tag:theconversation.com,2011:/global/topics/informal-settlements-28402/articlesInformal settlements – The Conversation2024-02-20T14:27:38Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2215042024-02-20T14:27:38Z2024-02-20T14:27:38ZLagos: drugs, firearms and youth unemployment are creating a lethal cocktail in Nigeria’s commercial capital<p>Lagos is the <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/1218259/largest-cities-in-africa/#:%7E:text=Lagos%2C%20in%20Nigeria%2C%20ranked%20as,living%20in%20the%20city%20proper.">most populous</a> city in Africa and a regional economic giant, having west Africa’s busiest seaport. It is the centre of commercial and economic activities in Nigeria.</p>
<p>The city’s <a href="https://www.un.org/africarenewal/magazine/april-2019-july-2019/africa%E2%80%99s-megacities-magnet-investors">population</a> is estimated to be 20 million people. The existence of informal settlements makes it difficult to come up with a more precise number.</p>
<p>Lagos has <a href="https://www.african-cities.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/ACRC_Lagos_City-Scoping-Study.pdf">grown</a> rapidly since Nigerian independence in 1960, when its estimated population was 763,000 people. In the 1980s, its population reached 2.7 million. The government of Lagos state estimates that <a href="https://insidebusiness.ng/18245/rapid-urbanization-86-migrants-enter-lagos-every-hour-ambode/">86 young migrants</a> arrive every hour.</p>
<p>This rapid urbanisation has been poorly managed. The result is crumbling public infrastructure, poor sanitation, poverty, and shortages of employment opportunities, food, social services, housing and public transport. </p>
<p>These challenges combine to make the city susceptible to criminal activities. Organised crime and violent conflicts are a public safety and security challenge. </p>
<p>The issue of crime has been with Lagos for years. In 1993, the Nigerian government <a href="https://ludi.org.ng/2023/07/10/crime-prevention-through-public-space-design-a-lagos-story/#:%7E:text=The%20rapid%20population%20growth%20without,leading%20to%20high%20crime%20rates.">described</a> Lagos as the “crime capital of the country” with the emergence of the “<a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/nigeria/nigeria-area-boys-growing-menace-streets-lagos">Area Boys</a>”, a group of social miscreants. </p>
<p>The 2017 <a href="https://nigerianstat.gov.ng/elibrary/read/786">statistics</a> on reported crime incidences in Nigeria by the <a href="https://www.nigerianstat.gov.ng/">National Bureau of Statistics</a> shows that Lagos has remained in a class of its own. Lagos State had the highest percentage share of total cases reported with <a href="https://nigerianstat.gov.ng/elibrary/read/786#:%7E:text=Lagos%20State%20has%20the%20highest,205(0.2%25)%20cases%20recorded.">50,975</a> (37.9%) cases recorded. </p>
<p>I have been <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=jDncA6MAAAAJ&hl=en">researching</a> various aspects of crime and insecurity in Nigeria, particularly in the country’s south-west. I currently lead the <a href="https://www.african-cities.org/">African Cities Research Consortium</a> safety and security domain research in Lagos.</p>
<p>I contributed to a recent <a href="https://www.african-cities.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/ACRC_Working-Paper-7_February-2024.pdf#page=26">paper</a> about residents’ experiences and perceptions of safety in six African cities: Nairobi, Bukavu, Freetown, Mogadishu, Lagos and Maiduguri. </p>
<p>My research identified various drivers of insecurity in Lagos. They included youth migration and unemployment; inequality and poverty; the visible network of organised youth criminal groups; proliferation of small arms and drugs; inadequate preparedness of the city government; police corruption; the high rate of out-of-school children; and poor urban planning.</p>
<p>I argue that for residents to feel secure, the government needs to include these drivers in approaches to solving security challenges in Lagos. </p>
<h2>Unemployment, firearms and drugs</h2>
<p>In my African Cities Research Consortium safety and security domain research in Lagos, unemployment and the proliferation of small firearms and drugs stand out as trends. </p>
<p>A <a href="https://medium.com/@olaoyeleye09/navigating-unemployment-in-lagos-nigeria-1a55c2a5e0b5">survey</a> on Navigating Unemployment in Lagos, Nigeria revealed that 48.31% of the respondents were unemployed and the majority were between 25 and 34 years old.</p>
<p>In Lagos, youth of 18-40 years make up about half of the <a href="https://www.urbanet.info/youth-employment-in-lagos/#:%7E:text=In%20Lagos%2C%20youth%20are%20believed,equalling%20over%2010%20million%20people.">population</a>, equalling over ten million people facing high rates of unemployment. I do not have current unemployment data but in its fourth quarter 2020 nationwide survey, the National Bureau of Statistics <a href="https://mepb.lagosstate.gov.ng/wp-content/uploads/sites/29/2022/02/MACRO-ECONS-FLYER-DECEMBER-2021-edition-1.pdf">estimated</a> a 37.14% unemployment rate in Lagos, and 4.52% underemployment rate.</p>
<p>According to my research participants, drug abuse and illicit arms have become serious issues. Some of the city precincts in communities such as Ikorodu, Somolu, Agege, Bariga, Ojo, Oshodi, Mushin and Badagry have become warehouses and destinations for firearms and drugs. </p>
<p>A <a href="https://enactafrica.org/research/ocwar-t/silencing-the-guns-in-cities-urbanisation-and-arms-trafficking-in-bamako-and-lagos">recent survey</a> published by <a href="https://enactafrica.org/research/organised-crime-index#:%7E:text=The%20ENACT%20Africa%20Organised%20Crime,organised%20crime%20across%20the%20continent.&text=The%20ENACT%20Index%20is%20a,organised%20crime%20on%20the%20continent.">ENACT Transnational</a> on organised crime in Africa has shown that between 2010 and 2017, the largest supply of live ammunition transported into Nigeria illegally was intercepted at Lagos. This was made up of 21,407,933 items of live ammunition and 1,100 pump action guns.</p>
<p>Most of the illegal weapons pass through ports in west Africa; some are imported over land borders. While the country’s <a href="https://omaplex.com.ng/an-overview-of-the-gun-regulations-in-nigeria-the-current-stance-and-the-way-forward/">law forbids</a> random possession of firearms, my research respondents say it is surprisingly common for young miscreants to carry firearms in Lagos.</p>
<p>The police have <a href="https://www.premiumtimesng.com/regional/ssouth-west/409520-blacksmith-two-others-arrested-for-illegal-firearms-fabrication.html">confirmed</a> that hooligans acquire illicit firearms from local blacksmiths who make them, and from corrupt security officers. </p>
<p>In 2022, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency <a href="https://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2022/09/23/the-lagos-drug-bust">discovered</a> a warehouse in a residential estate in Ikorodu with 1.8 tonnes of cocaine. This was the largest single cocaine seizure in the country’s history.</p>
<p>In November 2023, security agents <a href="https://leadership.ng/navy-intercepts-boats-with-n200m-illicit-drugs-in-lagos/">intercepted</a> cannabis in Ibeshe, Iworoshoki and Badagry, and in January 2024, the drug law enforcement agency <a href="https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/top-news/656790-nigerian-authorities-intercept-hard-drugs-from-us-arrest-suspect-official.html">intercepted</a> cannabis at Ikeja.</p>
<h2>Impacts of unemployment, small arms and drugs in Lagos</h2>
<p>Findings from <a href="https://www.african-cities.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/ACRC_Working-Paper-7_February-2024.pdf#page=26">my research</a> in Lagos show respondents perceive high levels of violent crime in the city. Youth aged 13 to 40 are mostly the perpetrators.</p>
<p>While there are no accurate statistics of daily violent crime incidences, residents are <a href="https://punchng.com/daredevil-daylight-robbers-return-to-lagos-streets/">complaining</a>. </p>
<p>In 2022, the police <a href="https://securityandsafetymatters.wordpress.com/2022/11/24/lagos-police-says-over-three-hundred-people-brutally-murdered/">reported</a> that no fewer than 345 people were murdered in Lagos – the highest number in years. </p>
<p>Young people have formed themselves into street gangs. My research respondents spoke of violent encounters in which their assailants used firearms and were often under the influence of alcohol or drugs or both. This was the experience of 18 respondents, out of a sample of 50 randomly selected respondents.</p>
<p>Some respondents described street gangs in Lagos who are constantly high on drugs and have no regard for human life. Other respondents said drugs were accessible and affordable even for unemployed youth. Respondents believed that a combination of a large youth population, unemployment and easy access to drugs and illicit firearms was proving deadly.</p>
<h2>Preventing and treating the issues</h2>
<p>The crime triangle in Lagos – youth unemployment, drugs and illicit arms – requires urgent attention. </p>
<p>My study in Lagos shows that a widespread sense of economic hopelessness exacerbates the use of drug and firearms by young people in Lagos. Youth who embrace this culture of violence are those who feel that they have no stake in the city and no trust in the government to provide opportunities for them.</p>
<p>Thus, the state and communities must address the lack of opportunities and alternatives, reaching out to marginalised youth and providing them with an environment in which they can lead a fulfilling life. An effective strategy is one that provides legitimate activities and job opportunities for them. </p>
<p>Government action is required to ensure that opportunities exist for training in a trade or life skill. This would enable youth to make better choices and find productive employment. They could be socially responsible and play an active role in the city rather than becoming a threat in their communities.</p>
<p>Government has the authority to control the supply and use of firearms and drugs. </p>
<p>Special operations should be directed at drug addicts and unlicensed firearms carriers. The approach should be to disrupt the market for illicit arms and drugs. </p>
<p>Security agencies can work with communities to discover new dealing locations and make buyers feel vulnerable and uncomfortable through sting operations – pretending to be dealers or users. </p>
<p>Urban planning approaches could also be applied such as inclusive planning of informal settlements, installation of security cameras and street lighting, limiting access to problematic streets through road changes, removal of transport stops used by drug and firearms users and their dealers, and improved signage.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221504/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Adewumi I. Badiora does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Youth migration, unemployment, proliferation of small arms and drugs are some of the drivers of violent crimes in Lagos.Adewumi I. Badiora, Senior Lecturer, Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Olabisi Onabanjo UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2213132024-01-19T21:07:32Z2024-01-19T21:07:32Z1 billion people left dangerously exposed to heat stress by gaps in climate monitoring<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570270/original/file-20240119-19-y6h5wq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C11%2C7360%2C4891&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/ghaziabad-uttar-pradesh-india-may-12-2170143881">PradeepGaurs/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>2023 was the <a href="https://wmo.int/media/news/wmo-confirms-2023-smashes-global-temperature-record">hottest year on record</a>. <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/12/climate-change-humidity-paradox/">Humidity is rising too</a>. Heat and humidity are a dangerous combination, threatening all aspects of our lives and livelihoods.</p>
<p>Climate change is pushing humid heat dangerously close to the <a href="https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ac71b9">upper limits of what people can survive</a>. Parts of the world are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adg9297">on track</a> for conditions beyond the limits of human tolerance.</p>
<p>Yet <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2023.12.005">our new research</a> shows poor weather station coverage across the tropics leads to underestimates of heat stress in cities. This means global climate change assessments probably overlook the local impacts on people.</p>
<p>Concentrated across tropical Asia and Africa, informal settlements, commonly known as “slums”, are on the <a href="https://unhabitat.org/pro-poor-climate-action-in-informal-settlement">front line of climate exposure</a>. The shortfalls in climate monitoring leave these communities dangerously vulnerable to rising humid heat. With few options to adapt, millions could be forced to seek refuge away from the hottest parts of the tropics.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570282/original/file-20240119-15-ptsagy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="World map showing percentage of population living in informal settlements by country, with dots indicating weather station sites" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570282/original/file-20240119-15-ptsagy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570282/original/file-20240119-15-ptsagy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=355&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570282/original/file-20240119-15-ptsagy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=355&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570282/original/file-20240119-15-ptsagy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=355&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570282/original/file-20240119-15-ptsagy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=446&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570282/original/file-20240119-15-ptsagy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=446&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570282/original/file-20240119-15-ptsagy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=446&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A map showing percentage of population living in informal settlements by country. Dots indicate weather station sites.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Emma Ramsay</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/global-warming-now-pushing-heat-into-territory-humans-cannot-tolerate-138343">Global warming now pushing heat into territory humans cannot tolerate</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Why is heat such a threat in these places?</h2>
<p><a href="https://population.un.org/wup/publications/Files/WUP2018-PopFacts_2018-1.pdf">Rapid urbanisation</a> that outpaces planned, formal development is driving the growth of informal settlements. Their residents usually lack infrastructure and services, such as electricity and water supply, that many city dwellers take for granted. </p>
<p>More than <a href="https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/report/2019/goal-11/">1 billion people live in informal settlements</a>. The United Nations expects this number to grow to <a href="https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/report/2023/The-Sustainable-Development-Goals-Report-2023.pdf">3 billion over the next 30 years</a>. In countries such as Kenya or Bangladesh, nearly half the urban populations lives in informal settlements.</p>
<p>Most informal settlements are located in the tropics. Here it is hot and humid year-round, but their residents have few options to adapt to heat stress. </p>
<p>Most households in these settlements are on low incomes. Many residents <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.uclim.2022.101401">must work outdoors</a> for their livelihoods, which exposes them to heat and humidity. </p>
<p>On top of this, because informal settlements fall outside official systems and regulations, we often lack data about the threats they face.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A farmer works in a rice field next to an informal settlement" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570004/original/file-20240118-19-m8smxw.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570004/original/file-20240118-19-m8smxw.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570004/original/file-20240118-19-m8smxw.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570004/original/file-20240118-19-m8smxw.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570004/original/file-20240118-19-m8smxw.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570004/original/file-20240118-19-m8smxw.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570004/original/file-20240118-19-m8smxw.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">People who must work outdoors to make a living, such as many residents of this settlement in Makassar, Indonesia, are highly exposed to heat.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Revitalising Informal Settlements and their Environments, Monash University</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/urban-growth-heat-islands-humidity-climate-change-the-costs-multiply-in-tropical-cities-120825">Urban growth, heat islands, humidity, climate change: the costs multiply in tropical cities</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What’s missing from climate data?</h2>
<p>Most of the world’s population <a href="https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac30c0">lives more than 25km from a weather station</a>. This means weather stations rarely capture the full range of temperature and humidity in cities, which are usually hotter than non-urban surrounds – the <a href="https://www.australianenvironmentaleducation.com.au/climate-change/urban-heat-island-effect/">urban heat island effect</a>. These gaps in monitoring are largest across the tropics where most informal settlements are located.</p>
<p>As individuals we experience heat on a local scale, which isn’t captured by sparse weather station networks or meteorological models. If your home is too hot, a weather report telling you otherwise offers little respite. </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2023.12.005">Our research</a> compiled local climate monitoring data from informal settlements in seven tropical countries. We compared these data to temperature and humidity measurements at the nearest weather station.</p>
<p>We found weather stations severely underestimate the heat stress that people experience in their homes and local communities. This means global climate assessments and projections also likely underestimate local-scale impacts. </p>
<p>Although these data come from a relatively small number of studies, they highlight a major hurdle for climate adaptation. Without accurate heat stress data, how can we ensure the most vulnerable communities are not left behind?</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Looking along a water channel towards an informal settlement in Makassar, Indonesia" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570005/original/file-20240118-15-u3alzk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2835%2C1897&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570005/original/file-20240118-15-u3alzk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570005/original/file-20240118-15-u3alzk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570005/original/file-20240118-15-u3alzk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570005/original/file-20240118-15-u3alzk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570005/original/file-20240118-15-u3alzk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570005/original/file-20240118-15-u3alzk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Lack of accurate local data means climate adaptation efforts could overlook communities exposed to extreme heat and humidity.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Grant Duffy, Revitalising Informal Settlements and their Environments, Monash University</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-40-c-is-bearable-in-a-desert-but-lethal-in-the-tropics-206237">Why 40°C is bearable in a desert but lethal in the tropics</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Even if they get a heat warning, options are limited</h2>
<p>During a heatwave in Australia we are usually told to <a href="https://www.redcross.org.au/heatwaves/#:%7E:text=non%2Dperishable%20foods.-,During%20a%20heatwave,you%20don't%20feel%20thirsty.">stay inside and drink lots of water</a>. For residents of an informal settlement, this advice might actually increase their risk of health impacts.</p>
<p>Heat can be even <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2021.103248">worse indoors in informal housing</a> with poor ventilation and insulation. Very few households have air conditioning (or could afford to run it if they did). Residents might not have access to safe drinking water, adding to the health risks of heat stress.</p>
<p>What’s more, advice and alerts are unlikely even to reach informal settlements. A <a href="https://www.undrr.org/media/91954/download?startDownload=true">2023 World Meteorological Organisation report</a> found only half of the world’s countries have early-warning systems. </p>
<p>These systems are activated if forecast heat is above certain trigger levels. Health advice and alerts to the public can be backed by extra public health measures. <a href="https://www.icpac.net/">Regional climate centres</a> currently issue broad-scale alerts, but forecasts and responses need to operate at smaller scales to be effective.</p>
<p>And, as we have shown, forecasts are based on weather station data that underestimate heat in informal settlements. This means early-warning systems could fail to activate even though residents of these settlements will experience dangerous heat stress.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-explained-will-the-tropics-eventually-become-uninhabitable-145174">Climate explained: will the tropics eventually become uninhabitable?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What can be done to protect people?</h2>
<p>Current climate monitoring efforts have left millions of vulnerable people at risk of heat stress. This has direct <a href="https://journals.plos.org/climate/article?id=10.1371/journal.pclm.0000339">impacts on individual health and wellbeing</a>, with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(23)01859-7">broader knock-on effects</a> for societies and national economies. </p>
<p>Meteorological institutes in developing countries need urgent support to strengthen climate monitoring and improve early-warning systems. The new head of the World Meteorological Organisation has <a href="https://wmo.int/news/media-centre/celeste-saulo-of-argentina-takes-office-secretary-general-of-wmo">promised to do just that</a>. We need to ensure governments and agencies, such as development banks and NGOs, capitalise on this opportunity and include informal settlements in new monitoring networks.</p>
<p>Inequalities in resources and adaptive capacities must also be overcome. Community-based initiatives such as urban greening and improved housing <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(21)01209-5">show promise to reduce urban heat</a>. Investing in these solutions must be a priority of adaptation efforts. </p>
<p>The alternative to adapting is to move. Climate-related migration is <a href="https://www.visionofhumanity.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/ETR-2023-web-261023.pdf">already happening</a> due to sea-level rise and heat, <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-12-16/climate-migrants-moving-south-to-tasmania/11800152">including here in Australia</a>. </p>
<p>People don’t leave their homes and uproot their lives without good reason. Finding solutions that help them adapt to climate change should be the priority. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/climigration-when-communities-must-move-because-of-climate-change-122529">'Climigration': when communities must move because of climate change</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221313/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emma Ramsay received funding from the Australian Government Research Training Program and Monash University. This research was conducted as part of the Revitalising Informal Settlements and their Environments (RISE) program, funded by the Wellcome Trust, the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Asian Development Bank, the Government of Fiji, the City of Makassar and Monash University, and involves partnerships and in-kind contributions from the Cooperative Research Centre for Water Sensitive Cities, Fiji National University, Hasanuddin University, Southeast Water, Melbourne Water, Live and Learn Environmental Education, UN-Habitat, UNU-IIGH, WaterAid International and Oxfam</span></em></p>Most of the 1 billion people in informal settlements are in the tropics where the threat of humid heat is rising. Poor weather station coverage that misses local hotspots puts them even more at risk.Emma Ramsay, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Nanyang Technological University, and Research Affiliate, School of Biological Sciences, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2164502023-11-15T14:30:06Z2023-11-15T14:30:06ZHealth risks at home: a study in six African countries shows how healthy housing saves children’s lives<p>Housing is a critical social determinant of health. The World Health Organization (WHO) <a href="https://iris.who.int/bitstream/handle/10665/276001/9789241550376-eng.pdf?sequence=22">defines healthy housing</a> as a shelter that supports physical, mental and social wellbeing. </p>
<p>The WHO has developed <a href="https://iris.who.int/bitstream/handle/10665/276001/9789241550376-eng.pdf?sequence=1">guidelines</a> outlining the attributes of healthy housing. These include structural soundness, as well as access to a local community that enables social interactions. Healthy housing protects inhabitants from the effects of disasters, pollution, waste and extreme heat or cold. It provides a feeling of home, including a sense of belonging, security and privacy. </p>
