the problem of shanty towns

Background information

y irregular urban settlements we mean those human settlements in non-authorized areas of the city. These areas are mainly fiscal sites, and even large private properties, originated as a consequence of demolition of existing warehouses, old buildings and yards, vacant for years, and that has been chosen by people who immigrated attracted by work opportunities existing in the city.

These people make their home there, building without order and of course without any urban plan. Their constructions are usually makeshifts dwellings, built with ‘construction materials' such as wood, plywood, cardboard, some bricks, demolition materials, and usually with a metallic roof made out of galvanized steel., with weights on to keep them in place, resisting strong winds.

We cannot expect privacy here, and whole families live in an only room of few square meters that serves as a unique bedroom and kitchen.

Sanitation facilities are inexistent since there is neither a connection to any sewer nor to a cesspool. Drinking water supply is also non-existent as there is no municipal water network reaching the area. Of course there is no pavement and no telephone lines. There is no electricity either, although very often, people steal electricity from overhead wires running nearby or through the property, just by hooking a metal pole into the wires. Needles to say, many fatal accidents have been originated by this practice, and usually employees of the electric utility remove these poles, just to be connected again when the employees leave the place…

Many times these dwellings are built on dangerous ground because they are located on hills slopes that are prone to mud slides during heavy rains. Many people have died because of this: they are buried into the mud or carried away by water running downhill.

Of course, there are no hospitals, schools or first aid centers, and no transportation since the existing ‘streets' are no more than narrow and twisted alleys, many of then with dead ends.

Because of this, and also because the City Hall very often choose to ignore these settlements, there is no garbage collection. The consequence is that garbage, which feed rodents, is usually thrown anywhere, at the same places where children play.

However, as bad as it sounds, millions of people live in these irregular settlements around the world, and some of these settlements are huge communities. They receive different names such as ‘Chabolas' in Spain, ‘Villas Miseria' en Argentina, ‘Pueblos Jóvenes' in Peru, ‘Favelas' in Brazil, Barong-Barong in Philippines, Basti in Bangladesh, Juggi-jhompri in India, etc.

How to remedy this situation?
How to remediate this serious problem that affects a large part of humankind?

Different approaches have been put into operation, but all of them involve some sort of help from local governments. It is very difficult for slum dwellers to escape from this situation by themselves, for no commercial bank is going to lend them money to improve their lives. A very notable exemption is that of the economist Muhammad Yunus awarded with the Nobel Peace Prize 2006, founder of the Grameen Bank , which function is precisely to help this people. Other institutions such as the World Bank have been active for decades to provide assistance to many communities such of those in Ghana .

At national, provincial and municipal levels there has been efforts to help this people, however, the way in which this assistance works is different.

We can recognize here three types of plans:

•  Displacement of slum dwellers
The government builds entirely new areas with economical houses, and moves the slum dwellers from their original places to these new quarters, usually located in the outskirts of the city.

•  Providing basic infrastructure
Providing assistance in the rehabilitation of slums by installing adequate basic infrastructure.

•  Promoting self-efforts
Promoting people to settle in a certain area and encouraging them to build their own dwellings, getting their basic infrastructure through economic assistance, providing technical help, establishing norms for construction, etc.

Let us analyze very briefly each one

a) Displacement of slum dwellers

In this scenario, local authorities buy or donate large extensions of land, usually in the outskirts of the city to build houses with a few number of rooms and with cooking and sanitary facilities. At the same time the sewage, as well as the water network is extended to cover the necessities of the new settlement. Sometimes these new areas are equipped with school, a health centre, sports facilities, a water treatment plant, etc.

The system is attractive since many people live for the first time in their lives in a safe house, with all services, paved streets, which also facilitate garbage collection, etc. People can pay through a long term loan for these houses with a low rate of interest.

