Shanty Towns and Problem of Employments - Report Example

English Shanty Towns Due to inevitable urbanization process and rapid growth of the cities in the lesseconomically developed countries, the issue of shanty towns is becoming more and more serious. The term shanty town is usually referred to a residential area developing spontaneously and often illegally with lack or absence of primary conveniences. That means a district of a city that is “marked by poverty and inferior living conditions” (Thesaurus). Such areas usually lack basic infrastructure (including electricity, sewage facilities, administration etc.) that is necessary for normal social life of an individual and provide marginalized social environment. About 90 percent of the worlds informal settlements are located in developing nations (Tovrov).  Such settlements – or slums – are usually occupied by the most disadvantaged social groups living in extreme poverty. As there is no administrative control over shanty towns, building of new dwellings is carried out without any calculation and planning, slums grow and spontaneously reminding of a huge ant-heap. However, formation and growth of these chaotic dwelling areas is preconditioned by certain factors. Intense urbanization and growth of big cities along with the decline of rural areas influence increase of urban population. People abandon rural areas in order to migrate to cities where they fail to find accommodation. This makes them build temporary dwellings in spontaneous settlements (People in urbanization). So, overall poverty of population is also an important influential factor. Besides, such settlements may be created by refugees. Shanty towns are typical for the less economically developed countries, countries of the Third World, and also for more developed countries. They usually appear on beyond the border of the city being a kind of satellites and sometimes host more than a million residents” for example, about one third of Brazilians live in slums. Growth of shanty towns around the world leads to various problems that give rise to serious concerns in organizations like UN. These problems include overcrowding, fires, overpopulation, competition for jobs, disease, and lack of space, infrastructure, high crime rates, drug abuse and many others (BBC). As shanties are usually built with help of scrap materials like cardboard, plastic, wood, tin and other highly flammable materials that can be easily found, the danger of fire in such areas increases greatly. Actually, shanty towns are a major fire hazard to cities (Smith). At the same time, high density of buildings and defective infrastructure contribute to this disadvantage of slums: poorly developed infrastructure presupposes lack or absence of firefighting stations, and due to densely built houses it would be difficult for a firefighting vehicle to reach the fire point. For example, in Khaelitsha, the largest shanty town located in South Africa, Capetown, fire was a primary and constant hazard till the electrification because dwellers used candles and paraffin for cooking and lighting (capetown.at). Such fires tend to cause serious damage because fire easily moves from one dwelling to another. In 2004, such fire broke out in Philippines’ capital Manila. The blaze occurred at night, and it took over 7 hours from the firefighters to make away with fire (Mclean). According to BBC reports, 2500dwellings were destroyed and over 20 thousand people left homeless (Mclean). The second problem associated with slums is high rate of disease. As shanty towns often lack basic amenities including pure drinking water, sewage system and appropriate quality of health care the danger of spreading diseases is rather high. First of all, residents have to consume water of inferior quality there which may contain harmful chemicals or bacteria. This can result either in illnesses or in death. Many people have to walk many miles to reach water and to get it from the public taps. However, sometimes a few families have water pumps that allow them to get pure water and supply others with it, but this water is not enough for everyone, of course. Two interconnected issues are overcrowding and overpopulation. Shantytowns are typically overpopulated hosting sometimes over a million dwellers. That results in lack of space inside them: streets are too narrow and houses are jam-packed. The most recent newcomers and the poorest residents are forced to occupy the worst territory for living. Taking into account the abovementioned issues, one should now focus on the problem of employments. As there are much more people that jobs, many people are unemployed. Some of them are deprived of job in the result of competition and others simply lack skills and education for them. Except that, good jobs are naturally taken by inhabitants of the cities that are better educated, whereas educational system in slums is poorly developed: most families cannot afford to pay for school. Thus, slums’ residents usually lack skills needed to find job in the modern economy, and at the same time, they cannot find adequate alternative in rural areas (Lloyd, 1979). As a result, we have high unemployment rate which preconditions high crime rates and illegal business. Shantytowns are often controlled by gangs and flooded with criminals, and drug trafficking becomes the only flourishing business. Looking at the surface, one would think that all the problems experienced by residents of shanty towns are of local meaning and pose certain danger only to the inner structure and community of settlements. But if the problems of shanty towns grow bigger they may have negative impact even on the civilized residential areas and cities as a whole. There are fire hazards not for slums only, but also for the outskirts of the cities as the fire is easily carried by the wind. Second, pure sanitation in slums that leads to various diseases might also cause inconveniences and danger of infections to the rest of citizens. To add about illegal drug trafficking, it should be mentioned that drug dealers can supply residents of other areas with drugs, increasing level of drug abuse in the city by this. The same can be said about other criminals coming out of shanty towns. So the issues connected with slums should concern not only people living there but also citizens, government and various social and ecological organizations. Thus, numerous organizations along with governments of countries like Brazil, Venezuela, India, Colombia, Philippines and others work on improvement of life conditions in shanty towns and tackling the problems caused by them. There have been different approaches and methods of dealing with this issue. Rio de Janeiro administration and police have launched a special crime prevention program in the city’s largest favelas in approach of the FIFA World Cup 2014 and the Olympic Games of 2016. A range of military operations was carried out in order to eliminate illegal drug trafficking. As a result, criminal “climate” in favelas became much milder, and this district began to attract tourists and football fans from all over the world with its spectacular seascape and low rent, and this event triggered gentrification process. Generally, there are three main approaches offered to tackle the problem. First approach includes site and service schemes (BBC). In this case government could give people an opportunity to buy or rent a piece of land for a low price where they could build new dwellings using loans. But, to my mind, this approach has a drawback. People should give back loans, and they’ll need jobs to earn these money. So I think that the primary task is to create and organize educational and training process for people to get necessary skills and earn their living. The second approach includes self-help schemes when people are given tools and training for improvement of their homes. At the same time, the residential area is supplied with infrastructure including sewage system, water, electricity and transport. People can get low-interest loans and spend them on building. And again – government should invest into infrastructure development and establish schools either for children or for adults who want to get professional training free of charge. The third approach presupposes improving life conditions and creating opportunities for employment in rural areas so that people don’t migrate to cities anymore. At the same time, investments into rural sector may also help to improve life conditions in urban areas (BBC). To my mind, the most reasonable and fair solution is self-help schemes practice because it would allow people improve their lives themselves yet giving them an opportunity to learn and work. Besides, this would also decrease crime rate as people would have legal alternative to robbery and drug dealing. Reference list: BBC. Urbanization in LEDCs. [Online] Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/geography/urban_environments/urbanisation_ledcs_rev3.shtml [Accessed 28 Jun. 2014]. Human in urbanization, 2007. Shanty towns. [Online] (updated 1 Feb. 2007) Available at: http://humanurbanisation.wordpress.com/2007/02/01/shanty-towns/ [Accessed 28 Jun. 2014]. Lloyd, P.C. , 1979. Slums of Hope?: Shanty Towns of the Third World. Manchester: Manchester University Press. Mclean, J., 2004. Fire guts Manila shanty town. [Online] (updated 12 Jan. 2004) Available at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3388377.stm [Accessed 28 Jun. 2014]. Roddy Bray’s Guide to Cape Town, 2008. Shanty towns. [Online] Available at: http://www.capetown.at/heritage/history/apart_influx_shanty_art.htm [Accessed 28 Jun. 2014]. Smith, J. Geo Factsheet: Shanty towns. [Online] Available at: http://www2.sd38.bc.ca/~rhammerschmidt@sd38.bc.ca/FOV4-0008B08A/FOV4-000B3E1E/FOV4-000B61F4/S070D1EDE.1/31%20Shanty%20town.pdf [Accessed 28 Jun. 2014]. Thesaurus. [Online] Available at: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Shantytowns [Accessed 28 Jun. 2014]. Tovrov, D., 2011. Five biggest slums in the world [Online] (updated 9 Dec. 2011) Available at: http://www.ibtimes.com/5-biggest-slums-world-381338 [Accessed 28 Jun. 2014]. Read More