<p>Health risks in the home environment are important to think about because of the amount of time people spend there. In countries where unemployment levels are high or where most work is home based, people spend <a href="https://iris.who.int/bitstream/handle/10665/276001/9789241550376-eng.pdf?sequence=23">more than 70% of their time indoors</a>. Children especially spend a large amount of time at home, which exposes them to any health risks in the home environment.</p>
<p>We are researchers from the African Population and Health Research Center with an interest in urbanisation and population dynamics. We recently set out to <a href="https://bmcpediatr.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12887-023-03992-5">study the link between housing and children’s health</a>. We found that healthy housing generally lowered the chances of children falling ill with three diseases that we tracked: diarrhoea, acute respiratory illnesses and fever. </p>
<p>The impacts of housing quality extend beyond health and can have significant implications for education and subsequent economic outcomes, particularly for children. </p>
<h2>The research</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/can-rapid-urbanization-in-africa-reduce-poverty-causes-opportunities-and-policy-recommendations/">Rapid urbanisation and population growth</a> in Africa have pushed many people into informal settlements. Sub-Saharan Africa has <a href="https://blogs.afdb.org/fr/inclusive-growth/urbanization-africa-191">65%</a> of the world’s slum dwellers. This population generally lives in poor housing that lacks access to clean water, sanitation and hygiene services. The structures are overcrowded. They tend to have leaking roofs and damp walls, floors and foundations. They may also have indoor pollution, compromising the health of millions of people.</p>
<p>We set out to <a href="https://bmcpediatr.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12887-023-03992-5">evaluate</a> the relationship between healthy housing and the likelihood of children falling sick across six African countries: Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa.</p>
<p>We studied the incidence of diarrhoea, acute respiratory illness and fever among children under the age of five. These three conditions can have severe consequences for child health and wellbeing. </p>
<p>Diarrhoea and acute respiratory infections are <a href="https://academic.oup.com/inthealth/advance-article/doi/10.1093/inthealth/ihad046/7210800">leading causes</a> of disease and deaths in children aged below five worldwide. Diarrhoea accounted for <a href="https://data.unicef.org/topic/child-health/diarrhoeal-disease/">9%</a> of all deaths among children under five in 2019. Acute respiratory illnesses caused about <a href="https://www.who.int/data/gho/indicator-metadata-registry/imr-details/3147">20%</a> of deaths among children in this age group. The burden of under-five deaths linked to diarrhoea and respiratory illnesses like pneumonia is <a href="https://childmortality.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/UN-IGME-Child-Mortality-Report-2022.pdf#page=4">higher</a> for children in developing countries than those in developed regions. </p>
<p>We selected the six countries in our study because they provided data on the three diseases we tracked. They also allow for a comparative analysis across African countries. Our study used the latest available demographic and health survey data at the time of our research: Burkina Faso (2010), Cameroon (2011), Ghana (2014), Kenya (2014), Nigeria (2018) and South Africa (2016). We sampled data on 91,096 children aged under five.</p>
<h2>The findings</h2>
<p>Our study found that healthy housing was <a href="https://bmcpediatr.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12887-023-03992-5/tables/2">generally associated with reduced odds</a> of contracting the three illnesses we considered: diarrhoea, acute respiratory illness and fever. Our definition of healthy housing considered several attributes, including sanitation, drinking water sources and housing characteristics. </p>
<p>Homes that protect occupants from the elements, ensure access to adequate space and reduce overcrowding help keep children healthy. Homes that use cleaner cooking and lighting fuels reduce household air pollution, which leads to lower chances of respiratory infections.</p>
<p>Children living in healthy housing had fewer incidences of fever in all countries apart from South Africa. Here, children living in the healthiest homes are twice as likely to have fever than those living in unhealthy homes.</p>
<p>Fever is an indication of an underlying infection that could be viral or bacterial. Such infections are common in South Africa. In addition, the main causes of fevers among children under five are <a href="https://www.hindawi.com/journals/grp/2023/1906782/">diarrhoea and acute respiratory illnesses</a>. Among the countries included in the analysis, South Africa had the highest proportion of young mothers (aged below 25) and never-married mothers. This increases the chances that these mothers are engaged in work outside the home, leading to the early introduction of complementary feeding. This has been shown to increase the incidence of diarrhoea. These results call for addressing the causes of diarrhoea and respiratory illnesses by, for instance, ensuring South African homes have access to clean drinking water, adequate sanitation and clean energy for cooking.</p>
<p>While healthy housing is crucial, it’s not the sole determinant of a child’s health. Other factors, such as a sense of community, environmental exposure, parental education, income levels, healthcare access, and maternal and child-level factors <a href="https://bmcpediatr.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12887-023-03992-5/tables/3">also contribute to the overall health status of children</a>. For instance, we found that children in Burkina Faso who were not breastfed had higher chances of getting diarrhoea than those who were breastfed despite the condition of their housing. This tracks with studies that have documented that breastfeeding has a <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fped.2023.1086999">protective role</a> over gastrointestinal and respiratory tract infections among children. </p>
<h2>What next</h2>
<p>From our findings, parents can improve the wellbeing of their children by implementing simple strategies. This includes ensuring they use clean energy for cooking to reduce indoor air pollution and consequently reduce the incidence of acute respiratory illnesses. Similarly, using clean drinking water, hand washing and improving sanitation can help reduce cases of diarrhoea. </p>
<p>Bold but nuanced policy and programme government-level interventions can also help address the incidence of diseases affecting children under five in Africa. This requires efforts that go beyond just addressing the issue of housing to working with complementary sectors, like health, urban planning, environment and education.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/216450/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hellen Gitau received funding from Wellcome Trust for this Complex Urban System for Sustainability and Health study. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Blessing Mberu received funding from Wellcome Trust for this Complex Urban System for Sustainability and Health study. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kanyiva Muindi received funding from Wellcome Trust for this Complex Urban System for Sustainability and Health study. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Samuel Iddi received funding from Wellcome Trust for this Complex Urban System for Sustainability and Health study.</span></em></p>The impact of housing quality extends beyond health to education and subsequent economic outcomes, particularly for children.Hellen Gitau, Research officer, African Population and Health Research CenterBlessing Mberu, Head of Urbanisation and Wellbeing, African Population and Health Research Center, African Population and Health Research CenterKanyiva Muindi, Associate Research Scientist, African Population and Health Research CenterSamuel Iddi, Research Scientist, African Population and Health Research CenterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2124922023-09-13T10:55:07Z2023-09-13T10:55:07ZAddis Ababa faces growing climate change risks like heat, drought and floods, study warns<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/545484/original/file-20230830-19-8bq04m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C7%2C5000%2C3315&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">About 70% of people in Addis Ababa live in informal settlements that are vulnerable to climate change. Amanuel Sileshi/AFP/</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/muslim-devotees-gather-at-meskel-square-to-break-their-fast-news-photo/1240330823?adppopup=true">Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital city, will likely face increased heatwaves, droughts and severe flooding over the next 67 years. These changes will pose risks to public health and infrastructure. They’ll also be felt most acutely by the city’s most vulnerable residents: those living in informal settlements. </p>
<p>Addis Ababa is one of the fastest-growing cities in Africa, and its current metropolitan population of about 5.4 million is projected to reach close to <a href="https://worldpopulationreview.com/world-cities/addis-ababa-population">9 million</a> by 2035.</p>
<p>This increase in the city’s population will be absorbed by informal settlements, the prime destination for most migrants. And informal settlements are characterised by poor or non-existent infrastructure, and face the twin challenges of worsening climate change and poor urban environmental policy.</p>
<p>To investigate the city’s vulnerability to climate change, researchers at <a href="https://www.climatepolicylab.org/">Tufts University</a> and the <a href="https://www.woodwellclimate.org/">Woodwell Climate Research Center</a> analysed flood risk and temperature data for different time periods, projecting from the past to the future.</p>
<p>We predicted that the city’s extreme daily maximum temperatures would increase by about <a href="https://www.woodwellclimate.org/climate-risk-assessment-addis-ababa-ethiopia/">1.7°C over the period 2040-2060</a>, compared with 2000–2020. An increase of 1.7°C would result in a <a href="https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/aab827">rise</a> in the frequency, duration, and intensity of heatwaves. In addition, higher temperatures contribute to increased water vapour and transpiration. This will <a href="https://report.ipcc.ch/ar6syr/pdf/IPCC_AR6_SYR_LongerReport.pdf#page=16">threaten</a> health, ecosystems, infrastructure, livelihoods, and food supplies.</p>
<p>Certain southern neighbourhoods, such as <a href="https://www.woodwellclimate.org/climate-risk-assessment-addis-ababa-ethiopia/">Akaki-Kaliti, Bole and Nifas Silk-Lafto</a>, have experienced notably higher temperatures, especially during the warm season from March to May. And, looking to the future, temperature projections for <a href="https://www.woodwellclimate.org/climate-risk-assessment-addis-ababa-ethiopia/">Nifas Silk-Lafto suggest an average temperature increase to 26.21°C between 2040 and 2060, and further increase to 27.78°C from 2070 to 2090</a> and <a href="https://www.woodwellclimate.org/climate-risk-assessment-addis-ababa-ethiopia/">27.78°C from 2070 to 2090</a>. </p>
<p>For the warm-season months of March, April, and May, a temperature increase of 1.8°C is projected. This suggests that the peak temperature for the hottest day of the year will rise by an average of 1.8°C compared to recent data. From 2000 to 2020 the average temperature in the Nifas Silk-Lafto sub-city was 24.70°C. </p>
<p>Increases in temperatures of this magnitude will lead to public health challenges such as increased malaria risks, disproportionately affecting vulnerable groups like the elderly, children, and women.</p>
<h2>More droughts</h2>
<p>Over the past two decades, Addis Ababa has endured an average of three months of extreme drought yearly. Using the <a href="https://www.droughtmanagement.info/palmer-drought-severity-index-pdsi/">Palmer Drought Severity Index</a> to assess temperature and precipitation data in a geographical area, our analysis suggests that extreme drought events will become more frequent between 2040 and 2060. The city is expected to experience an additional 1.6 months of extreme drought annually, a 53% increase compared with 2000-2020. </p>
<p>This rising frequency of droughts, along with the city’s growing population, is intensifying water insecurity. Groundwater reserves for drought emergencies are already being <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/tqem.21512">depleted</a>. </p>
<p>These droughts will affect health, hydroelectric energy production and urban agriculture. </p>
<h2>Flooding</h2>
<p>Too much rainfall, particularly if it occurs within a short period of time in an urban area, leads to flooding. Flooding poses a significant environmental risk to Addis Ababa, especially because the city has developed around three primary rivers. </p>
<p>Climate change will increase water-related challenges by affecting the flow of rivers and the replenishment of groundwater. </p>
<p>Currently, <a href="https://www.woodwellclimate.org/climate-risk-assessment-addis-ababa-ethiopia/">67%</a> of the population in Addis lives in flood prone areas. The parts of the city that are most at risk include central Addis, which has the greatest density of impervious surfaces like tarmac and concrete. These contribute to flood risk because water can’t seep into the ground.</p>
<p>Other <a href="https://www.woodwellclimate.org/climate-risk-assessment-addis-ababa-ethiopia/">parts of the city that are at risk</a> include the southern half – where the slope is relatively flatter, so water doesn’t flow away – and the Nifas Silk-Lafto region, where considerable development has taken place in the floodplain. </p>
<p>Several factors will add to the flooding challenge. The city has <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214581819301843">inadequate sewerage infrastructure</a> and <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jfr3.12629">weak drainage systems</a> which are often obstructed by solid waste. </p>
<h2>The impact</h2>
<p>The effects on the city’s residents will be substantial. </p>
<p>Health is just one example. </p>
<p>Our data show that average temperatures in the city will make year-round <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.2003489#:%7E:text=This%20model%20suggests%20a%20temperature,climate%20change%20on%20malaria%20transmission">malaria transmission</a> a risk. There will have to be sustained policy measures to deal with the risk.</p>
<p>Older adults and pregnant women are particularly vulnerable to the health impacts of climate change. The elderly are more <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/climate-change/impact-climate-change-rights-older-persons">sensitive</a> to heat and pollution due to existing health conditions, limited mobility, and compromised immune systems. Pregnant women face <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0015028222003831">risks</a> from thermal variations and mosquito-borne illnesses like malaria and Zika. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-change-will-cause-more-african-children-to-die-from-hot-weather-188609">Climate change will cause more African children to die from hot weather</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Many urban residents will be prone to increasing floods. Already <a href="https://www.woodwellclimate.org/climate-risk-assessment-addis-ababa-ethiopia/">10%</a> of the city’s newly developed areas are within a 100-year floodplain, threatening lives and infrastructures.</p>
<p>People living in informal settlements are particularly at risk – that’s about <a href="https://unhabitat.org/ethiopia-addis-ababa-urban-profile">70%</a> of Addis Ababa’s residents. These settlements crop up in limited and unused spaces, such as riverbanks. They are at a higher <a href="https://gsdrc.org/topic-guides/urban-governance/key-policy-challenges/informal-settlements/">risk</a> of flood impact, and the risk is growing.</p>
<p>Our data shows that currently the percentage difference in vulnerability between formal and informal settlements is <a href="https://www.woodwellclimate.org/climate-risk-assessment-addis-ababa-ethiopia/">0.6%</a>. The figure illustrates the extent to which buildings within formal and informal settlements would be affected by flooding events. It is expected to rise to <a href="https://www.woodwellclimate.org/climate-risk-assessment-addis-ababa-ethiopia/">1.3% by 2050 and 1.6% by 2080</a>. </p>
<h2>Policy recommendations</h2>
<p>There’s an urgent need for policies that can rise to these challenges. We suggest:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>the government should establish a climate adaptation and resilience office, to integrate <a href="https://www.c2es.org/document/what-is-climate-resilience-and-why-does-it-matter/">climate resilience</a> into <a href="https://theconversation.com/cape-towns-climate-strategy-isnt-perfect-but-every-african-city-should-have-one-149287">urban planning</a></p></li>
<li><p>an independent body should then assess policies in practice</p></li>
<li><p>a water management strategy to ensure equitable access and sustainable <a href="https://waterfdn.org/sustainable-water-management-swm-profile/#:%7E:text=Sustainable%20water%20management%20means%20using,those%20needs%20in%20the%20future.">use of water</a></p></li>
<li><p>the city should invest in <a href="https://environment.ec.europa.eu/topics/nature-and-biodiversity/green-infrastructure_en">green infrastructure</a> </p></li>
</ul>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/global-climate-finance-leaves-out-cities-fixing-it-is-critical-to-battling-climate-change-194375">Global climate finance leaves out cities: fixing it is critical to battling climate change</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<ul>
<li><p>upgrading infrastructure and improving waste management</p></li>
<li><p>public awareness campaigns and <a href="https://www.unesco.org/en/climate-change/education#:%7E:text=Education%20is%20crucial%20to%20promote,act%20as%20agents%20of%20change.">school</a> education on climate change impacts</p></li>
<li><p>developing mechanisms for effective <a href="https://coastadapt.com.au/how-to-pages/collaboration-and-partnerships-climate-change-adaptation">collaboration</a> among government departments, non-governmental organisations and international agencies.</p></li>
</ul><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/212492/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Abay Yimere does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Climate change is putting pressure on Ethiopia’s largest city, Addis Ababa, and exposing people to disease and natural disasters.Abay Yimere, Postdoctoral Scholar in International Environment and Resource Policy, The Fletcher School, Tufts UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2040312023-06-06T02:58:05Z2023-06-06T02:58:05ZHow India’s ‘slum-free’ redevelopment fails residents by ignoring their design insights and needs<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524763/original/file-20230507-15-xg8czc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=386%2C6%2C3404%2C2257&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kali Marnane (2023)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>I’m in Ahmedabad, India, standing where families once built their homes under the shade of large trees. Today, those houses are a flattened dust bowl at the edge of a construction site. Apartment buildings are replacing the low-rise, high-density settlement called Ramapir No Tekro, the city’s biggest informal settlement.</p>
<p>I’m feeling the inevitability of political forces intent on shaping the city in a new image. Walking through the community, I see shops closed and homes reduced to rubble. It’s hard to reconcile these images with the once-vibrant streets I remember.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Demolished houses in foreground with sheet metal fence separating street from construction site" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524781/original/file-20230507-52143-502jlx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524781/original/file-20230507-52143-502jlx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524781/original/file-20230507-52143-502jlx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524781/original/file-20230507-52143-502jlx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524781/original/file-20230507-52143-502jlx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524781/original/file-20230507-52143-502jlx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524781/original/file-20230507-52143-502jlx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Apartments under construction on the site of demolished houses in Ramapir No Tekro.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kali Marnane (2023)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The 8,500 homes that housed 150,000 people in Ramapir No Tekro are being redeveloped as the government aims to achieve a “<a href="https://ahm.gujarat.gov.in/gujarat-slum-rehabilitation-policy-ppp-2010/">slum-free</a>” India. </p>
<p>Although the stated aim of providing affordable housing to bring people out of poverty gives me hope, I feel heartbreak and frustration as residents continue to be short-changed. They receive poor compensation, the underlying reasons people build informal housing are not addressed, and authorities refuse to see value in the informal architecture that the residents created. Apartment designs lack key features of the settlement that our <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10901-023-10029-x">recent study</a> identified as improving residents’ lives.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Apartment buildings in the background of an informal street with some houses demolished. A goat and dog stand in front of houses." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524783/original/file-20230507-3722-yrob2v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524783/original/file-20230507-3722-yrob2v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=345&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524783/original/file-20230507-3722-yrob2v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=345&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524783/original/file-20230507-3722-yrob2v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=345&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524783/original/file-20230507-3722-yrob2v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524783/original/file-20230507-3722-yrob2v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524783/original/file-20230507-3722-yrob2v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Redevelopment behind a partially demolished street in Ramapir No Tekro.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kali Marnane (2023)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/indians-promised-benefits-of-100-smart-cities-but-the-poor-are-sidelined-again-107787">Indians promised benefits of 100 smart cities, but the poor are sidelined again</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>One size does not fit all</h2>
<p>Residents will receive a new apartment if they can prove they have lived here since 2010. To do this, they must have original documents such electricity bills, government survey, or birth certificates. Those who qualify for an apartment will get compensation to cover rent while construction is completed but they must dismantle their home before relocating.</p>
<p>Renters, more recent arrivals and those who lack the required paperwork are ineligible. They must relocate permanently at their own expense, often far from community support networks, livelihoods and schools.</p>
<p>Even for those who do qualify for new housing, nearby rental accommodation is hard to find due to high rents and/or caste discrimination. When residents return, their new apartment will consist of one room with a small entry space, kitchen and bathroom – regardless of the size of their family or of their previous house. </p>
<p>As an incentive for developers, height and setback restrictions have been eased. This allows more apartments to be sold for profit.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="View of roofs in Ramapir No Tekro showing high-density, low-rise construction." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524786/original/file-20230507-179539-sxlgnl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524786/original/file-20230507-179539-sxlgnl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=351&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524786/original/file-20230507-179539-sxlgnl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=351&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524786/original/file-20230507-179539-sxlgnl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=351&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524786/original/file-20230507-179539-sxlgnl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524786/original/file-20230507-179539-sxlgnl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524786/original/file-20230507-179539-sxlgnl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Houses in Ramapir No Tekro before redevelopment.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kali Marnane (2018)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="View of roofs in Ramapir No Tekro showing demolition of houses and construction site in background." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524787/original/file-20230507-151604-3ify0z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524787/original/file-20230507-151604-3ify0z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=351&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524787/original/file-20230507-151604-3ify0z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=351&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524787/original/file-20230507-151604-3ify0z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=351&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524787/original/file-20230507-151604-3ify0z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524787/original/file-20230507-151604-3ify0z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524787/original/file-20230507-151604-3ify0z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Houses in Ramapir No Tekro during redevelopment.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kali Marnane (2023)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>How suitable design improves lives</h2>
