How to manage existing slums

The word “slum” is often used to describe informal settlements in urban areas that have inadequate housing and squalid, miserable living conditions. They are often overcrowded, with many people crammed into very small living spaces.

These slums lack basic urban physical infrastructure such as roads, street lighting, paved sidewalks, water, sanitation, storm drainage etc. They also do not have easy access to schools, hospitals or public places for the community to gather and lack solid waste collection facilities. 

Practically in all slums, houses are built on land that the occupants do not have a legal claim to and without any urban planning or adherence to zoning regulations. In addition, slums are often areas where many social indicators are on a downward slide; for example, crime and unemployment are on the rise. Yet all slums dwellers are not a homogeneous population, but a diverse group of people with different interests, means and backgrounds.

Slums are also a significant economic force. In many urban areas, a large percent of the population’s employment is in the informal sector and their contribution to national revenue is quite significant.

Slums develop because they are generally the only type of housing affordable and accessible to the low income earners in urban areas, where competition for land and profits are intense. There are two main reasons why slums develop, namely population growth and governance.

 Uganda has been urbanising rapidly as more people migrate from rural areas to the urban areas due to population growth pressure. Urban migration happens for a number of reasons. Some people migrate because they are pushed out of their places due to natural disasters such as famine or socio - political mishap while others are pulled to a new destination by better job prospects, education, health facilities, or perceived freedom from restrictive social or cultural realities.

The growing population in Uganda’s rural areas work in the agricultural sector, which is highly dependent on weather patterns for production while many households have become landless. As a result, overall rural incomes are low resulting in spiraling rural poverty.

There is a sense of belief that urban areas offer dramatically increased job opportunities. In addition, because urban cultures are often less constrained than those in villages, urban areas can also offer greater prospects of upward social mobility. People, somehow, know what urban areas can offer them and improved transport, communications and links with earlier migrants have all made rural populations much more aware of the advantages and disadvantages of urban life, especially regarding job opportunities and housing.

Urban migration is often a survival strategy for rural households. People come to urban areas with the hope of getting employment and whether they will have any accommodation or not they still come.

Another reason why slums develop is bad governance. The government fails to recognise the rights of the urban poor and incorporate them into urban planning, thereby contributing to the growth of slums. In addition, the  government fails to respond to rapid urbanisation quickly enough. People are coming to urban areas far faster than the physical planning process can incorporate them. Often, urban migrants find their own land and build a shacks before the government has a chance to learn of their existence. The attitude of the government towards urbanisation is also an important component. It does not taken the right approach to the rapid urbanisation, probably with the belief that providing urban services to the poor, will instead attract urbanisation and cause the slums to grow.

In other cases, the government takes more of a passive approach to urbanisation, either it does not have the physcal planning tools to deal with the rapid urbanisation that is happening, or the tools in place are not sufficiently responsive to the reality on the ground.

There are, however, basic actions the government and local governments can take to manage existing slums and also prevent new ones from developing. It has to recognise that urbanisation is going to happen.  Even the alternative of focusing on rural development, will not stop urbanisation.

Once the government accepts the reality of urban growth, the next step is to embark on physical planning and determine where the new residents will live.

Both the government and local governments should identify land and plan for its settlement even if money is not available to provide urban services immediately.

Once people settle on that land and feel that they have a right to live there with security of tenure, they will begin investing in it. Over time, the area will upgrade incrementally.

Slums are indeed a function of urban development and the government and local governments should start to take actions to manage existing slums and also prevent new ones from developing.

Paul Frederick Magimbi,     

Rtd Physical Planning consultant