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Rapid urban growth: challenges and solutions
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Growing by thousands of people a week creates huge challenges. Some solutions come from governments, others from communities.
Challenges of rapid growth
Under-employment and the informal economy: many people work in unofficial jobs, such as street selling, with no contract, tax or protection.
Inadequate services: shortages of clean water, sanitation, electricity, schools and healthcare.
Pollution: traffic fumes, untreated sewage and waste in rivers.
Top-down and bottom-up
Bottom-up projects are led by local communities and NGOs, for example community toilet blocks or self-help housing improvements. They are cheap and meet local needs, but are small-scale.
Examples from Mumbai
Bottom-up: NGOs such as SPARC have worked with slum dwellers' groups to build community toilet blocks and improve housing.
Government policy matters: giving people legal rights to their land encourages them to improve their homes.
Give one advantage and one disadvantage of a top-down slum redevelopment scheme.
- Advantage: it can provide many new homes with water, sanitation and electricity.
- Disadvantage: residents may not be consulted, may lose their small businesses, or be moved far from their jobs.
Answer: Big improvements, but local needs and livelihoods can be ignored.
Rapid urbanisation causes housing shortages, squatter settlements, under-employment, informal work, poor services and pollution. Top-down schemes are large but may ignore residents; bottom-up schemes are cheap and local but small. Government policy, such as land rights, helps improve quality of life.
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