and poor even greater. A very different pattern of migration occurs in tropical Africa where very often the men only are the ones who migrate, sometimes causing a breakdown in family life for a time at least, and the possibility that income is not distributed to the dependents of the wage earner. In other cases there is return migration, whereby a male wage earner uses his income to maintain links back in the rural place of origin, and finally returns there to retire with his family. (Pacione, 2009) Employers often arrange poor quality temporary accommodation for such migrant workers and these can be lawless and dangerous for those who are compelled to live there. The poor in this scenario are thus exposed to greater emotional stresses and actual dangers because they are removed from their support network and left in artificially created communities which do not allow for normal family life. City planners and and developers do understand these mechanisms and often short terms strategies are used to deal with the most basic and pressing needs. Importing food in large quantities, for example, avoids the need for intensive agriculture in the lands immediately surrounding a city, but it can have the effect of transplanting the ecological damage that this causes to another area. The rapid and careless creation of industrial plants succeeds in creating create wealth and employment for urban dwellers but the environmental harm is simply stored up for future generations. Scientists point out also that there are geographical differences in the types of environmental problems that beset of third world cities. Some of the very poorest cities have poor water and sanitation, which breeds disease and early death, while others manage to solve this problem but succumb to air pollution and traffic accidents. (Satterthwaite, 1997) Factors which create these differences include geographical and meteorological conditions, sheer size of city and the types of industry chosen. The existence of these multiple variables means that there can be no one single strategy to address the problems that affect the poor in third world cities. The important thing is to take note of the context in each case and ensure that as far as possible both medium and long term environmental risks are minimized as far as possible so that the poor have the best chance to prosper in their new environment. References Anand, S. and Morduch, J. (1998) Poverty and the ‘Population Problem’ in M. Livi-Bacci and G. de Santis (eds), Population and Poverty in the Developing World. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Bartone, C. (1991) Environmental challenge in third world cities. Journal of the American Planning Association. 57 (4): 411-415. Cohen, M. (1993). Megacities and the environment. Finance and Development 30 (2): 44-47. Ezcurra, E., Mazari-Hiriart, M., Major, D. Brimblecombe, P. and Cohen, M. (1996). Are megacities viable? A cautionary tale from Mexico City. Environment 38 (1): 4. Melchert, L. (2005) The age of environmental impasse? Globalization and environmental transformation of metropolitan cities. Development and Change 36: 803. Pacione, M. (2009) Urban Geography: A global perspective. New York: Taylor and Francis. Satterthwaite, D. (1997) Environmental Transformations in Cities as They Get Larger, Wealthier and Better Managed. The Geographical Journal 163 (2): 216-224. Read More