<p>In a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10901-023-10029-x">recent study</a>, Kelly Greenop and I examine the design of the “slum” I now stand in, before it was demolished. We identify four features that help improve living conditions: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>houses are located near work, schools, healthcare and family</p></li>
<li><p>residents have control over design and construction, upgrading only when affordable, which creates a sense of ownership that means residents are more likely to invest in and maintain common areas, and also can give priority to spending on children’s education</p></li>
<li><p>houses are clustered in groups that connect neighbours, and designs typically feature an entry porch, which allows activities from small dwellings to spill into common areas and fosters social connection</p></li>
<li><p>neighbourhoods have a clear hierarchy and scale of shared spaces: from private house, to semi-private porch, to semi-public common area, to public street. Spending time in shared spaces directly outside the home helps to build strong community bonds.</p></li>
</ul>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Neighbours interact in shared open space in Ramapir No Tekro." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524772/original/file-20230507-21-5l0mf1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524772/original/file-20230507-21-5l0mf1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=332&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524772/original/file-20230507-21-5l0mf1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=332&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524772/original/file-20230507-21-5l0mf1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=332&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524772/original/file-20230507-21-5l0mf1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524772/original/file-20230507-21-5l0mf1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524772/original/file-20230507-21-5l0mf1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Neighbours sit outside their houses to complete cottage industry work while children play nearby in Ramapir No Tekro.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kali Marnane (2017)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Foundations of apartment building located where houses and trees once were." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524784/original/file-20230507-20523-154z54.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524784/original/file-20230507-20523-154z54.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524784/original/file-20230507-20523-154z54.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524784/original/file-20230507-20523-154z54.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524784/original/file-20230507-20523-154z54.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524784/original/file-20230507-20523-154z54.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524784/original/file-20230507-20523-154z54.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The community is now buried beneath apartment construction.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kali Marnane (2023)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/ghanas-informal-residents-show-how-social-innovation-can-solve-urban-challenges-194092">Ghana's informal residents show how social innovation can solve urban challenges</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What makes a house adequate?</h2>
<p>To understand what aspects of informal housing design work (or not), we compared the information we gained from interviews with women residents and detailed house and neighbourhood drawings against the United Nations’ <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Publications/FS21_rev_1_Housing_en.pdf">Adequate Housing Criteria</a>. The criteria state that housing must:</p>
<ol>
<li> provide secure tenure</li>
<li> provide essential infrastructure, such as water and electricity</li>
<li> be affordable</li>
<li> be habitable, providing adequate space, structural stability and protection from the elements</li>
<li> be accessible</li>
<li> be located close to services, such as health, employment and education, and support networks, including extended family</li>
<li> enable the expression of cultural identity.</li>
</ol>
<p>By definition, informal houses do not meet the first criterion. However, houses in Ramapir No Tekro often met three to six of the other criteria, with some exceptions performing poorly.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A dog sleeps in front of a house where residents have hung their washing on the front porch. The street is shaded by large trees." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524782/original/file-20230507-119062-b1hxfo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524782/original/file-20230507-119062-b1hxfo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524782/original/file-20230507-119062-b1hxfo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524782/original/file-20230507-119062-b1hxfo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524782/original/file-20230507-119062-b1hxfo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524782/original/file-20230507-119062-b1hxfo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524782/original/file-20230507-119062-b1hxfo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A street in Ramapir No Tekro left partially intact.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kali Marnane (2023)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-sort-of-development-has-no-place-for-a-billion-slum-dwellers-120600">What sort of 'development' has no place for a billion slum dwellers?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Are slum redevelopments adequate?</h2>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2021.103253">Research by Uchita Vaid</a> on housing quality before and after redevelopment reports that new apartments provide security of tenure (meeting criterion 1) and essential infrastructure (meeting criterion 2). </p>
<p>But the new buildings fail to meet other criteria. They suffer from substandard structural quality and lack of maintenance (failing criterion 4). They lack shared space for neighbourly interaction, resulting in more social isolation (failing criterion 6). And more time spent inside leads to higher electricity bills (failing criterion 3).</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="7 storey apartment building painted grey with shops and parking on ground level" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524766/original/file-20230507-17-wjdirr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524766/original/file-20230507-17-wjdirr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524766/original/file-20230507-17-wjdirr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524766/original/file-20230507-17-wjdirr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524766/original/file-20230507-17-wjdirr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524766/original/file-20230507-17-wjdirr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524766/original/file-20230507-17-wjdirr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Slum redevelopment in Ahmedabad.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kali Marnane (2023)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Apartments are inaccessible to household goats and chickens, and are too small for multi-generational living or <a href="https://paryavaranmitra.info/">common employment types</a> (failing criterion 5). They do not reflect household identity or allow for cultural expression (failing criterion 7). </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Sandy area with a yellow slide surrounded by high walls painted grey topped with barbed wire." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524769/original/file-20230507-109933-bn7rm5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524769/original/file-20230507-109933-bn7rm5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524769/original/file-20230507-109933-bn7rm5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524769/original/file-20230507-109933-bn7rm5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524769/original/file-20230507-109933-bn7rm5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524769/original/file-20230507-109933-bn7rm5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524769/original/file-20230507-109933-bn7rm5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Play area located away from apartments in slum redevelopment in Ahmedabad.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kali Marnane (2023)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It’s difficult and expensive to correct such faults in apartments after they’re built. Ramit Debnath and colleagues <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2019.03.010">have shown</a> that discomfort from poor redevelopment design causes some residents to move back into informal settlements.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Corridor to access apartments from stair and lift painted white." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524768/original/file-20230507-40482-a66vem.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524768/original/file-20230507-40482-a66vem.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524768/original/file-20230507-40482-a66vem.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524768/original/file-20230507-40482-a66vem.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524768/original/file-20230507-40482-a66vem.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524768/original/file-20230507-40482-a66vem.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524768/original/file-20230507-40482-a66vem.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Apartment entry in slum redevelopment in Ahmedabad.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kali Marnane (2023)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Community-based design matters</h2>
<p>Housing design alone cannot change the persistent structural inequality facing low-caste and low-income residents of “slums”. But good design can improve wellbeing, opportunities for social connection and residents’ daily lives in general. </p>
<p>In Ramapir No Tekro, residents could and did create solutions adapted to their challenging circumstances. Instead of starting from scratch – risking the introduction of new problems – housing interventions should engage with and learn from residents by enhancing what already works, even in so-called “slums”.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204031/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kali volunteered for The Anganwadi Project and Manav Sadhna, who built and managed preschools and community centres in Ramapir No Tekro, between 2016-2018.</span></em></p>The goal of a ‘slum-free India’ would benefit residents of informal settlements more if the housing being built drew on the features of their old neighbourhoods that made their lives better.Kali Marnane, Honorary Associate Lecturer in Architecture and Urban Design, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1977992023-01-14T09:53:17Z2023-01-14T09:53:17ZWhy cholera continues to threaten many African countries<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504431/original/file-20230113-17-bb62ey.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Key to preventing cholera is a good supply of water.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Getty images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Many African countries are periodically affected by outbreaks of cholera. For instance, Malawi’s current outbreak, the <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-01-12/worst-cholera-outbreak-in-decades-kills-750-people-in-malawi">worst</a> in two decades, has claimed <a href="https://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/tea/rest-of-africa/cholera-outbreak-kills-620-in-malawi-4073880#:%7E:text=Malawi%20has%20recorded%2018%2C222%20cholera,Health%20Minister%20Khumbize%20Chiponda%20announced">hundreds</a> of lives and forced the closure of schools and many businesses. Cholera deaths have now been <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-05-22/south-african-capital-hit-by-cholera-outbreak-with-10-dead">reported</a> in South Africa too.</em></p>
<p><em>Microbiologist Sam Kariuki, the director of Kenya’s Medical Research Institute, explains what cholera is and why it’s so hard to control in Africa.</em></p>
<h2>Why is cholera still such a big issue for African countries?</h2>
<p>Cholera is a disease <a href="https://www.gtfcc.org/research/cholera-prevention-preparedness-and-control-in-kenya-through-hotspot-mapping-genotyping-exposure-assessment-and-wash-oral-cholera-vaccine-interventions/">caused and spread by</a> bacteria – specifically <em>Vibrio cholerae</em> – which you can get by eating or drinking contaminated food or water. </p>
<p>It’s an <a href="https://books.google.co.ke/books?id=qpjshPr7HVcC&pg=PA197&lpg=PA197&dq=cholera+and+bangal&source=bl&ots=4htxUE4c61&sig=S52TKJb0YKHttBcyNZt2jJRtLcY&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=cholera%20and%20bangal&f=false">old disease</a> which has mostly <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2857326">affected</a> developing countries, many of which are in Africa. Between 2014 and 2021 Africa <a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/world/who-and-partners-revamp-war-against-cholera-africa">accounted for</a> 21% of cholera cases and 80% of deaths reported globally.</p>
<iframe id="noa-web-audio-player" style="border: none" src="https://embed-player.newsoveraudio.com/v4?key=x84olp&id=https://theconversation.com/why-cholera-continues-to-threaten-many-african-countries-197799&bgColor=F5F5F5&color=D8352A&playColor=D8352A" width="100%" height="110px"></iframe>
<p>In several African countries, cholera is the leading cause of severe diarrhoea. In 2021, the World Health Organization <a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/world/who-and-partners-revamp-war-against-cholera-africa">reported</a> that Africa experienced its highest ever reported numbers – more than 137,000 cases and 4,062 deaths in 19 countries.</p>
<p>It has persisted in Africa partly because of <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/01/28/is-africa-losing-ground-battle-water-sanitation/">worsening</a> sanitation, poor and unreliable water supplies and worsening socioeconomic conditions. For instance, when people’s incomes can’t keep up with inflation they’ll move to more affordable housing – often this is in congested, unsanitary settings where water and other hygiene services are already stretched to the limit.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/kenyas-urban-poor-are-being-exploited-by-informal-water-markets-144582">Kenya's urban poor are being exploited by informal water markets</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In addition, in the last decade, many African countries have witnessed an <a href="https://www.afdb.org/en/documents/africas-urbanisation-dynamics-2022-economic-power-africas-cities">upsurge in population migration</a> to urban areas in search of livelihoods. Many of these people end up in poor urban slums where water and sanitation infrastructure remains a challenge. </p>
<p>Displaced populations – a major concern in several African countries – are also very vulnerable to water and food contamination. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504400/original/file-20230113-17-rju7ae.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504400/original/file-20230113-17-rju7ae.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504400/original/file-20230113-17-rju7ae.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504400/original/file-20230113-17-rju7ae.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504400/original/file-20230113-17-rju7ae.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504400/original/file-20230113-17-rju7ae.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504400/original/file-20230113-17-rju7ae.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sadiki Sabimana, an internally displaced person, holds water he believes is contaminated with cholera, in the DRC’s Masisi area.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Alexis Huguet/AFP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It’s important to control cholera because it can cause severe illness and death. In mild cases cholera can be managed through oral rehydration salts to replace lost fluids and electrolytes. Severe cases may require antibiotic treatment. It’s vital to diagnose and treat cases quickly – cholera can <a href="http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs107/en/">kill within hours</a> if untreated. </p>
<p>In 2015, it was <a href="https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/11/3/e044615">estimated that</a> over one million cases in 44 African countries resulted in an economic burden of US$130 million from cholera-related illness and its treatment. </p>
<h2>What’s missing in the response?</h2>
<p>African governments must acknowledge that the burden of cholera is huge. In my opinion, governments in endemic areas don’t recognise cholera as a major issue until there’s a big outbreak, when it’s out of control. They treat it as a once off. </p>
<p>The burden of cholera could get worse unless governments put measures in place to control and prevent outbreaks. They need to address water and hygiene infrastructure. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/cholera-how-african-countries-are-failing-to-do-even-the-basics-74445">Cholera: how African countries are failing to do even the basics</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>There must also be community engagement. For instance, widespread messaging that encourages hand washing, boiling water and other preventive measures. Community health <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/65/wr/mm6503a7.htm">extension workers</a> are key in getting these messages across and distributing supplies during an outbreak.</p>
<p>For the most vulnerable populations we must apply oral cholera vaccines. Data on cholera hotspots from surveillance studies will be vital to ensure critical populations are targeted first. </p>
<p>There are various brands and variation of the oral cholera vaccine, and they are all easy to administer because they are taken orally. They have an effectiveness rate of <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/cholera/vaccines.html#:%7E:text=The%20vaccine%20manufacturer%20reports%20Vaxchora,3%E2%80%936%20months%20after%20vaccination.">between</a> 60% to 80% but require a yearly booster. There’s not been a concerted vaccination campaign in many countries, however, because governments are not taking the prevention and control of the disease seriously. </p>
<p>Finally, the issue of drug resistance needs to be addressed. Drug resistance has made it possible for these cholera strains to stay longer in the environment. </p>
<p>I was part of a team that conducted a <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0074829">study</a> in Kenya which found that bacteria that causes cholera has become resistant to some antibiotics. Some types of drug resistance are caused by a natural interaction of the <em>Vibrio cholerae</em> bacteria with other drug resistant bacteria in the environment. </p>
<p>The overuse of antibiotics also contributes to drug resistance. Government agencies should develop ways to monitor the use of antibiotics and restrict their prescription. Regulation of antibiotic use in animals should also be improved. Healthcare workers also need to be trained in the proper use of antibiotics.</p>
<h2>Have there been any recent advances?</h2>
<p>One important one has been the development of rapid diagnostic tests that can be used by health workers in the field. These kits are available at costs far lower than lab culture costs. Using them makes it possible to confirm outbreaks promptly so treatment can be initiated. </p>
<p>In addition, more countries are now adopting the oral cholera vaccine for prevention and control. </p>
<p>What is lacking is a concerted effort for all endemic countries – which I consider to be all countries in sub-Saharan Africa – to have joint measures to tackle cross-border transmission and persistence of cholera outbreaks. </p>
<p>Some countries are still in denial about outbreaks. This is partly due to fears about repercussions on trade and tourism. But in an interconnected world this attitude isn’t helpful. </p>
<p>I am optimistic that we can control cholera in African settings. In the short term this could be done through raising awareness among vulnerable populations and interventions like the oral cholera vaccine.</p>
<p>In the long term African countries need improved water hygiene infrastructure, housing and enhanced socioeconomic conditions. But there must be a strong will by relevant government ministries to work together to realise these goals.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/197799/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Samuel Kariuki does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Cholera has persisted longer in Africa largely due to worsening hygiene and sanitation situations in urban areas.Samuel Kariuki, Chief Research Scientist and Director, Centre for Microbiology Research, Kenya Medical Research InstituteLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1843302022-06-21T14:13:42Z2022-06-21T14:13:42ZVigilantism in South Africa carries historical imprints of past violence against black people<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468192/original/file-20220610-16526-yq91k6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Family members wash away blood at the scene of a shooting in Khayelitsha, Cape Town, where seven people were shot dead in May.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Brenton Geach/Gallo Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>South Africa’s history of discrimination, racial segregation and extralegal violence has influenced patterns of violence today. Colonial and apartheid governments ruled through violence and <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/making-of-south-african-legal-culture-19021936/A0C663AB1DD7AACE9D9E553DB4180992">racial oppression</a>. Whether through torture, corporal punishment or killings, black lives were deemed infinitely expendable.</p>
<p>“Natives” were subjected to summary “justice” by mining companies, chiefs, native commissioners, and other administrative officials – who could all lawfully mete out unappealable, <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/making-of-south-african-legal-culture-19021936/A0C663AB1DD7AACE9D9E553DB4180992">on the spot punishments</a>. Extralegal (unlawful) violence by the police, white farmers and vigilantes, among others, was also tolerated. </p>
<p>On top of this <a href="https://overcomingapartheid.msu.edu/multimedia.php?kid=163-582-18#:%7E:text=From%201960%20to%201983%2C%20the,economic%20reasons%20for%20these%20removals.">forced relocations</a>, <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/land-dispossession-history-1600s-1990s">dispossession</a>, and spatially <a href="https://www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences/applied-and-social-sciences-magazines/townships">segregated black townships</a> and <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/homelands">bantustans</a> – rural, impoverished areas established for the purpose of permanently removing black people from urban South Africa – resulted in multiple forms of violent dispute settlement. This is <a href="https://theconversation.com/rising-vigilantism-south-africa-is-reaping-the-fruits-of-misrule-179891">still apparent today</a>. </p>
<p>South Africa remains a deeply violent society.</p>
<p>In a recent <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/14624745221079456">study</a> I explored the phenomena of vigilante kidnappings and unlawful confinements in informal settlements and former <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/43622104?seq=1">black townships</a>. </p>
<p>I argue that car trunks, shacks, shipping containers, and other commonplace receptacles function as the underbelly of official institutions, such as prisons and police lock-ups. My findings serve as important reminders about the uneasy relationship between local meanings of “justice” and the criminal “justice” system.</p>
<h2>Vigilantism</h2>
<p>For my <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/14624745221079456">study</a> I analysed thousands of Excel spreadsheets shared with me by the South African Police Service. I focused on violent crimes (arson, serious assault, attempted murder, malicious damage to property, kidnapping, public violence, and murder) in the Khayelitsha and Nyanga policing clusters for the period 2000 – 2016. I analysed data from the Khayelitsha, Lingelethu-West, Harare, Nyanga, Gugulethu, and Philippi East police stations. </p>
<p>At the time of my research, these stations, in the historically poor black of townships Khayelitsha and Nyanga in Cape Town, had among the highest recorded rates of violent crime in the Western Cape (if not the country). They are notorious for incidents of <a href="https://www.westerncape.gov.za/files/wccs_crime_report_2020-03-25_medres.pdf">lethal vigilante violence</a>.</p>
<p>There is no definition of vigilantism in South African law. So, police often use words other than “vigilantism” in vigilante-related cases. I started with an automated search using using 48 search terms. Then I read through the “comments” columns of the spreadsheets to determine whether cases involved the unlawful punishment, prevention, or investigation of crime. I labelled these as instances of vigilante violence. I also looked at court cases and secondary historical research.</p>
<p>My <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/14624745221079456">findings</a> reflect stark differences in how residents in poor black areas, and in the more affluent former white areas, deal with crime. In middle class, formerly “whites only” areas, residents use security guards, fortified fences, insurance policies, and better access to the police, among other resources. </p>
<p>But in mainly black townships and informal settlements, everyday infrastructures and objects are used to impose a certain order. Pieces of wire are temporarily transformed into handcuffs, open spaces and community halls into courtrooms, beaches into spaces of death and torture.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/rising-vigilantism-south-africa-is-reaping-the-fruits-of-misrule-179891">Rising vigilantism: South Africa is reaping the fruits of misrule</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Vigilantes would sometimes force someone into the trunk of a vehicle and drive around to locate stolen property (officially recorded as kidnapping or “manstealing”). Garages, shacks, old shipping containers, and public spaces (including community halls) doubled up as sites for the detention, assault, torture, and extrajudicial punishment of suspected criminals.</p>
<p>I found multiple instances of minibus taxis functioning as quasi-police vehicles. Taxi drivers tracked down stolen goods and collected evidence for their clients, who often paid for these services. I also found less organised instances where smaller private cars were used for finding stolen goods. </p>
<p>Sometimes people are driven to <a href="https://www.capetown.gov.za/Family%20and%20home/see-all-city-facilities/our-recreational-facilities/Beaches/Monwabisi%20Beach">Monwabisi Beach</a>, which forms Khayelitsha’s western border. When people are forcibly taken there at night, it is transformed from a space of beauty and leisure into one of violence and death.</p>
<p>The common garden shed is used to store tools and gardening equipment in middle class suburbs. Security guards, on the perimeters of luxury properties, also use them. In South Africa’s marginalised spaces garden sheds (<em>ityotyombe</em>) are the more expensive version of corrugated iron shacks (<em>ihoki</em>). People who cannot access formal housing live in them, often with multiple other people.</p>
<p>They also double up as spaces of incarceration, punishment and torture.</p>
<p>The phenomena I studied are not mere forms of gratuitous violence. Instead they mimic and distort the way that the state, and the affluent middle classes, target the racialised poor in pursuit of <a href="https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=30559">“crime control”</a>. They also mimic the violence of organised crime. </p>
<h2>Porous boundaries</h2>
<p>My findings highlight the porous boundaries between different forms of violence: between torture and extrajudicial punishment; between lawful arrest and unlawful kidnapping; between gang, vigilante, and police violence; and between judicial and extrajudicial punishment. </p>
<p>Vigilantes adopt similar tactics to the police in the arrest, detention, investigation, and extrajudicial punishment of crime suspects. Sometimes, they drop suspects off outside police stations. Thus, after roughing them up, they demand further punishment from the state. <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00020189008707718">Taxi owners</a> have an ambiguous relationship with the state. This is particularly so when they <a href="https://www.news24.com/witness/news/durban/watch-taxi-operators-fire-shots-in-the-air-to-disperse-looters-in-hammarsdale-kzn-20220610">assist in maintaining order</a>, <a href="https://www.westerncape.gov.za/police-ombudsman/files/atoms/files/khayelitsha_commission_report_0.pdf">albeit violently</a>. There is historic precedent for state tolerance (or encouragement) of <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1362480617724830">vigilante violence</a>. </p>
<p>When police <a href="https://viewfinder.org.za/massive-database-of-killings-by-police-made-public/">use excessive force</a>, <a href="https://www.iol.co.za/sundayindependent/news/big-payouts-little-sanction-in-saps-wrongful-arrest-cases-09b45ef6-df6c-44bb-a5f0-360a92a7450e">arrest arbitrarily</a>, or when an initially lawful arrest (by police or civilians) <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/lasr.12198">morphs into extrajudicial punishment</a>, the line between lawful and unlawful violence collapses. </p>
<p>This shows that the boundaries between violence and the law are porous, and not as distinct as they at first glance seem to be.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/184330/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gail Super receives funding from Social Sciences and Humanities
Research Council of Canada, (grant number 505131)</span></em></p>The study highlights the flimsy boundaries between different forms of violence: torture and extrajudicial punishment, lawful arrest, and an unlawful kidnapping.Gail Super, Assistant Professor, University of TorontoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1813602022-04-14T15:04:09Z2022-04-14T15:04:09ZFloods in South Africa: protecting people must include a focus on women and girls<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458179/original/file-20220414-18-c45s0k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A general view of the damage in an informal settlement heavy rains, mudslides and winds in Durban, on April 13, 2022.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Rajesh Jantilal/AFP via Getty Images)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Climate change is one of the main factors contributing to recurring floods experienced in many parts of the world over the <a href="https://archive.ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/ar4/wg2/en/ch3s3-4-3.html#:%7E:text=Floods%20depend%20on%20precipitation%20intensity,%2C%20dams%2C%20or%20reservoirs">past years</a>. In 2021, the <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/about/">Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change</a> reported that emissions of greenhouse gases from human activities contributed approximately <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/2021/08/09/ar6-wg1-20210809-pr/">1.1°C</a> of global warming between 1850 and 1900. Unless drastic measures are taken to <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/2021/08/09/ar6-wg1-20210809-pr/">curb emissions</a> over the next 20 years, the global temperature is expected to warm by more than 1.5°C. This implies that if extreme measures are not taken, floods will continue to wreak havoc on many regions around the world.</p>
<p>The Durban (eThekwini) area of South Africa has experienced many floods over the recent years. They have wreaked havoc. For instance, in April 2019, <a href="https://floodlist.com/africa/south-africa-floods-kzn-eastern-cape-april-2019">a deadly flood and landslides hit the area</a>. The region is currently reeling from what is seen as the worst flood in the history of South Africa. More than 300 people have <a href="https://ewn.co.za/2022/04/13/death-toll-due-to-kwazulu-natal-s-devastating-floods-hits-253">lost their lives</a>. There is also excessive damage to infrastructure and homes.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0AfLMNLlvsM?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The worst flood in the history of South Africa.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>When disastrous events like floods are combined with social inequities, their effects are much greater. Impoverished communities, which in South Africa are predominantly black communities, are more likely to face even worse effects. Owing to historical spatial and housing arrangements which were based on “race”, many black communities still occupy flood-prone informal settlements, exposing them to a higher risk of disaster. </p>
<p>After the floods in 2019 we undertook <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/00219096211069646">research</a> to explore the vulnerability and adaptation experiences of black women in eThekwini. We selected four local areas that had been severely affected by the flood, including Umlazi, Ntuzuma, Inanda and Kwamashu, for the case study. </p>
<p>The study explored the factors that shaped the vulnerability and adaptation experiences of women. We conducted face-to-face interviews and focused group discussions with a sample community of black African women who had experienced flood effects in the selected localities.</p>
<p>Our <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/00219096211069646">research</a> showed that gender interacts with other social factors to expose black women in particular to the effects of floods.</p>
<p>The recent downpours in eThekwini are a stark reminder that the South African government must invest significantly in flood resilience and adaptation mechanisms. Extra attention must be given to vulnerable communities and individuals to ensure equity and justice in the steps to mitigate the impact of climate change.</p>
<h2>Poverty and vulnerability</h2>
<p>Our research showed, in empirical terms, that women and girls living in poverty face many forms of discrimination and pressure during flood disasters. Severe flood wipes away people’s sources of livelihood, plunging them into more extreme poverty conditions. The interviews showed that the burden of providing food and other essentials to the family fell to the women in these localities. We also found that the vulnerability of women was shaped by intersectional gendered power relations. This, in turn, entrenched abusive behaviour from some of the men in the family. </p>
<p>Our study also showed that some interventions exposed women and girls to possible abuse. For example, one response to flooding from the eThekwini municipality has been to open up community halls for victims. This forces men, women and girls to cohabit in the refuge halls, exposing women to potential abuse while in these supposedly “safe” spaces.</p>
<p>This is not to say that the women were always victims. Many said they were aware that they had to shoulder much of the responsibility for the family’s welfare. This gave them agency and strength, which in turn made them more adaptive. </p>
<p>For many women, especially single parents, the fear that any impending flood events would affect their children gave them the ability to find proactive ways of adapting.</p>
<p>We also found that the women had knowledge arising from their experience that could be useful in complementing municipal <a href="https://theconversation.com/local-knowledge-adds-value-to-mapping-flood-risk-in-south-africas-informal-settlements-181304">management interventions</a>. Women were open to being trained in simple flood management skills, such as how to divert running water away from the house. Training of this kind could be organised in small groups across different wards.</p>
<h2>The implications</h2>
<p>To address gender equity in climate adaptation, we recommend a shift in addressing black women’s vulnerability. Adaptation planners need to take the different dimensions of vulnerability into consideration when putting together plans. Experience shows that adaptation planners focus on improving infrastructures. But this isn’t enough. A wider perspective is needed that addresses both the vulnerability of the built environment (physical vulnerability) as well as social aspects, such as the vulnerability of women and girls. Even here, a nuanced approach needs to be taken given that women face different challenges based on where they live and their social, racial and economic identities.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/181360/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Women and girls living in poverty face many forms of discrimination and pressure during events like flood disasters.Fidelis Udo, Researcher, University of KwaZulu-NatalMaheshvari Naidu, Full Professor in Anthropology, University of KwaZulu-NatalLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1781162022-03-22T17:23:01Z2022-03-22T17:23:01ZA billion of the world’s most climate-vulnerable people live in informal settlements – here’s what they face<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/453050/original/file-20220318-15-19hj06u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Peter H. Maltbie</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Flooding is common in informal settlements in <a href="https://www.uclpress.co.uk/products/155742">Bwaise</a>, a neighbourhood in the Ugandan capital Kampala. Bwaise’s residents are largely excluded from planning and local decision-making processes, and have poor housing and limited access to sanitation and other essential services.</p>
<p>Flooding makes matters much worse. During a visit in November 2019, residents showed us that they dig trenches around their houses and build small retaining walls to prevent water from flooding in. Public toilets are raised about a metre above the ground.</p>
<p>Bwaise lies in a swampy valley between several of Kampala’s many hills and was already prone to flooding. But floods are now happening more and more often <a href="http://unfccc.int/files/adaptation/knowledge_resources/databases/partners_action_pledges/application/pdf/un-habitat_furtherinfo5_060511.pdf">because of climate change</a>.</p>
<p>This neighbourhood is not exceptional, and such conditions are common in cities around the world. The UN estimates that around one in four city dwellers – <a href="https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/report/2019/goal-11/">more than 1 billion people</a> – live in precarious conditions, without access to basic services or adequate housing and are excluded from health, education, and livelihood opportunities. </p>
<p>If this sounds bad, things are about to get worse: the IPCC’s latest report on climate change <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg2/">impacts, adaptation and vulnerability</a> (we helped write the <a href="https://report.ipcc.ch/ar6wg2/pdf/IPCC_AR6_WGII_FinalDraft_Chapter06.pdf">chapter on cities</a>) made it explicit that people living in <a href="https://www.uclpress.co.uk/products/83516">informal settlements</a> in areas such as Bwaise are the most vulnerable urban populations to climate change.</p>
<h2>Where climate change hits hardest</h2>
<p>These settlements tend to be found in marginal lands, often prone to flooding. Lack of drainage means the floods last longer and stagnant water becomes a breeding ground for mosquitoes that spread diseases such as malaria and dengue fever. </p>
<p>Informal settlement dwellers also lack access to many of the resources that provide protection against climate hazards. Precarious and poor-quality housing, for instance, offers no protection against flooding or extreme temperatures, and so the effect on people’s health and wellbeing is greater than if they were living in households with air conditioning or at least adequate insulation and ventilation. Sanitation and waste management systems protect against disease transmission and other problems caused by flooding, yet are typically not adequate in informal settlements.</p>
<p>Residents of informal settlements often lack access to social security and healthcare systems that provide protection for other city dwellers during climate disasters. With livelihoods compromised and a lack of social protection or insurance, the impacts of a flood may keep families in poverty for generations. </p>
<p>Climate change does not happen in a vacuum, and the rapid growth of urban populations can further exacerbate environmental challenges. For example, cities already experience much warmer temperatures than surrounding areas, in what is called the <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/urban-heat-island-14837">urban heat island effect</a>. </p>
<p>This combines with and magnifies climate change-induced heatwaves. These effects are already noticeable with warming of 1.1°C, but scientists argue that they will be unbearable if temperatures <a href="https://report.ipcc.ch/ar6wg2/pdf/IPCC_AR6_WGII_SummaryForPolicymakers.pdf">rise beyond 1.5°C</a>.</p>
<h2>Don’t only focus on infrastructure</h2>
<p>The recent <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg2/">IPCC report</a> finds evidence that climate change adaptation is being integrated into urban policy, but progress is slow. Investments are concentrated in large infrastructure projects, such as widening drainage channels and roads. However, there is a need to tackle the root causes of vulnerability with a portfolio of responses such as new wetlands or parks that absorb storm water, and social protections such as welfare payments or insurance for those that are flooded or otherwise impacted by climate change. </p>
<p>The IPCC report explains that effective adaptation depends on local governments, businesses, NGOs, and communities working together. It cites examples from Uganda, Tanzania, Mozambique and Sierra Leone which show that informal settlements generate crucial data on climate and health risks that support adaptation and development plans. Local residents also develop innovations to create more sustainable futures, such as buildings that take into account flooding and heat risks.</p>
<p>Communities such as those in Bwaise have worked hard to provide options for their members even in the face of <a href="https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10129003/1/Rethinking-Urban-Risk-and-Resettlement-in-the-Global-South.pdf">desperate conditions</a>. For example, people there have worked with NGOs to build themselves a <a href="https://sdinet.org/2013/04/project-diary-kalimali-sanitation-unit-uganda/">new sanitation unit</a> designed to endure more frequent floods. </p>
<p>Improving sanitation conditions was a small step towards a more resilient neighbourhood, but an important one for the people who benefited from it. However, the scale of the climate change challenge is such that communities can no longer deliver adaptation alone. Maintaining liveability in future cities will depend on institutions that are able to recognise the needs and capacities of informal settlement dwellers.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Imagine weekly climate newsletter" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong><em>Don’t have time to read about climate change as much as you’d like?</em></strong>
<br><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/newsletters/imagine-57?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=Imagine&utm_content=DontHaveTimeTop">Get a weekly roundup in your inbox instead.</a> Every Wednesday, The Conversation’s environment editor writes Imagine, a short email that goes a little deeper into just one climate issue. <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/newsletters/imagine-57?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=Imagine&utm_content=DontHaveTimeBottom">Join the 10,000+ readers who’ve subscribed so far.</a></em></p>
<hr><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/178116/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Vanesa Castán Broto receives funding from the European Research Council (ERC), the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF), the Economic and Social Research Fund (ESRC), the Leverhulme Trust, the British Academy and the AXA Research Fund. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emmanuel Osuteye receives funding from the Global Challenges Research Fund, the Economic and Social Research Fund (ESRC), AXA Research Fund and UCL's Grand Challenges Fund. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Linda Westman receives funding from the European Research Council (ERC). </span></em></p>The UN estimates one in four city dwellers live without access to basic services or adequate housing.Vanesa Castán Broto, Professor of Climate Urbanism, University of SheffieldEmmanuel Osuteye, Lecturer in Urbanisation and Sustainable Development, UCLLinda Westman, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Urban Institute, University of SheffieldLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1746122022-02-14T14:53:07Z2022-02-14T14:53:07ZAddis Ababa yet to meet the needs of residents: what has to change<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442449/original/file-20220125-17-cnwl2r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Addis Ababa.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sigel Eschkol / EyeEm/Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>With an estimated population of more than <a href="https://www.statsethiopia.gov.et/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Population-of-Weredas-as-of-July-2021.pdf">3.7 million people</a>, Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, is home to about <a href="https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/23245/Addis0Ababa00E0ing0urban0resilience.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y">a quarter of Ethiopia’s urban population</a>. The city generates well above <a href="https://unhabitat.org/sites/default/files/download-manager-files/State%20of%20Addis%20Ababa%202017%20Report-web.pdf">29% of Ethiopia’s urban GDP and 20% of national urban employment</a>. </p>
<p>Over the last two decades, Addis Ababa has witnessed rapid socio-economic changes and a drastic physical transformation. This was propelled by <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/dec/04/addis-ababa-ethiopia-redesign-housing-project">a development-oriented government</a> and <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1468-2427.12550?saml_referrer">the private sector</a>. </p>
<p>However, the city faces challenges around housing, transport, infrastructure, services, youth unemployment and displacement. </p>
<p>I’m part of the <a href="https://www.african-cities.org/">African Cities Research Consortium</a>, a new six-year initiative committed to addressing critical challenges in 13 cities in sub-Saharan Africa, including Addis. </p>
<p>I <a href="https://www.african-cities.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/ACRC_Addis-Ababa_City-Scoping-Study.pdf">argue that</a> the solution lies in the way the city is governed. Currently, political elites influence the city’s governance and its physical transformation. The planning is top-down and excludes the majority of the city’s residents.</p>
<p>The result is that development has focused on features like skyscrapers, shopping malls and luxury housing complexes. These might fit the government’s aspirational template for a modern African city but they do not meet the needs or reflect the realities – <a href="https://www.habitatforhumanity.org.uk/blog/2018/01/toilet-shortage-in-the-slums-of-ethiopia/#:%7E:text=But%20in%20Addis%20Ababa%2C%20where,and%20dangerous%20to%20be%20around.">about 80%</a> of city residents live in dilapidated housing conditions.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/megaprojects-in-addis-ababa-raise-questions-about-spatial-justice-141067">Megaprojects in Addis Ababa raise questions about spatial justice</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>A rethink is needed on how the city residents –- particularly the low-income urban citizens –- can actively shape their city and overcome the challenges they face every day.</p>
<h2>Urban challenges</h2>
<p>Addis Ababa was established in the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/41967609?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents">late 1880s</a>, under King Menelik (1889-1913). It was an area that was previously <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/307608936_State_of_Oromia%27s_Interest_in_Addis_Ababa_Finfinnee_Undelivered_Constitutional_Promises">inhabited by ethnic Oromo</a> agro-pastoralists. </p>
<p>Constitutionally, Addis Ababa is governed by a city council, which are directly elected by city residents every five years. And the council elect a mayor among its members, who will lead the executive branch of the city government. However, the federal government has the legislative power to <a href="https://urbanlex.unhabitat.org/sites/default/files/faolex//eth135251.pdf">dissolve the city council</a>, extend <a href="https://chilot.me/2020/03/14/addis-ababa-city-government-revised-charter-amendment-proclamation-no-1094-2018/?fbclid=IwAR11M4Lf4AdUVQNMuJTBoTAnMonyBa9U3qKrYPidbJwxhtefnqrodM9DWUM">its term limits beyond five years and appoint a deputy mayor with full executive power</a>. </p>
<p>Even though residents elect the city council, they don’t have much say. Urban planning processes tend to be <a href="https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/11584/(1)35623.pdf">expert-led</a> –- for instance, the <a href="https://c40-production-images.s3.amazonaws.com/other_uploads/images/2036_Addis_Ababa_Structural_Plan_2017_to_2027.original.pdf?1544193458">10-year structural plan</a> (2017-2027) which was effected to guide the development of the city. However, due to <a href="https://www.ajol.info/index.php/ejossah/article/view/100818/90024">constant city leadership changes</a>, <a href="https://theses.gla.ac.uk/74327/7/2019KloosterboerPhD.pdf">imposition of modernist urban models</a>, and <a href="https://docplayer.net/52244884-Manipulating-ambiguous-rules-informal-actors-in-urban-land-management-a-case-study-in-kolfe-keranio-sub-city-addis-ababa.html">corruption</a>, it’s common to find developments that violate the urban plans. These include <a href="https://theconversation.com/megaprojects-in-addis-ababa-raise-questions-about-spatial-justice-141067">government projects</a>.</p>
<p>Federal and city governments have invested in infrastructure over the past 20 years. This has helped to reduce <a href="https://www.african-cities.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/ACRC_Addis-Ababa_City-Scoping-Study.pdf">poverty, inequality and unemployment</a>. However, since the city started from a low development base the reduction is marginal. Addis Ababa still faces complex and interrelated urban challenges. </p>
<p>Around <a href="https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/22979/Ethiopia000Urb0ddle0income0Ethiopia.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y">70-80% of Addis Ababa’s housing stock</a> is congested, dilapidated and lacks basic services and sanitation facilities. Although the city government has constructed more than 270,000 housing units since 2005, they are <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/dec/04/addis-ababa-ethiopia-redesign-housing-project">unaffordable</a> for most of the city’s low-income residents.</p>
<p><a href="https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/23245/Addis0Ababa00E0ing0urban0resilience.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y">Only 44% </a> of the population have access to clean water, and <a href="https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/23245/Addis0Ababa00E0ing0urban0resilience.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y">less than 30%</a> have access to sewerage services. </p>
<p><a href="https://resilientaddis.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/addis-ababa-resilience-strategy-ENG.pdf">Flooding, landslides and fire hazards</a> affect many due to informal housing construction in risk-prone areas, congested settlement patterns, and poor housing quality.</p>
<p>The city is challenged by youth unemployment. About <a href="https://www.statsethiopia.gov.et/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Key-Findings-on-The-2020-Urban-Employment-Unemployment-Survey-UEUS.pdf">a quarter of Addis Ababa’s young population</a> (aged 15-29) are unemployed. This is <a href="https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/17474/Beshir-Butta-DALE.pdf">mainly due to</a> the mismatch between the new jobs the economy creates and the increasing number of youth joining the labour market.</p>
<p>Addis Ababa is also under pressure from the influx of migrants. Within the last five years, <a href="https://www.statsethiopia.gov.et/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Final-2021-LABOUR-FORCE-AND-MIGRATION-SURVEY_Key-finding-Report-.17AUG2021.pdf">the proportion</a> of net recent migrants (people who migrated in the last five years) was 16.2 per 1000 total population. Most of these recent migrants endure <a href="https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/pt/207921468022733336/pdf/Urban-Migration-Final-Version8242010.pdf">economic hardship and poor quality of life</a>, especially during their initial years in the city. </p>
<p>Additionaly, city officials’ drive to make the city a well governed modern-city created a hostile environment to <a href="http://www2.econ.uu.nl/users/marrewijk/pdf/ihs%20workshop/fransen%20paper.pdf">the many</a> independent informal sector operators. Although official statistics tend to <a href="https://unhabitat.org/sites/default/files/download-manager-files/State%20of%20Addis%20Ababa%202017%20Report-web.pdf">underestimate</a> informal employment, some scholars estimate it to be as high as <a href="http://www2.econ.uu.nl/users/marrewijk/pdf/ihs%20workshop/fransen%20paper.pdf">69% of all employment</a> in Addis Ababa. Nevertheless, small informal businesses are forced to <a href="https://unhabitat.org/sites/default/files/download-manager-files/State%20of%20Addis%20Ababa%202017%20Report-web.pdf">register their businesses and abide by tax regulations</a> which is a challenge for them. And street vendors face <a href="https://nordopen.nord.no/nord-xmlui/bitstream/handle/11250/225025/Sibhat.pdf?sequence=1">harassment and intimidation</a>. </p>
<p>Overall, the city is unable to unlock its full development potential.</p>
<h2>Fix the politics first</h2>
<p>Many strategies have been proposed to tackle Addis Ababa’s urban challenges. But few seriously consider the city’s complex politics and how this determines resource allocation.</p>
<p>I suggest four areas of improvement.</p>
<p><strong>Fix the relationship between Addis and Oromia</strong></p>
<p>Addis is the capital of both Ethiopia and the Regional State of Oromia. </p>
<p>However, due to the absence of an institutional framework between the city government and the surrounding Oromia National Regional State – to demarcate the boundary and collaborate in joint governance concerns – cooperation is limited and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2017/feb/12/ethiopia-state-of-emergency-anger-oromo-people">politically contentious</a>. This needs to be resolved. </p>
<p>Without a clear agreement about how to work together or what each is responsible for, the city and the state can’t easily coordinate development, like water supply or landfill sites.</p>
<p>The establishment, and further expansion, of Addis has displaced thousands of ethnic Oromo farmers. The 1995 constitution guarantees the Oromia National Regional State a “<a href="http://www.parliament.am/library/sahmanadrutyunner/etovpia.pdf">special interest</a>” in Addis Ababa to address the historical ownership claims of ethnic Oromos. But the details of the “special interest” have not yet been specified in law. </p>
<p>A protest sparked by a <a href="https://eng.addisstandard.com/how-not-to-make-a-master-plan">draft metropolitan plan</a> shook the country between 2014 and 2018. Many ethnic Oromos perceived it as a plan to expand the administrative boundary of Addis Ababa into Oromia. In response, the city government decided to <a href="https://resilientaddis.org/2019/01/30/061/">rehabilitate previously displaced ethnic Oromo farmers</a> and allocate them subsidised condominium flats. The city government also sought to support them in urban agriculture. </p>
<p>The federal government should build on this and facilitate institutionalised coordination between the Addis Ababa city government and Oromia national regional state.</p>
<p><strong>More representation</strong></p>
<p>City residents must be better represented in how the city is governed and elected officials must be accountable to them. </p>
<p>The federal government <a href="https://chilot.me/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/self-governing-addis-ababa-the-federal-government-oromia.pdf">meddling</a> in the governance of the city means city officials are loyal to the ruling party, rather than the city residents. And, because they are not accountable to residents, corruption and mismanagement can go unchecked. </p>
<p>It’s paramount that city residents are properly represented at each tier of the city’s administration; city, sub-city and district. This will enhance their role in shaping the city’s future. City and local council elections must be held regularly and in accordance with the <a href="https://urbanlex.unhabitat.org/sites/default/files/faolex//eth135251.pdf">city charter</a>.</p>
<p><strong>Imposed city models</strong></p>
<p>City and national governments have imposed their vision of a “<a href="https://www.african-cities.org/the-political-opportunities-and-obstacles-associated-with-africas-urban-challenges/">modern city</a>”. This has resulted in <a href="https://theses.gla.ac.uk/74327/7/2019KloosterboerPhD.pdf">city models</a> that do not meet the needs of the majority of citizens. Instead, they favour <a href="https://qz.com/africa/1873924/ethiopias-addis-ababa-projects-harm-spatial-justice-design/">urban elites and international tourists</a>. This must change. </p>
<p>Two examples of this include the current government’s flagship <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QPi7oj6OtI">Beautifying Sheger</a> project – aimed at cleaning Addis’ rivers and building green spaces along the 56km riverbanks – and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QPi7oj6OtI">Dubai-inspired</a>, upscale commercial and residential public-private partnership developments. With the introduction of these developments the policy focus and <a href="https://www.capitalethiopia.com/news-news/finance-halts-new-condo-projects/">resource allocation</a> of the city government shifted away from the pro-poor schemes, such as <a href="https://www.pasgr.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/FINAL-The-Governance-of-Addis-Ababa-City-Turn-Around-Projects-.pdf">subsidised housing and light rail</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/megaprojects-in-addis-ababa-raise-questions-about-spatial-justice-141067">Megaprojects in Addis Ababa raise questions about spatial justice</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Moreover, these developments threaten <a href="https://www.climatechangenews.com/2020/03/12/addis-ababa-riverside-project-gives-priority-development-residents/">to displace thousands of slum dwellers</a>. </p>
<p><strong>Supporting the informal</strong></p>
<p><a href="https://www.effective-states.org/the-politics-of-dominating-addis-ababa/?cn-reloaded=1">Repressive politics</a> have made it <a href="https://addiszeybe.com/opinion/politics/eskinder-nega-the-balderas-council-and-the-debate-on-addis-ababas-legal-and-political-status-implications-to-addis-ababa-residents">difficult</a> for civil society organisations to defend the rights and interests of their constituency. For instance, government can <a href="https://addisfortune.net/columns/ethiopians-yet-to-own-rights-to-cities/">displace inner-city slum dwellers</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/mar/13/life-death-growth-addis-ababa-racial-tensions">demolish peripheral informal settlements</a> without providing alternative housing. </p>
<p>The city needs organised communities that can reorient top-down, exclusionary urban development towards inclusive development. </p>
<p>Ultimately, what is needed is a shift to inclusivity. This requires that the relations between Oromia National Regional State and Addis Ababa City Government by addressed. In addition, the city residents must govern and pro-poor urban developments be promoted.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/174612/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nothing to disclose. The views expressed in the piece are all Ezana's and do not represent their employer's official position.</span></em></p>Addis may be shaping up to look like the modern city that the government wants, but it is yet to meet the needs of most residents.Ezana Weldeghebrael, Research Fellow, University of ManchesterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1724252022-01-12T14:38:21Z2022-01-12T14:38:21ZTime and trauma: what fetching water costs women and girls in Nairobi’s informal settlements<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440418/original/file-20220112-27-1vjupjv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Women carry water buckets filled with water after fetching it from one of the illegal freshwater points in Mathare slum.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA-EFE/Daniel Irungu</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Fetching water is usually a “<a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/ref/10.1080/00020184.2020.1781594?scroll=top">women’s affair</a>”, as has been documented all over the world. The consequences of spending time and energy to get safe water are felt in women’s <a href="https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/10.1146/annurev.energy.32.041806.143704">health</a> and <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0277953608004784?via%3Dihub">emotional wellbeing</a>, as well as incomes.</p>
<p>Existing research on water access by women in informal settlements tends to focus on their gender role, how they collect water and the consequences of this. They don’t adequately document the everyday practices in which women manoeuvre to acquire water.</p>
<p>In a <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00020184.2020.1781594">recent study</a> in Kenya, I looked at how women struggle to fetch, store and save water in informal settlements. My research focused on Mathare, a large informal settlement in Nairobi. About <a href="https://www.businessdailyafrica.com/bd/news/mathare-slums-most-congested-area-with-68-941-per-square-kilometre-2269570">206,000 people</a> live there, but around <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/58d4504db8a79b27eb388c91/t/58e6a6991b10e38c7e857581/1491510980376/Mathare_Zonal_Plan_25_06_2012_low_res.pdf">90%</a> of the households don’t have piped water. </p>
<p>Residents buy water from community stand-pipes supplied by the government utility, informal water vendors and water ATMS. These provide users with cheap, clean water on demand. In dire circumstances, residents use water from the Mathare and Gitathuru rivers. </p>
<p>Through interviews, surveys and focus group discussions with 258 households in Mathare during 2016 and 2017, I found that women faced huge challenges and trauma in collecting water. Besides the woes of finding a running tap and wasting valuable time waiting in queues, procuring water entails physical hardship that often leads to mental agony that sometimes even threatens the women’s safety. </p>
<p>Needless to say women in other Nairobi informal settlements, with similar socio-economic settings, will have similar stories to tell. </p>
<h2>It’s mainly women who collect water</h2>
<p>In <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00020184.2020.1781594">45% of the households</a>, women fetched water alone and women and girls fetched water together 25.6% of the time. Boys did so in only <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00020184.2020.1781594">2.3% of households</a>. Men collected water in 7%. </p>
<p>Even if men were free or better equipped (physically), they would only fetch water when there were no women in their families, women were sick, or they were not at home. Fetching water is widely considered a socially unacceptable behaviour for men. Women I spoke to said that fetching water is one of their basic tasks, and that “good women” are those who perform it well. </p>
<p>In households headed by women (where men were unemployed or were dead or absent), and in families where parents couldn’t afford to lose paid labour, girls were sent to collect water. Sometimes even at night. </p>
<p>These children were often bullied by adults while waiting in the queue. If they’re collecting water in the morning, they might be late for school, or not go in at all. The girls were socialised to fetch water for their families.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-deep-data-dive-reveals-extent-of-unequal-water-provision-in-nairobi-173258">A deep data dive reveals extent of unequal water provision in Nairobi</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Time, effort and danger</h2>
<p>Water collection can take anywhere from <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/ref/10.1080/00020184.2020.1781594?scroll=top">30 minutes to two hours</a>. Though the water standpipes are <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/58d4504db8a79b27eb388c91/t/58e6a6991b10e38c7e857581/1491510980376/Mathare_Zonal_Plan_25_06_2012_low_res.pdf">fairly well distributed across Mathare</a> (on average 53 metres from each household), Mathare is built on steep slopes and has precarious paths. Even a small distance can be a danger for women and girls to navigate carrying water. </p>
<p>The standpipes are also few in number – one standpipe serves about 315 people. The universal international guideline is <a href="https://www.unhcr.org/50b491b09.pdf">250 people</a>. This means long queues. When water is supplied (twice to three times a week) there are on average 80 people waiting in the queue that day. </p>
<p>Mathare often suffers from water scarcity. This can be due to poor or old water infrastructure and the illegal cutting of water pipes by cartels and water vendors to create an artificial demand to sell water at high price. Water supply can therefore be unpredictable or happen at inconvenient hours. This means that women spend extra time on water-related tasks – waiting in the queue, walking long distances to wash in the river or searching for a water vendor. Sometimes they are forced to collect water at the cost of missing work (forgoing daily wages), skipping meals, not tending to children, and even losing sleep and leisure.</p>
<p>Women in my study reported instances of violence, theft and assault when they fetched water at night. Inebriated standpipe managers were unable to keep proper account of the water sold, and disagreements led to tension. Many women also lamented that even though water supply at inconvenient hours was not under their control, their men did not approve of them spending much time in the queue at night. My research found that wife beating is common at the standpipes at night.</p>
<h2>Health and mental wellbeing</h2>
<p>Often poverty compels women to push hard to carry water, even at the cost of their health, to save on paid water labour (water vendors that carry water), while also working to contribute to family income. </p>
<p>Water prices varied according to the source. For 20 litres of water, water ATMs charge 50 cents (US$.005), standpipes charge between 2KSH and 10KSH (US$0.02 to US$0.10) and water vendors charge between 2KSH to 50KSH (US$0.02 to US$0.50). This may not seem like much, but the average household income in Mathare is <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-even-with-more-access-to-toilets-women-in-a-kenyan-slum-avoid-them-106542">about</a> 8500Ksh (USD$85) a month. These costs add up. Some residents said the cost of buying water was sometimes more than buying food. </p>
<p>General fatigue is common. Many women in my study complained of headaches, breathlessness, and pains in the chest, neck, back and waist. Some said they got so tired carrying water that they fell sick and missed work.</p>
<p>The daily engagement in negotiations and arguments – with other customers in the queue and water sellers – to procure water adds to the distress.</p>
<h2>What can be done</h2>
<p>There are steps being taken which could improve the situation for women.</p>
<p>The Nairobi City Water and Sewage Company has initiated several projects in partnership with various NGOs and other development partners to provide safe water to urban poor. It has <a href="https://www.lincolninst.edu/sites/default/files/pubfiles/2018_inquiry_community_toilets_kenya_ruffin_friedl.pdf">recently</a> constructed 24 water kiosks and extended 18km water pipeline in Mathare valley to serve a population of 200,000.</p>
<p>The World Bank <a href="https://www.lincolninst.edu/sites/default/files/pubfiles/2018_inquiry_community_toilets_kenya_ruffin_friedl.pdf">has also</a> given a grant of US$3,000,000 under the water and sanitation improvement programme to improve water services. This involves construction of 18.5 km of water pipeline extension to serve the residents of low income settlements. </p>
<p>To address the water deficit, private vendors are gradually <a href="https://iwaponline.com/wp/article-abstract/21/5/1034/69738/Can-shared-standpipes-fulfil-the-Sustainable?redirectedFrom=fulltext">being regulated</a> in Mathare. Kenyan municipalities <a href="http://waterfund.go.ke/watersource/Downloads/National%20Water%20Services%20Strategy%20Draft.pdf">have asked</a> authorised private water providers to make supply arrangements in informal settlements a compulsory prerequisite for licence renewals. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-its-really-worth-to-pipe-water-to-homes-in-rural-zambia-155149">What it's really worth to pipe water to homes in rural Zambia</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>These are positive steps, but more must be done to increase the number of shared taps (particularly as the <a href="https://iglus.org/nairobi-another-urban-city-in-prepration/">urban population grows</a>) and prevent corruption from driving up water prices.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/172425/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anindita Sarkar receives funding from University Grants Commission, New Delhi, India . </span></em></p>Fetching water entails physical hardship that can often lead to mental agony and can sometimes even threaten a woman’s safety.Anindita Sarkar, Associate professor, University of DelhiLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1668382021-09-02T15:24:14Z2021-09-02T15:24:14ZSouth African shack dwellers show how grassroots democracy is done<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/418431/original/file-20210830-14-1s0aijv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EFE-EPA/Nic Bothma</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Many of the recent debates about democracy in South Africa point to the <a href="https://witspress.co.za/catalogue/destroying-democracy/">danger of growing authoritarianism</a> or stress how the country’s colonial and apartheid past <a href="https://witspress.co.za/catalogue/prisoners-of-the-past/">continues to shape the present</a>. </p>
<p>But activist and scholar Trevor Ngwane has taken a different, innovative approach in his new <a href="https://jacana.co.za/product/amakomiti/">book</a> <em>Amakomiti: Grassroots Democracy in South African Shack Settlements</em>. He explores how ordinary people conceptualise democracy. He does this by examining their understanding at the grassroots in shack settlements.</p>
<p>Ngwane shows how very diverse community structures that emerged in the struggle against apartheid continue in post-apartheid South Africa, now in conflict with the ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC). These forms of popular democracy – what he terms “democracy on the margins” – provide, Ngwane believes, a vision of hope. <em>Amakomiti</em> (committees), he says, are everywhere.</p>
<p>In South Africa’s transition to democracy two competing approaches to democracy emerged. One was a traditional representative form of liberal democracy that was to shape Parliament.</p>
<p>The other was a more <a href="https://opendocs.ids.ac.uk/opendocs/handle/20.500.12413/1830">direct form of participatory democracy</a>. This was clearest in the trade union movement where representatives – shop stewards – were elected directly by their fellow workers. They were accountable to, and could be recalled by, rank and file members.</p>
<p>Ngwane argues that this tradition of participatory democracy has persisted in the hundreds of “committees” scattered throughout the shack settlements of South Africa. He calls this a decolonial approach which allows for a conception of democracy that is not centred on the ANC and Eurocentric notions.</p>
<p>In his advocacy for “democracy on the margins” Ngwane challenges the top-down approach to governance in favour of a more grassroots participatory form of democracy.</p>
<p>At the centre of the book is a challenge to existing interpretations of squatter movements as <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/23747913">non-ideological, apolitical and inward looking</a>. </p>
<p>For Ngwane these squatter movements are examples of the self-organisation of the working class. They are transformative in that they foreground the interests of workers and prefigurative in that they anticipate the future (page 9). They are also a challenge to orthodox Marxism which sees working-class revolution emerging from the centres of production, rather than the places of habitation. But, for Ngwane, in South Africa labour and land (settlements) are inextricably linked and cannot be studied apart.</p>
<h2>Varieties of committees</h2>
<p>The empirical heart of the book is drawn from ethnographic research conducted in 46 shack settlements and four in-depth case studies. </p>
<p>The most active and progressive of these committees is the Thembelihle Crisis Committee near Lenasia, south-west of Johannesburg (page 114- 133). </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/418235/original/file-20210827-21-18lpxzx.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/418235/original/file-20210827-21-18lpxzx.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=954&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418235/original/file-20210827-21-18lpxzx.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=954&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418235/original/file-20210827-21-18lpxzx.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=954&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418235/original/file-20210827-21-18lpxzx.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1199&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418235/original/file-20210827-21-18lpxzx.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1199&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418235/original/file-20210827-21-18lpxzx.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1199&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Thembelihle Crisis Committee fights for housing, water, electricity and other services while contesting the ANC through democratic processes. The consistency of the committee in its fight for services and defending its community against the governing political party has led to a strong political culture of resistance in Thembelihle. It is the kind of people’s democracy that Ngwane champions.</p>
<p>Though he advocates for “democracy on the margins” to replace the current top-down approach for a radical participatory democracy, he emphasises that this is not done blindly, noting,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I must make clear that what I saw of <em>amakomiti</em> is not heaven on earth, (there) is the good and the bad, the progressive and the reactionary.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In the case of Duncan Village in East London, for example, we see the poor performance of <em>amakomiti</em>, where they are incorporated into the ANC, functioning as “conveyor belts” of the state (page 72-94). Which begs the question: how will the community hold <em>amakomiti</em> accountable if they embrace the “democracy on the margins” model, given the proclivity for corruption in local government?</p>
<p>The author perceives <em>amakomiti</em> as embryonic structures of the kind of democracy he envisages and cautions against discarding “traditional” hereditary forms of governance dominant in the rural areas. He points to the forms of governance employed by platinum miners living in shacks where rural migrant miners still use traditional forms of governance such as <em>inkundla</em> (the council) to deal with everyday struggles in the mines. “They called,” he says, “for a traditionalist and rural communal approach to dispute resolution and dealing with victims and perpetrators of crime.” (page 104) </p>
<p>Although the platinum miners’ approach to governance is people-centred, the participatory democratic processes described in this case study are ethnic based. This may limit their capacity to address broader working-class issues that committees like the Thembelihle Crisis Committee address.</p>
<h2>Note of caution</h2>
<p>We end on a note of caution. None of the ostensibly post-capitalist regimes established since 1917 from the Soviet Union to Cuba has managed to find a way to sustain mass democratic forms of governance. A single-party system has emerged, shielding the government from popular concerns and demands, and curtailing public political debate.</p>
<p>Ngwane is very much aware of this dilemma and stresses the need for accountability of leaders to their constituency. But reassurances from participants that they trust their leaders are not enough. The book says very little about how <em>amakomiti</em> choose their leaders, and how ongoing participation will be assured.</p>
<p>As he observes, </p>
<blockquote>
<p>demanding and enforcing accountability is easier when one can point to procedures and processes that have been agreed upon and are known by all. (page 64)</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The events surrounding COVID-19 brought to the fore, the book concludes,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>the power of local organisation, as the amakomiti in the shacks and activist organisations in the towns and townships organised local food supplies, took care of the old and stood against the excesses of the army … The bonds nurtured through the long years of neo-liberal ANC rule once more became the line between survival and death. (page 162)</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Whether the book has romanticised the organisation and movements of shack dwellers or identified a neglected radical social force remains to be seen. What is clear is that South Africa’s future remains open ended, and the book has identified one possible scenario.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/166838/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Edward Webster receives funding from the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bukiwe Tambulu receives funding from National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences</span></em></p>Trevor Ngwane, an activist and academic, shows how structures that emerged in the struggle against apartheid continue in democratic South Africa, now in conflict with the ruling ANC.Edward Webster, Distinguished Reserach Professor, Southern Centre for Inequality Studies, University of the WitwatersrandBukiwe Tambulu, Research Assistant of Southern Center for Inequality Studies, University of the WitwatersrandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1661302021-08-18T15:00:39Z2021-08-18T15:00:39ZWhat lies behind social unrest in South Africa, and what might be done about it<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/416500/original/file-20210817-23-1nmv9ak.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Residents clean up the streets and local businesses after looting incidents in Alexandra, Johannesburg. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EFE-EPA/Kim Ludbrook</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>South Africa has among the highest recorded levels of social protest of <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03050629.2012.697426">any country in the world</a>. The reasons behind this are more complex than often assumed.</p>
<p>The scale and severity of the <a href="https://www.news24.com/news24/southafrica/investigations/anatomy-of-a-violent-july-data-mapping-shows-unrest-was-part-of-tactical-plan-to-shut-down-sa-20210806">looting and sabotage</a> in KwaZulu-Natal and parts of Gauteng in July, following the jailing of former president Jacob Zuma, has brought social protest and civil unrest into the popular discourse.</p>
<p>But much of the commentary on the July riot – which cost over 300 lives and billions of rands in damage to the economy – has neglected the long history of violent protest in the country. The truth is that, while <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/opinionista/2021-07-30-south-africas-july-riots-and-the-long-shadow-of-jacob-zuma-fall-over-party-and-state/">disgruntlement by Zuma’s supporters</a> was the trigger, the roots of social unrest go much deeper. </p>
<p>What is more, the available data shows that the number of protests in South Africa has been steadily <a href="http://www.hsrc.ac.za/en/research-data/view/7862">rising over the past 20 years</a>. For instance, there has been an almost nine-fold increase in the average number of service delivery protests each year <a href="https://www.municipaliq.co.za/index.php?site_page=article.php&id=52">comparing 2004-08 with 2015-19</a>. </p>
<p>There is also evidence that social protests are <a href="https://journals.assaf.org.za/sacq/article/view/3031">increasingly violent and disruptive</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/violence-in-south-africa-an-uprising-of-elites-not-of-the-people-164968">Violence in South Africa: an uprising of elites, not of the people</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>It is important to understand what lies behind this trend of growing social unrest, which makes the country precarious, and what might be done to tackle the underlying causes.</p>
<p>If the government wants to avoid a repeat of the social and economic catastrophe of the July 2021 riots – even if on a smaller and more localised scale – it should look back to learn some important lessons about why protest happens and how to address this. </p>
<h2>Seeds of discontent</h2>
<p>There are a number of key factors in understanding the reasons behind social protest in South Africa:</p>
<p>First, it is important to recognise that the people and places with the highest levels of social and economic deprivation are not those most likely to protest. For example, protests over “service delivery” – the provision of basic services such as electricity, water and sanitation – are heavily concentrated in the metropolitan areas, such as Johannesburg, Cape Town, eThekwini, Tshwane, Nelson Mandela Bay and Mangaung. Yet rural municipalities actually have <a href="https://catalog.ihsn.org/index.php/citations/52590">much lower levels of service coverage</a>. </p>
<p>Access to basic services has also improved across the country over the <a href="http://www.statssa.gov.za/publications/Report%2003-01-22/Report%2003-01-222016.pdf">past two decades</a>. But delivery protests have increased exponentially over the same period. There are evidently deeper and more complex reasons behind how and when ineffective delivery of municipal services ends up in social conflict.</p>
<p>Second, it is often a sense of unfairness (inequality), not just levels of provision, that lead to grievances and resentment which <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0022002717723136">spark social protest</a>. For instance, long-standing differences in amenities between neighbouring communities send a clear signal that the government is not willing or not able to meet their needs in an equitable manner. </p>
<p>A case in point is informal settlements which have often been <a href="http://repository.hsrc.ac.za/handle/20.500.11910/11292">hotspots for protest action</a>. Rural migrants arrive in the city with expectations of a better life, only to end up living in squalor. Until the government can implement a realistic and scalable plan for upgrading informal settlements, this is likely to continue.</p>
<p>Third, government departments tend to get fixated with meeting numerical targets at the expense of service quality and what matters most for communities. <a href="https://www.sacities.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Rules-of-the-Game-Report_final-draft-1.pdf">Recent research</a> suggests that municipal officials get locked into a culture of “playing it safe” and “compliance” in delivering services and related public investments rather than innovation and genuine transformation. </p>
<p>An infamous example is the delivery of <a href="https://vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/handle/10919/37125">toilets in an open field</a> where municipalities get the credit and contractors get paid for erecting them, whether or not there are any houses or people living in the vicinity.</p>
<p>Government needs to stop paying “lip service” to the principles of community consultation and local participation, and take this work seriously. The extra time and effort are justified by aligning municipal plans and investments closer to people’s actual priorities. Local buy-in can also help ensure that investments in public infrastructure are protected and maintained.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/understanding-violent-protest-in-south-africa-and-the-difficult-choice-facing-leaders-148751">Understanding violent protest in South Africa and the difficult choice facing leaders</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Finally, feelings of frustration and anger have been heightened by years of waiting for promises to be fulfilled. International <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/223459">studies</a> suggest that communities are more likely to protest when they can clearly attribute blame, and where visible institutions are perceived to <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0022002717723136">possess the means for redress</a>. </p>
<p>Municipal services have a clear line of sight, where communities can easily measure and attest to progress in their experience of daily life. <a href="https://theconversation.com/south-africans-are-revolting-against-inept-local-government-why-it-matters-155483">Mismanagement and corruption</a> have led to the collapse of many municipalities over recent years. This is especially so in smaller cities and towns, with images of <a href="https://www.news24.com/news24/southafrica/news/mangaung-where-the-stench-of-sewage-smells-as-bad-as-its-finances-20200825">sewage running down the street</a> and no water in the pipes. In this way, grievances over service delivery are a common trigger for social protest. But the grievances often reflect a much broader basket of discontent. </p>
<p>Over the last 18 months, the hardship and suffering facing poorer urban communities, in particular, has been compounded by their disproportionate loss of jobs and livelihoods <a href="https://cramsurvey.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/12.-Turok-I.-_-Visagie-J.-2021-Drive-apart_-Contrasting-impacts-of-COVID-19-on-people-and-places.pdf">during the pandemic</a>. The reality of hunger and food insecurity is a moral issue but also critical for social stability.</p>
<p>The recent extension of the R350 (US$23) <a href="https://www.news24.com/citypress/news/sa-moves-to-lockdown-level-3-ramaphosa-reinstates-r350-covid-grant-20210725">special COVID-19 monthly grant</a> should help to alleviate some of the immediate pressures on poorer households. But, the country also needs a clearer plan of how to tackle the problem of food insecurity. </p>
<h2>No quick fix</h2>
<p>At the heart of the matter, South Africa’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/pandemic-underscores-gross-inequalities-in-south-africa-and-the-need-to-fix-them-135070">deep-seated social inequalities</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/in-their-rush-to-become-global-cities-risk-creating-spatial-apartheid-77200">segregated living conditions</a> provide fertile ground for popular discontent. There is no easy fix for these.</p>
<p>Metropolitan populations continue to expand. This places added pressure on poorer communities forced to cope with rapid densification, strained services, informality and sparse economic opportunities. Fractured communities and weak, under-resourced governing institutions further complicate the task of upgrading and transforming these neighbourhoods.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/south-africas-1994-miracle-whats-left-159495">South Africa's 1994 'miracle': what's left?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Meanwhile, affluent households can buy their way into places that are safer, better planned and have higher quality facilities. They can opt out of public services by paying for private schooling, healthcare and security. This accentuates the socio-economic divides even further.</p>
<p>There is a real danger that the <a href="https://www.econ3x3.org/article/part-1-fiscal-dimensions-south-africas-crisis">current fiscal crisis</a> will further corrode public services. This will encourage more and more middle-class families to buy into private provision. Unless the government gets to grips with this issue, the widening chasm between middle and working-class communities will amplify perceptions of unfairness and exacerbate social instability.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/166130/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Justin Visagie receives funding from the South African National Research Foundation through the SARChI in City-Region Economies at the University of the Free State.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ivan Turok receives funding from the South African National Research Foundation through the SARChI in City-Region Economies at the University of the Free State.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sharlene Swartz receives funding from the South African Department of Science and Innovation, the Mastercard Foundation and the National Research Foundation.</span></em></p>Much of the commentary on the July riots, which cost over 300 lives and billions of rands in damage to the economy, has neglected the long history of violent protests in the country.Justin Visagie, Senior Research Specialist, Human Sciences Research CouncilIvan Turok, Distinguished Research Fellow, Human Sciences Research CouncilSharlene Swartz, Head of Inclusive Economic Development, Human Sciences Research CouncilLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1603842021-05-05T13:40:22Z2021-05-05T13:40:22ZPasha 106: COVID-19 is increasing inequality in South Africa<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/398892/original/file-20210505-19-1n7dueq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Unemployment, poverty and hunger were issues South Africa knew all too well even before the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic has made them worse. Job losses have increased and unemployment has not been offset by a massive government economic stimulus package and wage compensation scheme.</p>
<p>But the COVID-19 impact has been unequal for the most part. The worst affected sectors of the economy, like tourism and hospitality, tend to employ relatively low-skilled workers. The country’s temporary ban on alcohol also had an impact on jobs in bars and restaurants. Low- and semi-skilled workers tend to live in <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/township-South-Africa">townships</a> within South African cities; the poorest live in informal settlements. So these communities have been affected far worse than those in the suburbs. </p>
<p>Research by our two guests shows that during the hard lockdown in April 2020 unemployment reached a staggering rate of 50% for shack dwellers and 40% in townships but less than 30% in the suburbs. Informal traders were badly affected by the initial lockdown and abandoned street trading. </p>
<p>In today’s episode of Pasha, Ivan Turok and Justin Visagie at the Human Sciences Research Council discuss how COVID-19 has affected South Africa’s urban population.</p>
<hr>
<p><strong>Photo:</strong><br>
“Pretoria, Gauteng, South Africa, April 24 2020, homeless people next to the road during Corona virus lockdown Covid-19 pandemic sitting with rocks and chairs out of focus” by Africanstar found on <a href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/pretoria-gauteng-south-africa-april-24-1712491057">Shutterstock</a></p>
<p><strong>Music:</strong>
“Happy African Village” by John Bartmann, found on <a href="http://freemusicarchive.org/music/John_Bartmann/Public_Domain_Soundtrack_Music_Album_One/happy-african-village">FreeMusicArchive.org</a> licensed under <a href="https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/">CC0 1</a>.</p>
<p>“Sad or Happy Movie Scene” by Soundscapes55, found on <a href="https://freesound.org/people/Soundscapes55/sounds/456385/">Freesound</a> licensed under <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/">Attribution License.</a></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/160384/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
More needs to be done to support South Africa's township communities.Ozayr Patel, Digital EditorLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1571132021-04-19T15:56:14Z2021-04-19T15:56:14ZThere’s a disconnect between research and urban planning in Africa: how to fix it<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391674/original/file-20210325-19-zciqvv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Cairo</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo credit should read PATRICK BAZ/AFP via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The African continent is fast on its way to becoming one of the <a href="https://population.un.org/wup/Publications/Files/WUP2018-Highlights.pdf">world’s largest urban hubs</a>. This has spawned growing interest in African urbanisation by both researchers and policy makers. But a great deal of the knowledge – and policy that stems from it – doesn’t adequately respond to the challenges faced by those who govern and are governed on the ground.</p>
<p>We address this problem in our new book <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Reframing-the-Urban-Challenge-in-Africa-Knowledge-Co-production-from-the/Marrengane-Croese/p/book/9780367442200#sup">Reframing the Urban Challenge in Africa</a>. Contributions are from various members of the <a href="https://africanurbanresearchinitiative.net/">African Urban Research Initiative</a>, a pan-African interdisciplinary research network. It is made up of 21 universities, think tanks, research institutions and practitioner agencies concerned with urbanisation and its impact across the continent. </p>
<p>The objective of the initiative is to develop a collaborative network that relies on – and actively nurtures – African expertise and research agendas. The idea is for the network to serve as a platform for both innovation and strategic thinking for Africa’s urban challenges and opportunities.</p>
<p>The book is a concrete attempt to put this approach into practice. Each chapter is based on research that’s been done collaboratively in cities, towns and small settlements across the continent. </p>
<p>One of the major learnings that comes through from the chapters is the importance of close relationships between researchers and people on the ground.</p>
<h2>The gaps</h2>
<p>Africa’s urban challenges are increasingly well known and documented. But the amount of data produced on urban Africa still pales in comparison to other parts of the world. <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/user/identity/landing?code=5gC39csbPaHaTnb2sL58zwoWmhgiIgqBaLpre2gU&state=retryCounter%3D0%26csrfToken%3D52c8ee03-eb41-4c14-8392-1d46c17aa8ac%26idpPolicy%3Durn%253Acom%253Aelsevier%253Aidp%253Apolicy%253Aproduct%253Ainst_assoc%26returnUrl%3D%252Fscience%252Farticle%252Fpii%252FS0962629817302184%26prompt%3Dnone%26cid%3Darp-3b1e609a-2a12-4243-a10a-4d5b7b8c3962">Researchers have shown</a> how most data and research available in global urban databases is produced outside the continent. </p>
<p>In addition, because of the way research is funded and conducted most existing work doesn’t find its way back to prospective users. This includes policymakers and local communities. </p>
<p>This has resulted in a growing call for more applied research that bridges the gap between science/research and policy, especially in the field of cities and urban sustainability.</p>
<p>One way of doing this is through the co-production of knowledge.</p>
<h2>Reframing</h2>
<p>Knowledge co-production <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-019-0448-2">has been described as</a> collaborative processes involving diverse types of expertise, knowledge and actors “to produce context-specific knowledge and pathways towards a sustainable future”. </p>
<p>In our book we demonstrate that this is an appropriate approach to urban research into solutions to the challenges facing Africa’s cities. It’s true that there are common urban trends across the continent. Nevertheless, local dynamics, needs, systems, actors and priorities remain highly specific to local contexts. Most of these are undocumented, and are often contested and in flux. </p>
<p>Knowledge co-production represents a way to include voices typically absent in research. In the process new relationships between key stakeholders can be fostered. This generates new knowledge about societal problems. It also renders actionable knowledge for problem-solving.</p>
<p>Contributions to the book are based on research done by researchers and practitioners working in cities across the continent. These range from large metropolitan areas such as Cairo, Johannesburg and Luanda to mid-sized cities (Kumasi, Lusaka, and Alexandria), small cities (Minya, Egypt), and peri-urban spaces (Thika, Kenya).</p>
<p>The research underpinning each chapter was done in collaboration with local communities, governments and other relevant stakeholders on issues that were directly related to local challenges. The result is that chapters cover a range of issues as entry points into wider discussions on urban governance and development in Africa. These range from urban inequality to climate change, the urban food economy, land and housing.</p>
<h2>Lessons and learnings</h2>
<p>Taken together, the chapters provide insight into the diverse set of actors, practices, and experiences involved in urban governance and development across the continent. This means that knowledge co-production takes on different forms and dynamics depending on the city, neighbourhood and settlement.</p>
<p>One of the major learnings is the importance of close relationships between researchers and representatives from local governance structures. In most of the cases these have been fostered and built over long periods of time. In a context where levels of trust – in public institutions as well as among different members of urban communities – are generally low, the importance of these cannot be underestimated. </p>
<p>However, even with these relationships in place, the chapters also demonstrate the challenges of working with local leadership structures, including traditional authorities or local party cadres. These are vital for access to local communities, but also function as gatekeepers. Often, day-to-day cultural and political practices and dynamics, as well as competing agendas or interests determine the scope, availability, and willingness of local leaders and communities to participate in research projects and knowledge co-production. This is true even when projects are aimed at community participation. </p>
<p>Overcoming these hurdles requires a deep understanding of the complexity and workings of local governance structures, as well as the factors, systems, and dynamics that can contribute to building trust and collective action.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/157113/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sylvia Croese has received funding from the Leading Integrated Research for Agenda 2030 in Africa 2030 programme, implemented by the International Science Council (ISC) in partnership with the Network of African Science Academies (NASAC) with support from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), as well as from the PEAK Urban programme, funded by the UK Research and Innovation Global Challenges Research Fund, grant reference ES/P011055/1.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ntombini Marrengane received funding from the Ford Foundation to support urban knowledge networks in Africa as part of the work she did previously with the African Centre for Cities at the University of Cape Town. </span></em></p>Africa’s urban challenges are increasingly well known and documented. But the amount of data produced on urban Africa still pales in comparison to other parts of the world.Sylvia Croese, Senior research fellow, University of the WitwatersrandNtombini Marrengane, Senior Manager, Bertha Centre for Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship, University of Cape TownLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1518712021-03-24T14:46:27Z2021-03-24T14:46:27ZNairobi is rapidly losing its green spaces: this could open the door to more diseases<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388217/original/file-20210308-13-1pfg8ow.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Hundreds of trees have been felled along Nairobi's Uhuru and Waiyaki highways to make space for a new expressway.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">CELINE CLERY/AFP via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>There’s been widespread <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-loss-of-vegetation-is-creating-a-dangerous-heat-island-over-nairobi-150622">concern</a> in Kenya over the shrinking of green spaces in Nairobi, the capital city. Most recently, there was <a href="https://www.greenbeltmovement.org/node/910">uproar</a> over the construction of a raised highway. This <a href="https://nairobinews.nation.co.ke/featured/kenyans-plead-with-kenha-to-stop-cutting-down-trees-along-wayaki-way">resulted in</a> the felling of hundreds of trees, though protests managed to save the life of one <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/11/world/africa/kenya-fig-tree-nairobi-expressway.html">100-year-old fig tree</a>. </p>
<p>It was also proposed that part of the highway run through Uhuru park – one of the city’s few recreational parks. Protests successfully diverted the highway to the park’s outskirts, but development still threatens the city’s few undeveloped spaces. </p>
<p>To give an idea of how much green space has already been lost, between 1976 and 2000, Nairobi’s forest cover <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01431160500117865">went from</a> 14% to 3%. Bushland cover, over the same period, was also reduced from 22% to 13%.</p>
<p>This will have an impact on the city’s wildlife and livestock. Nairobi, like other urban environments in the tropics, has an ecosystem that includes wildlife – such as birds, rodents, primates – and livestock such as cattle, goats, sheep and pigs. As green spaces are lost, <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/gcb.15412">native wildlife</a> and <a href="https://avibase.bsc-eoc.org/checklist.jsp?region=KEna&list=howardmoore**">bird species</a> can dwindle and non-native species proliferate. </p>
<p>But very few studies explore how development affects wildlife and livestock in tropical cities. Recognising this gap, <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/gcb.15412">we explored</a> the impact of a growing and changing urban environment on the wildlife and livestock that live with people in Nairobi from 2013 to 2018.</p>
<p>We found that, as land use in Nairobi transformed, there have been significant changes.</p>
<p>Competition between <a href="http://www.fao.org/3/y5968e/y5968e10.htm">invasive and endemic species</a> has grown, to the detriment of native biodiversity. Species – many of which play important roles in ecosystems such as fruit bats, primates and pollinators – are lost. And as the ecological landscape becomes less diverse, wildlife species that co-exist with humans – such as rats, scavenging and seed-eating birds (collectively known as synanthropes) – thrive, particularly in the <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/gcb.15412">poorer</a>, most densely populated areas of Nairobi.</p>
<p>This is troubling because evidence suggests that synanthropes <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2562-8">host more germs</a> and <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0169534716301847">could pass</a> diseases on to people and make them sick. These are called <a href="https://www.healthline.com/health/zoonosis">“zoonotic diseases”</a> and range from minor short-term illness to major life-changing illness and even death.</p>
<p>We could not assess the risk posed by zoonoses in Nairobi in our study. What we do know is that the city (and likely most other biodiverse, tropical cities) harbours all the ingredients for zoonotic spillover to occur between animals and people, particularly in the most densely populated areas. </p>
<p>Urban development policymakers must recognise that by shrinking green spaces, they <a href="https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/vbz.2012.1195">increase the likelihood</a> that people will catch zoonotic diseases. This is because species such as <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23590323/">rodents proliferate</a>. </p>
<h2>Which species dominate, and where</h2>
<p>We studied 99 household compounds – people’s houses and private land – across the city. These were selected to represent the different ways in which people interact with livestock and wildlife across the city. Households were stratified by people’s wealth, the types of livestock they kept and the ecological habitats in which they live. </p>
<p>Our data show that synanthropic species – like rats and insectivorous bats – dominate lower income, densely populated areas of the city. Here the synanthropes live in close quarters with poultry, pigs and small ruminants, such as goats and sheep. </p>
<p>We found that the decline in biodiversity – and subsequent colonisation by synanthropes – was driven by urban development. Trees and other forms of vegetation were replaced by man-made structures, removing the natural resources that most wildlife require to survive. Meanwhile, the resources (such as waste) on which synanthropes thrive increased.</p>
<p>As we argue <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/gcb.15412">in our paper,</a> this kind of restructuring has important implications for the emergence of novel diseases at urban interfaces, which is why we used our research results to generate a set of testable hypotheses that explore the influence of urban change on microbial communities. </p>
<p>By testing the hypotheses we provide insights into how rapid urbanisation can generate interfaces for pathogen emergence, which should be targeted for surveillance. </p>
<p>Research done elsewhere shows that synanthropes – which thrive in disturbed environments with lower biodiversity – host <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2562-8">more</a> pathogens. And synanthropes seek resources provided by humans and their livestock, such as waste, which brings them into closer contact and increases opportunities for pathogens to cross between them. </p>
<p>For instance, our work in Nairobi <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-10595-1">shows</a> that, as densities of humans and livestock increase, there is more sharing of antimicrobial resistance with wild birds.</p>
<h2>Policy recommendations</h2>
<p>Our findings have important implications for the public health and the sustainable planning and management of cities, particularly rapidly developing, biodiverse cities. </p>
<p>The high levels of competent disease carriers near humans is a huge risk to public health. The current response to COVID-19 has <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanhl/article/PIIS2666-7568(20)30017-9/fulltext">shown</a> that the ability to limit the spread of a disease depends upon good public health infrastructure. Developing this <a href="https://www.un.org/africarenewal/magazine/september-2020/could-be-turning-point-africa%E2%80%99s-health-systems">infrastructure</a>, while more studies are conducted to assess the risk of zoonotic disease transmission, is crucial.</p>
<p>Mitigating steps can be taken. One would be to maintain areas of forests, grasslands and clean waterways throughout the city. This would preserve and increase the wildlife biodiversity that competes with synanthropes, while also improving biosecurity within households, which could help moderate the presence of synanthropic species in urban centres. </p>
<p>It is, however, worth noting that some synanthropes, like insectivorous bats, help to <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/ps.5925">control mosquito populations</a> and agricultural pests in heavily urbanised environments. Eradicating them would not be advisable. Managing people’s interactions with synanthropes through smart urban planning – for example by removing resources on which synanthropes rely such as manure and rubbish from households – is best.</p>
<p>Our findings also raise important concerns about the social equality of urban development. The benefits of urban biodiversity and risks posed by human exposure to animal-borne diseases are not equally distributed. Currently equitable access to green spaces is <a href="https://www.wri.org/blog/2020/09/green-space-social-equity-cities">restricted</a> in many cities due to socioeconomic barriers, such as land ownership, proximity or lack of transportation. Reconfiguring the distribution of green space from the peri-urban fringe of the city to densely populated areas would build a more equitable society, allowing more city dwellers to have access to recreational space. </p>
<p><em>David Aronson, Senior Communications Advisor with ILRI, and Timothy Offei-Addo, a Princeton-in-Africa fellow with ILRI, contributed to the writing of this article.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/151871/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eric Fèvre receives funding from The UK Medical Research Organisation, the UK BBSRC, the European Commission and the CGIAR. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>James Hassell receives funding from the US Army Medical Research and Development Command under Contract No.W81XWH-21-C-0001, and has received funding from The UK Medical Research Organisation.</span></em></p>Nairobi harbours all the ingredients for zoonotic spillover to occur between animals and people, particularly in the most densely populated areas of the city.Eric Fèvre, Professor of Veterinary Infectious Diseases, University of Liverpool and International Livestock Research Institute, Kenya, University of LiverpoolJames Hassell, Wildlife Veterinarian with Smithsonian's Global Health Program, and adjunct Assistant Professor, Yale UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1559002021-03-24T14:45:37Z2021-03-24T14:45:37ZCOVID-19: a new challenge for clean cooking progress in Kenya<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388472/original/file-20210309-13-j8hscv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Cooking on solid fuels exposes people to toxic pollutants.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">JEKESAI NJIKIZANA/AFP via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://www.iea.org/reports/africa-energy-outlook-2019">Over 90%</a> of the <a href="https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/report/2019/goal-11/">238 million people</a> living in sub-Saharan Africa’s informal settlements, rely upon solid fuels for cooking, heating, and lighting their homes. These fuels include wood, charcoal, dung and straw. They’re typically gathered or traded locally and burned on open fires, generating toxic pollutants. </p>
<p>The most harmful of these pollutants is known as fine Particulate Matter or PM2.5. When inhaled, these particles are so tiny that they can penetrate deep into the lungs, causing damage to the blood vessels and increasing the risk of heart and lung diseases. Indoor levels of pollution generated in biomass fuel homes – which are typically poorly ventilated – <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00207233.2020.1732067">frequently exceed World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines</a> and are hazardous to human health. </p>
<p>Typically, as the income of a household rises, <a href="https://journals.assaf.org.za/index.php/jesa/article/view/3310">occupants transition</a> towards cleaner domestic energy alternatives – such as liquid petroleum gas or electricity. In the process of moving along the “energy ladder” households may use “transition” fuels, such as charcoal or kerosene. These are more efficient than raw biomass fuels, thereby reducing meal preparation times. </p>
<p>However, supplies of liquid petroleum gas and electricity in sub-Saharan Africa are often <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3154221/">vulnerable to commodity shocks</a> caused by economic, social, or political instability. </p>
<p>For instance, the <a href="https://theconversation.com/africa/covid-19">COVID-19 pandemic</a> disrupted global energy markets and supply chains due to early collapse in global oil demand. This resulted in <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/oet.12773">volatile petroleum prices</a> and the price fluctuation presents <a href="https://www.iea.org/reports/africa-energy-outlook-2019">major challenges to those in resource poor settings</a>. </p>
<p>We have studied how these changes affect low-income households in Kenya. We are part of a <a href="https://www.asap.uk.com/daq-east-africa">joint collaborative effort</a> – by the <a href="https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/index.aspx">University of Birmingham</a> and the <a href="https://www.popcouncil.org/">Population Council</a>, a research organisation dedicated to critical health and development issues – exploring how social, behavioural, economic and environmental factors affect household air pollution exposure. </p>
<p>In 2020 the <a href="https://dataverse.harvard.edu/dataset.xhtml?persistentId=doi:10.7910/DVN/VO7SUO">Population Council launched</a> a large research project with the aim of documenting the experiences of people living in low-income settlements during the COVID-19 pandemic. Part of this included data collection on fuel use and whether people were switching cooking fuels. </p>
<p>Using these data, we found that during the pandemic, access to cleaner household fuels has become variable and disrupted.</p>
<p>In recent years there has been a significant increase in the use of liquid petroleum gas in Kenya. While nationally levels are lower, with only 5.6% of rural areas using liquid petroleum gas, in urban areas <a href="https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/s3.sourceafrica.net/documents/119795/VOLUME-IV-KPHC-2019.pdf">52.9% of households use it</a>. Kenya has set a <a href="http://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/955741536097520493/pdf/129734-BRI-PUBLIC-VC-LW89-OKR.pdf">national target of 35% clean energy by 2030</a> but may fall short of this goal. </p>
<p>Our findings suggest that the COVID-19 pandemic risks reversing progress made to increase access to affordable, reliable and sustainable domestic energy sources in Kenya. Risks are greatest among those that live in informal settlements. This further increases health inequities as the poorest households have the highest risk of household air pollution exposure. </p>
<p>This could also signal a wider trend happening in other sub-Saharan African countries. </p>
<h2>Surveying informal settlements</h2>
<p>The project surveyed 1,750 households across five Nairobi informal settlements; Kibera, Mathare, Dandora, Kariobangi, and Huruma. Household air pollution is a <a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/household-air-pollution-and-health">major health concern</a> in these settings. </p>
<p>In mid 2019, prior to COVID-19, our survey respondents were using kerosene (58%), charcoal/biomass/wood (24%) or liquid petroleum gas/ electricity (18%). In 2020, the proportion using liquid petroleum gas or electricity increased to 29%. This highlights an improvement overall, driven by advances in availability and affordability of cleaner fuels. However, additional survey questions in the 2020 suggests a more complex picture. </p>
<p>In the survey, residents were asked how their cooking practices and household behaviours had changed. Most households (56%) reported that fuel was more expensive or more difficult to obtain since the pandemic. Of those who said fuel was now more expensive, almost half (46%) were using liquid petroleum gas or electricity. This suggests that access to clean fuels was difficult due to price changes or household income loss. </p>
<p>About 19% said fuel was actually cheaper to get now. Of these, 97% were using kerosene – potentially reflecting the <a href="https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2020/article/from-the-barrel-to-the-pump.htm#:%7E:text=The%20production%20boom%20coincided%20with,to%20the%20COVID%2D19%20pandemic.&text=Producer%20prices%20for%20crude%20petroleum%20declined%2034.0%20percent,and%2048.8%20percent%20in%20April">rapid drop in global petroleum prices</a> – and about 25% said the price was the same as usual (66% kerosene users). This suggests that COVID-19 may be increasing availability and decreasing the cost of kerosene, while increasing the cost of liquid petroleum gas.</p>
<p>Of particular concern is our finding that 69% of liquid petroleum gas or electricity users before the COVID-19 pandemic reported a subsequent switch to kerosene. This reflects the fragility of fuel transitions: shocks often influence, at least over the short-term, household choices. This is worrying as prior to COVID-19 <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5a6b5aad12abd97ed4679071/t/5e56a8f3672e8272382f76ff/1582737656154/ASAP+-+East+Africa+-+Vulnerability+Scoping+Study+-+Low+Income+Households+in+Kampala.pdf">a study found kerosene using households had PM2.5 levels almost equal to those in charcoal or wood-using households</a>. </p>
<p>Looking at the data, we believe that people were making the switch because of economic hardship. Overall 43% of survey respondents had lost their jobs or sources of livelihood. And 71% reported their household expenses had increased despite these economic losses. Also kerosene prices were decreasing at the time. </p>
<p>Participants also reported they had changed cooking behaviours, with a third (34%) spending more time preparing meals. Twice as many were women (40%) compared to men (24%). These patterns may be due to disproportionate loss of employment experienced by women, who were more likely to take up additional domestic duties or caring responsibilities. </p>
<p>Switching back to more polluting cooking fuels (mainly kerosene) – combined with spending more time undertaking indoor domestic duties – will increase overall exposure to hazardous levels of household air pollution among those living in Nairobi’s already vulnerable informal settlements.</p>
<p>This combination of social, behavioural, economic and environmental factors has major implications for household air pollution exposure. And it’s an existing area of research for the <a href="https://www.asap.uk.com/daq-east-africa">Digital Air Quality – East Africa</a> research programme, of which we are co-investigators. </p>
<h2>Supporting clean cooking</h2>
<p>It’s widely recognised that national governments should support a permanent switch to liquid petroleum gas or electricity cooking, to <a href="https://www.who.int/airpollution/household/chest/en/">reduce exposure to household air pollution</a>. The Kenyan government has been promoting greater use of liquid petroleum gas primarily by <a href="https://www.lse.ac.uk/GranthamInstitute/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/8737_vol3.pdf">fiscal measures</a>. These includ a zero tax rating for liquid petroleum gas, a value added tax (VAT) exemption for clean and efficient cookstoves and disincentivising the use of kerosene as a cooking fuel by raising excise duty and therefore retail prices. </p>
<p>However, the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the vulnerability of such programmes to volatile energy markets. It’s evident that access to clean energy supplies alone is inadequate. Additional measures are needed to fully implement clean cooking practices. </p>
<p>There needs to be more focus on how disruptive shocks influence household fuel use and the need for cost-effective interventions that discourage short-term use of heavily polluting fuels.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/155900/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Suzanne Bartington receives funding from the Natural Environment Research Council, National Institute for Health Research and Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. She is an elected member of Oxfordshire County Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jessie Pinchoff receives funding from the ASAP-East Africa project as one of the researchers on the consortium.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>William Robert Avis receives funding from the UK Government's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and a number of research councils (including the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and Medical Research Council (MRC).</span></em></p>The COVID-19 pandemic risks reversing progress made to increase access to affordable, reliable and sustainable domestic energy sources in Kenya.Suzanne Bartington, Clinical Research Fellow in Environmental Health, University of BirminghamJessie Pinchoff, Associate researcher, Population CouncilWilliam Robert Avis, Research Fellow, University of BirminghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1505512020-11-24T15:02:14Z2020-11-24T15:02:14ZRiver of bacteria: a South African study pinpoints what’s polluting the water<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/371020/original/file-20201124-23-9049u7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Apies river downstream of the informal settlement and the village of Hammanskraal.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author supplied</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In 2010, the United Nations recognised access to clean water and sanitation as a fundamental human right. However, over <a href="https://www.worldtoiletday.info/">4.1 billion</a> people around the world, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, still do not have access to this human right.</p>
<p>Clean and safe water is necessary for basic life functions — for drinking, for cooking, for bathing, and more. When it is not available, people resort to alternative sources, which are often polluted with pathogenic bacteria arising from human waste. Using such water exposes people to waterborne diseases such as diarrhoea.</p>
<p>In cities, most households have access to treated water and good sanitation services. However, over <a href="https://www.unicef.org/esa/sanitation-and-hygiene">340 million</a> people in sub-Saharan Africa, mostly in rural communities and informal settlements, do not. They may rely on rivers, lakes, and streams for their. In addition, over <a href="https://www.unicef.org/esa/sanitation-and-hygiene">270 million</a> practise open defecation or have poorly constructed toilets. Most have no choice but to defecate outdoors, often disposing of their faeces directly into rivers — the same ones they use as sources of water.</p>
<p>We, a group of researchers in South Africa, wanted to know more about how different human activities around rivers in the country affected the microbial quality of the water. We wanted to understand the extent to which <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5664689/">informal settlements</a>, where access to basic sanitation and hygiene is limited or absent, affected the presence of waterborne bacteria.</p>
<p>We set out to explore how different human activities, such as sewage treatment plants, informal settlements and agriculture, affected the microbial quality of river water. We also used a mathematical model to show whether people could get sick from drinking untreated water from the river. We looked at <em>E. coli</em> as the indicator organism and <em>Vibrio</em>, <em>Salmonella</em> and <em>Shigella</em> as pathogenic organisms. Indicator organisms indicate the possible presence of pathogens, which are microorganisms that can cause disease. </p>
<p>Our <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26318680/#:%7E:text=Seasonal%20variations%20had%20an%20impact,coli%20concentrations">research</a> found that in <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26318680/#:%7E:text=Seasonal%20variations%20had%20an%20impact,coli%20concentrations.">informal settlements</a> where sanitation and waste management facilities were absent, a high number of bacteria were often present in the water of the river we studied. Some of these bacteria were pathogenic forms of <em>E. coli</em>, which, when consumed, could make people sick. We also observed that the people living there frequently used the river water, without any treatment, for personal hygiene such as bathing and brushing their teeth. The river was also often used for rituals, which involved immersing oneself several times into the water as a form of spiritual cleansing.</p>
<h2>Samples from before and after activities</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/place/apiesrivier-river-which-flows-through-pretoria">Apies river</a> takes its source from the south of the city of Pretoria (one of South Africa’s three capital cities) and flows towards the north of the city, before joining the Pienaars River. Samples were collected at ten different sites along the river. These sites were situated upstream and downstream from the different human activities we looked at. We tested the water in the laboratory for the presence of microorganisms.</p>
<p>There are numerous sewage treatment facilities that <a href="https://rekordeast.co.za/315344/north-residents-protest-sewage-spill-into-apies-river/">discharge wastewater directly into the river</a>. At times the discharged water is <a href="https://ewn.co.za/2011/10/12/Untreated-sewage-flows-into-Apies-River_">not treated</a> due to system failure, or poorly treated when overloaded. The river also receives waste from informal settlements situated along the riverbanks, either directly through dumping or indirectly from surface runoff during heavy rainfall. These <a href="http://www.statssa.gov.za/census/census_2001/urban_rural/urbanrural.pdf">informal settlements</a> are unplanned and the houses are sometimes built on illegally owned land, usually not built according to regulations. So they do not have waste management services.</p>
<p>This river is also used for irrigation. Villagers in <a href="http://www.statssa.gov.za/census/census_2001/urban_rural/urbanrural.pdf">the rural communities</a> – areas that are subdivided into “tribal” areas and commercial farms and usually have few houses – use the river water for their cattle too. The informal and rural settlements use the river directly to dump their waste – including faeces – and for personal and household hygiene.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/371022/original/file-20201124-13-1rbwiyu.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Cattle and water" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/371022/original/file-20201124-13-1rbwiyu.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/371022/original/file-20201124-13-1rbwiyu.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371022/original/file-20201124-13-1rbwiyu.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371022/original/file-20201124-13-1rbwiyu.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371022/original/file-20201124-13-1rbwiyu.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371022/original/file-20201124-13-1rbwiyu.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371022/original/file-20201124-13-1rbwiyu.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Cows using the water from the rural community of Potwane in the North.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author supplied</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We isolated all the tested organisms in the water and sediment samples collected from this river. We found that the number of bacteria isolated before the water passed through informal settlements was lower compared to the number when the river had passed through the settlement. This was because of the lack of toilets in the settlement, forcing the communities to use the river as a toilet. We also found higher numbers of bacteria when the river received wastewater from the sewage treatment facilities. This shows that the treatment plant was discharging poorly treated water containing faeces in the river.</p>
<h2>Getting sick is almost guaranteed</h2>
<p>The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends that there should be <a href="https://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/dwq/2edvol3a.pdf">zero</a> <em>E. coli</em> in water meant for drinking. But we found up to 1 million <em>E. coli</em> cells in 100ml of water collected downstream for the informal settlement and sewage treatment facility sites. According to the mathematical model, someone who ingested as little as 1ml of untreated water had almost a 100% chance of getting sick during the rainy season – leading to school absences and missed days of work. </p>
<p>People living in informal settlements and rural areas need to be made aware of the negative impact of open defecation, especially directly into rivers. Where there is no alternative water source, they should be advised to treat the water, for example by boiling it before use.</p>
<p>Governments need to ensure that people living in rural communities and informal settlements have access to toilets and clean water. This can be done by building community toilets or providing them with <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/disaster-medicine-and-public-health-preparedness/article/waterless-portable-private-toilet-an-innovative-sanitation-solution-in-disaster-zones/365904320A86CB239EDB3DEDA44D89C6">mobile toilets</a>, where construction may not be possible. Governments also need to ensure that sewage treatment facilities, where available, are functioning correctly to avoid the discharge of poorly treated water containing harmful bacteria and faeces into rivers.</p>
<p>The Department of Water and Sanitation of South Africa must also ensure that wastewater treatment plants adhere strictly to Section 39 of the National Water Act, 1998, <a href="https://www.wqms.co.za/infopages/236">which provides guidance</a> for quality and management of wastewater.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/150551/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Akebe Luther King Abia is affiliated to the Aspen Institute through the Aspen New Voices Fellowship. He is also a member of the Antimicrobial Research Unit, University of KwaZulu-Natal. This work was funded by the Water Research Commission of South Africa, and was part of a larger project on the dynamics and health implications of microbial pathogens in South African water resource sediments under changing climates</span></em></p>Water at informal settlements, where sanitation and waste management facilities were absent, had high bacteria levels.Akebe Luther King Abia, Research Scientist, University of KwaZulu-NatalLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1469322020-10-11T09:06:38Z2020-10-11T09:06:38ZOperational subsidies are key to reforming South Africa’s minibus taxi sector<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/360765/original/file-20200930-20-c5nyv5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Profit margins in South Africa's minibus taxi industry have been under pressure long before the COVID-19 lockdown. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Karel Prinsloo / AFP via GettyImages</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>When South African Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula <a href="https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/national/2020-09-14-fikile-mbalula-backs--long-overdue-subsidy-for-taxi-industry/">announced recently</a> that the government was considering a R50 billion subsidy to the minibus taxi sector, it seemed a watershed moment.</p>
<p>The sector transports <a href="https://mg.co.za/article/2020-02-25-public-transport-inequality/">66.5% of commuters</a>, and has been hit hard by the sharp economic contraction that was deepened by the COVID-19 lockdowns <a href="https://www.gov.za/speeches/president-cyril-ramaphosa-extension-coronavirus-covid-19-lockdown-end-april-9-apr-2020-0000">since March</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.compcom.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/PROVISIONAL-MAIN-REPORT-FOR-PUBLIC-COMMENT_-19February2020-NON-CONFIDENTIAL-VERSION.pdf">Buses and train services</a> receive operating subsidies from the government. These are critical for containing fare increases, which are regulated by government. They are also key to establishing an operating model that can withstand temporary, short term shifts in user behaviour. </p>
<p>Despite many promises, taxi operators have only ever received capital subsidies to repair and replace old vehicles, beginning in 1999 with the <a href="https://www.gov.za/about-government/government-programmes/taxi-recapitalisation-programme">“taxi recapitalisation programme”</a>. The main goal was to ensure vehicles were safe; essentially providing a one-off payment to buy new vehicles. This did little to address the core, recurring costs that drive the sector’s economics. </p>
<p>I argue that a new proposed government subsidy for minibus taxis, for which most of the details have yet to be announced, should focus on guaranteeing the viability of taxi operations. Some may be wary of securing the future of the taxi industry given its largely deserved reputation for poor <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/26868086?seq=1">labour relations</a>, substandard service and <a href="https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/3VIOLENT.PDF">violence</a>. </p>
<p>Precisely because of these seemingly intractable problems, an operational guarantee is likely a necessary condition for enabling meaningful reform, plucking the industry from its low-level equilibrium.</p>
<p>In South Africa’s largest cities, such an approach could make possible a more centralised mode of fare collection by municipal authorities. This would enable an integrated fare across multiple legs of a trip, potentially saving users money for a service that accounts for more than <a href="http://www.statssa.gov.za/?p=5943">one-fifth of most poor households’ average expenditure</a>.</p>
<p>I draw on my <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/g5y3b/">comparative</a> <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/h39jw/">research</a> on the governance of urban public goods in Johannesburg and São Paulo, Brazil, to explain why this operational subsidy can kick start a broader programme of public transport reform.</p>
<p>This research compares each city’s attempts to reform the governance of three types of public goods — housing, sanitation, and transportation — after transitions to democracy. </p>
<p>Research on the transport sector in cities of the Global South has tended to focus on possibilities for technological innovation. This research has focused much less on the institutional changes that are necessary to effectively implement transport policy reform.</p>
<h2>Minibus taxi economic model</h2>
<p>The economic model of South Africa’s minibus taxi sector has never been fully transparent. As the post-apartheid government began investing in <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/southafrica/publication/the-economics-of-south-african-townships-special-focus-on-diepsloot">black townships</a> in the mid to late 1990s, the sector was stuck <a href="https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/30018/127306-Minibus-taxis-Public-Transport-and-the-Poor.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y">in a dangerous spiral of incentives</a> that encouraged cutthroat competition. The consequences were often violent.</p>
<p>There was no way to stop new entrants, other than a very thin licensing regime that focused on the quality of the vehicles.</p>
<p>This regime served as a form of implicit deregulation: competing taxi cartels continued to expand their fleets in order to capture ever thinner slices of a captive market. The need for their service grew as new urban employment centres sprawled into former white suburbs.</p>
<p>Black <a href="http://sacitiesnetwork.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/township_transformation_timeline.pdf">townships</a> and <a href="https://wp.wpi.edu/capetown/projects/p2014/wash-up-business/background-research/informal-settlements-in-south-africa/#:%7E:text=Informal%20settlements%20are%20housing%20areas,in%20the%20village%20of%20Franschhoek.">informal settlements</a> likewise mushroomed, with the fall of apartheid-era population controls. As the customer base grew rapidly, the supply of taxis grew even faster.</p>
<p>Today, the sector remains cash-based and its employment relations often exist in a gray zone of formality. Most reliable estimates place operations — especially labour and fuel — at the <a href="https://theconversation.com/south-africas-minibus-taxi-industry-has-been-marginalised-for-too-long-this-must-change-142060">centre of its cost structure</a>. </p>
<p>At the level of policy, the <a href="https://www.gov.za/documents/national-land-transport-act">National Land Transport Act of 2009</a> gave cities a mandate to develop their own transport plans. It also legislated the provision of funds for the “recapitalisation” of the sector. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/360769/original/file-20200930-18-hdhmmr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/360769/original/file-20200930-18-hdhmmr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/360769/original/file-20200930-18-hdhmmr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/360769/original/file-20200930-18-hdhmmr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/360769/original/file-20200930-18-hdhmmr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/360769/original/file-20200930-18-hdhmmr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/360769/original/file-20200930-18-hdhmmr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Bus Rapid Transit system bus in competition with minibus taxis in Johannesburg.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">ansoncfit/Flickr</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In addition, some cities have pursued a technology-led reform strategy. “Bus Rapid Transit” systems gave some taxi operators ownership shares. But most operators were excluded and exist in direct competition with the bus system. </p>
<p>A decade after the first phase of Johannesburg’s bus transport system began, it accounts for only 0.6% of transport users, with minibus taxis at 45.7%, and private cars at 36%. As Rehana Moosajee, a city official who oversaw the bus project in its first six years, recently acknowledged, </p>
<blockquote>
<p><a href="https://www.newframe.com/a-decade-on-rea-vaya-remains-more-dream-than-reality/">The system was never meant to run like this</a>.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Subsidy debate</h2>
<p>The debate around subsidies for the taxi industry is all about underwriting the existing operational model of taxis. There is a separate debate about largely doing away with the minibus taxis in favour of new technology, like the bus system.</p>
<p>Policymakers have paid little serious attention to the operational dilemmas at the heart of providing collective transport: access, reliability, and reliance on fares for cost recovery. </p>
<p>For all of the time and money spent on introducing the bus system, minibus taxis still dominate. A strong operational subsidy can restructure the relationship between taxi operators and municipal governments, so that there is an integrated taxi service at the municipal level, and possibly of a single fare for multi-leg trips. This could enable further integration with other transport modes.</p>
<p>The case of São Paulo is a useful comparison to show how guaranteed subsidies for operational costs can be an effective incentive for centralising fare collection at the city scale. This, in turn, enables a more integrated and functional service. </p>
<h2>Lessons from São Paulo</h2>
<p>In São Paulo, a system of minibus vans, known as <em>peruas</em>, increasingly cannibalised a patchwork of bus services during the early 1990s. This was especially so in the poor peripheries of the Brazilian mega city. The system bore a strong resemblance to the role of minibus taxis in South Africa.</p>
<p>This rapid growth in informal transport was a key stumbling block when the Workers Party mayoral administration of Marta Suplicy tried in 2001 to implement a “single fare” that would allow users to <a href="https://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1981-38212018000100205">pay just once for a multi-leg journey</a>. The goal was to make trips from the poorest, most distant peripheries of the city cheaper and quicker. These commuters generally had to pay at least two — and often three or four — fares to travel the far distances from their homes to work.</p>
<p>After tense negotiations, the city was able to convince informal <em>perua</em> operators to join be the new system. It did so by effectively subsidising their operations through a centralised system of fare collection that <a href="https://revistas.ufrj.br/index.php/dilemas/article/view/7244">guaranteed a minimum of operational revenues</a>.</p>
<p>The lesson for South Africa’s current predicament should be clear. </p>
<p>Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the taxi sector already operated on <a href="https://mg.co.za/article/2019-12-20-00-how-south-africas-minibus-taxi-industry-exploits-its-drivers/">razor sharp margins</a>. Now, with <a href="https://qz.com/africa/1873268/covid-19-is-breaking-down-south-africas-minibus-taxi-industry/">passenger numbers dwindling</a>, the sector’s operational model is in even deeper crisis. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="An old, white white Toyota minibus on a public road." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/360762/original/file-20200930-18-tqb7zj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/360762/original/file-20200930-18-tqb7zj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/360762/original/file-20200930-18-tqb7zj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/360762/original/file-20200930-18-tqb7zj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/360762/original/file-20200930-18-tqb7zj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/360762/original/file-20200930-18-tqb7zj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/360762/original/file-20200930-18-tqb7zj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An example of an old minibus taxis that were due to replaced by larger, safer vehicles.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jason Lawrence/Flickr</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Thus, Minister Mbalula’s proposed subsidy should not be a once-off intervention. That would merely delay inevitable renewed conflict between taxi operators and government. Instead, it should form the basis for a sustained reform process to integrate taxis into municipal transport operations. </p>
<p>The subsidy itself can be used to incentivise taxi operators to cooperate in city-wide operational networks.</p>
<h2>Opportunity</h2>
<p>Policymakers need to look beyond fancy new technologies to replace a sector that they have long seen as undesirable. Every day, clear majorities of South Africans speak with their feet in choosing to use minibus taxis.</p>
<p>The role of government should be to improve and reorganise this sector to address the needs of users. The proposed national operational subsidy is an opportunity to do precisely that.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/146932/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Benjamin H. Bradlow received funding for this research from the American Council of Learned Societies, National Science Foundation, Fulbright Program, and Brazilian Studies Association.</span></em></p>The role of government should be to improve and reorganise this sector to address the needs of users. The proposed national operational subsidy is an opportunity to do precisely that.Benjamin H. Bradlow, Lecturer on Sociology, Harvard UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1442962020-08-25T14:31:53Z2020-08-25T14:31:53ZDisaster management models need adjusting: a case study in South Africa explains why<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/353369/original/file-20200818-18-66ukl8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A car that was washed away floats close to the banks of the Jukskei River in Alexandra Township after floodwaters ravaged the area on November 10, 2016.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Gulshan Khan/AFP via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Following heavy rains in November 2016, flash floods washed through the Setswetla informal settlement adjacent to Alexandra in Johannesburg. The floods <a href="https://mg.co.za/article/2016-11-10-still-no-shelter-for-alex-flood-victims-foreign-nationals-search-for-lost-documents/">destroyed several dozen houses</a> and a child was killed. </p>
<p>Local government and civil society first responders were on the scene quickly to assess the damage and affirm their support to the residents. A textbook response would have involved steps like assessing damage, providing first aid and shelter, and developing a strategy to prevent a future, similar disaster. </p>
<p>In this case, however, things worked a little differently. Urban policy makers and humanitarian actors did indeed provide aid to those who lost their houses. But they also planned for an oversupply of material – all in an effort to prevent tensions from escalating. This response pointed to the fact that relief actors in situations such as those in Alexandra have to engage with underlying vulnerabilities and divisions in the communities they serve. Textbook models don’t account for this.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/place/alexandra-township-johannesburg">Alexandra</a> is one of the oldest black urban settlements in South Africa, going back to the early 20th century. It is close to the affluent business district of Sandton and along the Jukskei River. A relic of the country’s apartheid regime, the settlement saw rapid growth during the 1990s. Today it has an intimate mix of formal and informal dwellings. It remains one of South Africa’s poorest and underserviced settlements. It suffers from chronic violence, poor infrastructure and a range of environmental hazards. </p>
<p>The risk of the Jukskei River’s flooding, especially around the Setswetla informal settlement, is well known. With rapid urbanisation and growing pressure on land, more immigrants and rural South Africans have come to settle on the unsolidified landfill on the banks of the river. At the same time, continuous illegal dumping of construction waste in the river’s catchment area has increased the risk of flooding. </p>
<p>The greater Alexandra settlement has been plagued by violence too. Its inhabitants were exposed to state violence for decades under apartheid. In the democratic era since 1994, Alexandra has been the site of xenophobic violence with rising levels of anti-immigrant sentiment, ethnic division, and a <a href="https://unu.edu/publications/books/excorcising-the-demons-within-xenophobia-violence-and-statecraft-in-contemporary-south-africa.html#overview">sense of inter-group competition</a>. </p>
<p>Violent crime, intercommunity tensions, political violence and distrust between the state and citizens constitute a complex landscape for urban policy makers.</p>
<p>Alexandra is a place where there’s a stark interplay between violent conflict and disaster risk. But little attention is given to policies that could mitigate such compounding risk. As conflict and vulnerability to disasters increasingly intersect in urban settings, city officials and local disaster managers need to know how to address these issues.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/disa.12461">I conducted research</a> that involved interviews with experts to shed light on how the conflict–disaster interface manifests itself in Alexandra. Disasters, such as the floods, and their recovery reveal the urban politics and conflicts in the affected communities as well as in wider urban governance. </p>
<p>Paying attention to the urban disaster managers’ understanding of place-based risk sheds light on the continuously compounding vulnerability and lack of sustainable disaster risk reduction in communities at risk.</p>
<h2>Paradoxes of disaster recovery</h2>
<p>Disasters in urban contexts take place in the context of a complex set of actors and diverging institutional mandates. Spatial inequality, histories of conflict and everyday politics pose challenges to disaster risk reduction. This is true even when a solid legal and policy framework for disaster management is in place.</p>
<p>My research shows that Johannesburg’s local government and humanitarian actors are faced with tough choices of prioritising, managing and balancing resources, locations and constituencies. In many situations, they go to great lengths to prevent inter-communal conflict in the event of disaster. </p>
<p>For example, they devised creative practices in their relief operations. Instead of supporting just victims of the disaster, charity organisations and city agencies would provide relief to other beneficiaries too. Instead of distributing 100 blankets, they would hand out 200 so that neighbours not directly affected by the flood received something too in an effort to avoid tensions.</p>
<p>Another example was that non-governmental organisations and local government would provide construction material for residents to rebuild their houses. This was done in the full knowledge that the location of the houses made the residents vulnerable to flooding. Nevertheless, this kind of support was an efficient way to provide shelter, stability, and a sense of dignity.</p>
<h2>Challenging traditional approaches</h2>
<p>The choices urban actors make are often faulty when viewed through the lens of traditional standards for this kind of work. Their decisions challenge many of the assumptions made by traditional humanitarian and disaster risk reduction models. </p>
<p>They also highlight the inevitable trade-offs and politics involved in dealing with marginalised communities. One of those trade-offs is the focus on the short term, at the expense of sustainable urban risk reduction. </p>
<p>In addition, based on their own risk assessment, residents opt to live in Setswetla because it is close to economic opportunities. Also, they lack better options. </p>
<p>Current conversations around climate-related hazards and other forms of so-called “natural” disasters often fail to link such risks to the communal, political and social conflictual dynamics. Natural hazards are, however, intimately linked with rapid urbanisation, informality, the legacy of apartheid, and chronic violence.</p>
<p>It is therefore time to present a more comprehensive picture of the risk landscape in urban settlements. It’s time to look at the adaptive strategies and choices urban managers and inhabitants make in the presence of compounding urban risk. Their choice to engage with some risks, but not with others, determines today’s urban planning and tomorrow’s urban risk landscape.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/144296/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Silvia Danielak does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Local government and humanitarian actors are faced with tough choices of prioritising, managing and balancing resources, locations and constituencies.Silvia Danielak, PhD Candidate Department of Urban Studies and Planning, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1425772020-07-29T14:14:43Z2020-07-29T14:14:43ZAfrica’s high density urban settlements: cut the red tape and slash the cost of housing<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348373/original/file-20200720-18366-11dttb0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">African urban dwellers pay 55% more in rentals than their counterparts in other cities in the world. </span> </figcaption></figure><p>The challenges of informal settlements have once again been thrown into the spotlight in the midst of the current pandemic. Research has shown that some of the most at-risk populations and therefore the <a href="https://blogs.worldbank.org/sustainablecities/cities-crowding-and-coronavirus-predicting-contagion-risk-hotspots">potential hotspots</a> of COVID-19 are in informal settlements where density is above the threshold needed for social distancing. </p>
<p>The consequences of this have already become apparent. In the Western Cape province of South Africa, <a href="https://coronavirus.westerncape.gov.za/files/atoms/files/Suburbs%20towns%20cases%20-%203%20July%202020.Western%20Cape.pdf">informal settlements continue to exceed</a> residential suburbs in the number of COVID-19 cases. Nearly <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/06/coronavirus-pandemic-exposes-south-africa-brutal-inequality-200612161408571.html">12% of the province’s infections are in Cape Town’s largest low-income settlement of Khayelitsha</a>, even though it is home to just 6% of the population.</p>
<p>At the same time, some of the densest cities in the world, such as Singapore, have managed the outbreak the best. <a href="https://www.theigc.org/blog/in-defence-of-density/">The demon is therefore not density itself</a>. Rather it’s the fact that many African governments have not planned and made the investments in informal settlements to manage the downsides of density – including contagion. </p>
<p>This is particularly evident with water and sanitation infrastructure. Only an estimated <a href="https://www.oecd.org/water/GIZ_2018_Access_Study_Part%20I_Synthesis_Report.pdf">56% of the urban population across Africa</a> has access to piped water. This makes the minimum standard of <a href="https://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/emergencies/WHO_TN_09_How_much_water_is_needed.pdf?ua=1#:%7E:text=The%20Sphere%20Standards%20suggest%20a,levels%20for%20health%20and%20hygiene.">20 litres per person a day</a> to attain essential levels of health and hygiene near impossible.</p>
<p>The South African government has allocated <a href="https://www.news24.com/news24/southafrica/news/covid-19-r2-billion-allocated-to-upgrade-informal-settlements-20200708">R2 billion</a> to upgrading slums to improve access to water and sanitation facilities. This could have a significant impact not only on the current pandemic, but <a href="https://www.theigc.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/WASH-policy-brief_updated2020.pdf">on health</a> overall. </p>
<p>However, upgrading informal settlements may only be a temporary solution. For well-managed density, which will be crucial in preventing and fighting the pandemics of the future, governments across Africa must also tackle the regulatory environment that keeps the costs of building large-scale affordable housing high and thus restricts its supply.</p>
<h2>Bridging the gap between formal and informal</h2>
<p>Across the world, a house will often be the most important asset a family can own. Even when ownership is not an option, rent can make up a substantial portion of overall household consumption. This is particularly true for African cities, where urban dwellers face a <a href="http://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/854221490781543956/pdf/113851-PUB-PUBLIC-PUBDATE-2-9-2017.pdf">55% price premium</a> on rent compared to other cities in the world. </p>
<p>This is driven by a number of factors, including poorly functioning land markets coupled with the fact that <a href="http://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/854221490781543956/pdf/113851-PUB-PUBLIC-PUBDATE-2-9-2017.pdf">construction costs as well as registering property formally are more expensive</a> than elsewhere.</p>
<p>Governments have tried to address this in a number of ways, from housing voucher schemes, used frequently in the <a href="https://www.cbpp.org/research/introduction-to-the-housing-voucher-program#:%7E:text=The%20Housing%20Choice%20Voucher%20Program,housing%20on%20the%20open%20market.">US</a>, which allows poorer households to select where they want to live, to large scale government public housing programmes, as is being undertaken in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/dec/04/addis-ababa-ethiopia-redesign-housing-project">Addis Ababa</a>. </p>
<p>However, there are often fundamentals that need to be resolved to make formal housing markets operate efficiently to better serve the urban poor. