Urban growth and informal settlements in the LEDC city

Overview

Informal settlement, lack of security of tenure and self-help or site-and-service scheme.

What you need to know

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Questions from this subtopic

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1. 1

   Why are cities in LEDCs growing so rapidly?

   Model answer

   Through two processes acting together. Rural to urban migration brings large numbers of people to the city, pushed by rural poverty, low agricultural wages, land fragmentation and pressure, mechanisation, drought, environmental degradation and sometimes conflict, and pulled by the perception of jobs, higher wages, education, healthcare and a modern way of life. Natural increase then adds to this, because migrants are predominantly young adults of childbearing age, so birth rates in the city stay high while improved healthcare lowers death rates. Natural increase typically accounts for more of the growth than migration once a city is large.

2. 2

   What is an informal settlement?

   Model answer

   An area of housing built by residents themselves on land they do not legally own or have permission to occupy, without planning permission, building control or, initially, connection to mains services. Dwellings are self-built from whatever materials can be obtained, densities are very high, layout is unplanned with narrow irregular lanes, and residents lack legal tenure, so they can in principle be evicted and their homes demolished.

3. 3

   Why do informal settlements develop?

   Model answer

   Because the city's supply of formal, affordable, legal housing grows far more slowly than its population. Incomes in casual and informal work are too low to pay formal rents or to obtain credit, land in accessible locations is expensive, planning and building regulations are too costly to comply with, and city authorities lack the funds and administrative capacity to build at the scale required. Newcomers therefore have no legal option and build for themselves on whatever land is available and unclaimed.

4. 4

   Where in the city do informal settlements tend to be located, and why?

   Model answer

   On land nobody else wants or can easily use: steep unstable slopes, floodplains and riverbanks, marshy ground, land beside railways, roads, pipelines and airports, former rubbish tips and land near industrial sites. They also cluster where residents need to be, close to sources of casual work in the city centre, industrial areas or wealthy suburbs where domestic work is available, because most residents walk to work and cannot afford daily transport. The result is that the poorest people occupy the most hazardous sites.

5. 5

   What physical hazards do informal settlement residents face because of where they live?

   Model answer

   Flooding, where settlements occupy floodplains and riverbanks and where drainage is blocked by waste. Landslides and slope collapse on steep unstable hillsides, particularly after heavy rain. Fire, which spreads extremely rapidly through dense settlements built of timber, plastic and corrugated iron with open cooking fires, paraffin stoves and illegal electrical connections, and which fire engines cannot reach through narrow lanes. Exposure to industrial pollution, dust and contaminated ground where sites adjoin factories or former tips. And structural collapse of self-built dwellings that meet no building standard.

6. 6

   What health problems are associated with informal settlements, and what causes them?

   Model answer

   Water-borne and faecal-oral diseases such as diarrhoea, cholera and typhoid, caused by the absence of piped clean water and safe sanitation and by contamination of water sources by sewage and refuse. Respiratory infections and tuberculosis, spread by extreme overcrowding and worsened by indoor smoke from cooking fuel. Skin and eye infections from insufficient water for washing. Vector-borne disease where standing water and waste allow mosquitoes and rats to breed. Malnutrition among children. Injuries from fire and unsafe structures. Access to healthcare is also limited by cost and distance, so treatable conditions go untreated.

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