However, the system also has its drawbacks. Probably the most important is the new location because it means:

• People feel discriminated because they realize that they are sent to a no so visible place within or outside the city.
• They are hurt because this system breaks social links and relationships.
• Children suffer because they are moved to another school and losing their friends. On the other hand, if the slum children were attending schools outside the slums, they were integrated with other children perhaps with different social, cultural and economic background, and now, in the new settlement they have to attend a school where all the children come from the new settlement. Many consider this as a sort of a ‘ghetto' where children of the same economic and cultural background are separated from children from other neighborhoods.
• Most of these slums are many years old, and although their dwellers usually do not have any property title, their large stay could eventually grant them the right to be there.
• Many of these slums were originally located in neglected and/or peripheral parts of the city. With the city growth, they are now, and in many cases, bordered and surrounded by the expanding city. Of course, the land where the slum lies, is now very valuable, and that is sometimes the reason behind this moving, since the City Hall, once the land is vacated, can sell it to developers. Naturally, slum dwellers know this, and their argument about possession rights based on their long stay, might be a valid point. It may be argued that they occupied the land illegally, and this is true, but it is also true that the City Hall did nothing for preventing this happening in the beginning and allowed the situation to deteriorate.
• Another crucial and important point is that most slum dwellers make a living in places nearby the slum. Their moving to usually long away places put another burden on their lives since now they have to travel long distances to go to their usual place of work, and of course, involving the additional expense of the trip fare.
• Most people in the slum feel identified with their possessions, because poor and miserable as they might be, they are the result of their effort, and they are their homes, since they built theses ‘houses', and possibly were improving them little by little. In the new government-made neighborhood, they find something that has already made for them, so even if they now have houses with all conveniences such as running water, electricity, a kitchen sink, a lavatory and a toilet in their bathroom, etc., they are not used to them and do not feel any attachment. As a consequence, many of these appliances such as bidets, toilets, and light artifacts are sold and the house degrades. To explain this behavior it is necessary to consider that this people are violently transplanted from a way of life to another, and so we can't ask for them to suddenly adapt to the new conditions.

In fact, it is known in many cases that people, after selling their assigned house, have come back to their original place, if it has not been fenced or built, and started again the old way of life.

b) Providing basic infrastructure

In this case the methodology is different. Generally through a bank loan basic infrastructure is provided, such as pavement, water and sanitary services, and guaranteed by the government. However, because the constraint imposed by the size and location of dwellings already in place it is difficult to furnish each one with all amenities. For this reason, in some cases, notably in India and Africa , basic infrastructure such as water and sanitary services don't reach each house and they are communal.

That is, water faucets are placed in strategic places and in adequate quantities to serve the population. People go there with their utensils and collect water for their use at home.

Something similar happens with sanitary services; batteries of communal latrines are strategically placed, in well ventilated areas to serve a certain number of families.

Also, streets are revamped and paved, so garbage collection service can go into the settlement. In these slums it is usual to find creeks with small course of water running, which are also used for children to play, together with a population of rodents coming from the garbage placed in open and uncovered sites. Infrastructure also means to close these creeks and placing pipes to allow water to pass, cover them with dirt, and then building a park with amenities on it, to be used as playground for children

The attractiveness of this scenario is of course all the opposite of moving people, but also:

•  To reduce costs, and with the amount of the loan from a bank to purchase materials and facilities, slum dwellers intensively collaborate with the firm designed to execute the basic infrastructure, and provide their help in excavating trenches for water and sewage conduction, for erecting brick walls for construction of latrines modules, in removing accumulated garbage by decades of disposal, in excavating holes for light poles, etc.
•  In this way, people feel useful and are conscious that they are building something with their effort
•  They also can continue living in the same neighborhood, with friendships and social links maintained, with children attending the same schools, etc.
•  A very important consequence is that they feel that they are part of the social fabric of the city, that the city continues in their area, and that it is connected to their streets, houses, shops and places, so they do not feel discrimination.

A good example of this type of project is also from the Argentine City of Cordoba, and it is a project than has already been approved by the City Council. This project is due to architects Guillermo Irós and Dolores Becerra

This city has a series of irrigation channels to irrigate farms of the green belt which delivers products to the city. On the shores of some of these water channels illegal settlements have flourished and extend as a linear town.

The projects of these two researchers consist in developing basic infrastructure for these people, furnishing them with all basic services and with a paved road along the channels.

This way this people will continue on their original sites and will have the benefit of a useful paved communication with other quarters of the city.

Picture 3 shows the scope of this project.

Picture 3 Urbanization of irrigation channels (Courtesy from authors) click on the image to enlarge

c)  Promoting self efforts

In this scenario, fiscal land is handed over people and let them build their place here, but considering good engineering norms and plans. For instance there is a standard for house construction, which, albeit modest, must follow certain conditions.

Usually the government, on top of financial help with loans, provides technical assistance with municipal engineers, architects, and technicians, imparting courses for brick layers, carpenters, plumbers, etc. This people in turn lend their assistance to the emerging town. An excellent example of this scenario is the city of Villa El Salvador , near Lima , Peru .

It is an interesting story:

The political scenario is Peru back in the 1970s, the government took economic measures that changed the Peruvian society, provoked people to leave their place of origin and moved to large cities looking to solve their housing and social exclusion problems.

In May 1971, 200 families settled in a private land in South Lima . The government vigorously opposed to that action and provoked the appearance of leaders that play a fundamental role in the organization and resistance process.

When the government found the situation unmanageable it agreed with the people to relocate them elsewhere. The designated place was government land located at about 25 km from Lima . It was a desert and sandy land.

Immediately, in a matter of few weeks, the population soared to 100,000 people

Picture 4 shows the aspect of the land assigned

Picture 5 reproduces a photograph of present day conditions in Villa El Salvador .

Today, 34 years after their installation, the lessons learned allow the experience to be used as an urban model for other communities. People involved are depicted as:

“ This participation of the people, expressed mainly through public meetings, defined the construction of their community buildings, the urbanization infrastructure, the planting of trees to create parks, the layout of streets and avenues, as well as the structure of health and education services

From the beginning, the assigned piece of land was organized under a model where each block is formed by 24 family lots with a total area of 140 m 2 .”

(From ‘Handbook on Urban Sustainability', Munier (Ed.), Springer, 2006)

People collaboration is illustrated in Picture 6

It is interesting to see how some problems were solved (From ‘Handbook on Urban Sustainability', Munier (Ed.), Springer, 2006

From the beginning there was strong emphasis en citizen participation, and mostly with women and youth participation. Very important was the creation of the Industrial Park of Villa El Salvador , which at 1994 showed the following breakdown:

Table 1 Villa El Salvador Industrial Park organization

Source: Adapted from Industrial Park VES – Lima 2004

Replication:

“ Peru is actually using the Villa El Salvador model in ‘Ciudadela Pachacutec' slum, with a population of about 50,000, where the government is constructing a new urbanization for low-income people. It is important to repeat the VES experience in other scenarios, for if it was possible for VES to turn a sand and rock desert into an habitable place, then, the possibilities in other places with better ecological conditions (regarding for instance availability of water), will be greatly enhanced, with the possibility of improving the people's standard of life, and at the same time, helping the environment”

(From ‘Handbook on Urban Sustainability', Munier (Ed.), Springer, 2006.

References:

Munier, N. (2006) “Handbook on Urban Sustainability”. Springer, Dordrecht , The Netherlands .

Smith, W., (2006). “An example of creation of self-managed cities”. Capítulo 11, Handbook on Urban Sustainability, Springer, The Netherlands (2006).

Smith, W. (2007). “Ciudad modelo autogestionada de Pachacutec”, V Conferencia Europea de Ciudades y Villas Sustentables, Sevilla (2007).