Problems found in LEDC Shanty Towns and Solutions that are being Implented.doc

Ammun Dhoot

Problems found in LEDC Shanty Towns and Solutions that are being Implemented

Cairo, Egypt

Housing

Thousands of people migrate to Cairo every week and need shelter.
Some decide to live in the medieval heart of Cairo which was once one of the world’s greatest trading centres.
Now it is one of the greatest slums in Cairo.
Every possible space is taken here – roofs pavements and rooms.
There are no services and not much room.
Some people decide to live in the City of Dead which is below city grounds and is where pharaohs were buried.
The people live in the tombs which are much cleaner than the medieval apartments but have momentums of the dead inside.
There are no services here ad the dead did not need any.
New housing is being built, but not many people are buying these as they are too expensive for the poor and it is too far away from their work.
These houses are being built in the desert to divert the growth of the city.
A satellite city is being built – The 10th of Ramadan City – to divert growth from the city with an organised layout and many services.
The satellite city offer incentives to live there – cheap land and loans, but sometimes this is too expensive for low paid workers.

Work

Sewage

There is an old system in place but this had not foreseen the huge growth of the city.
Most of the city lacks this service, as the city has grown so much and the sewage system only operates for the original city.
There is a new system under construction which spreads far out into the desert.
This is jointly funded by the Egyptian, British ad American governments.
When the system is complete, it may irrigate thousands of kilometres of desert.

Rubbish

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Work

Sewage

There is an old system in place but this had not foreseen the huge growth of the city.
Most of the city lacks this service, as the city has grown so much and the sewage system only operates for the original city.
There is a new system under construction which spreads far out into the desert.
This is jointly funded by the Egyptian, British ad American governments.
When the system is complete, it may irrigate thousands of kilometres of desert.

Rubbish

It is a business to collect rubbish in Cairo.
People on donkeys carry the rubbish to the outskirts of the city.
Little or nothing is wasted as the poorer people of Cairo cannot afford to waste much.
There are people who live off the things in the waste time – collecting bottles which are very expensive in Cairo.

Transport

Traffic and congestion is the main problem.
There used to be popular train and tram systems in place.
Now the road system overshadows earlier forms of transport.
Traffic is everywhere in Cairo and traffic hour is nearly all day.
There is a bus system which is used heavily, and is cheap.
There is also a minibus system which is a cross between a taxi and a bus – all of the people in the minibus each pay the cost.
New roads are being built everywhere.
There is also an underground metro system being built which eases traffic in hope to remove 140, 000 people off the road.

Bombay, India

Housing

People move from the country into the city because they cannot afford to live in the country and due to drought and soil erosion, work is scarce.
When they first move to the city, people squat on the outskirts of the city and count themselves lucky if they find a small space.
Secondly, the people find a space on the pavement in the city. This would only be 10x15 feet big, but would be kept immaculately tidy.
There are no services here as it is illegal, but some people have been living on the pavement for over 20 years.
People could also find shelter along railway lines. This would be a structured place with an upstairs, a separate kitchen and electricity.
There is also the option of living in a shanty town area. The biggest slum in Asia is found in Bombay, and this is called ‘Darobi’.
More than 1,000,000 people live in Darobi which is more developed than other places. There are 12 pit latrines, but are not used as they are not pleasant. There is also a communal tap which is on everyday for 1 hour.
There are open sewers on the site which can flood and spread disease.
Boreholes – which is a hole that collects water, and is pumped out for use – can flood as well.
Floods can lead to marshy land.

Jobs

No-one is unemployed in Bombay shanty towns; everyone is always busy doing something.
There are two types of jobs:
Formal – properly paid, official, tax-paying jobs – e.g. Government jobs – police, teaching or Business jobs.
Informal – low pay, basic necessities, non tax-paying jobs – e.g. Cigarette rollers, coffee grinders, chapatti makers, market stalls and textile manufacturing.

Improving

Mahila Milan group – means ‘Women Together’ – is a self help group.
It is a group of women who help the community and they help each other.
Street children pay the women to cook them food.
They Mahila Milan women also educate and provide social contact for the street children.
The literate women help the illiterate women with banking and housing.
The women convinced the council to give them land to make houses.
The group are going to build houses similar to the houses along the railway lines.
The government have site and service schemes.
They provide a site – piece of land.
They give services – will drill the hole for the borehole, will provide pit latrines/toilets, will put in place a water and sewage system and maybe a purifying plant to purify the water from the sewage.
This depends on the government and where.
In Brazil, the government relocated people to a new town called Brasilia in the countryside and provided jobs in Amazon. Brasilia is now the capital of Brazil.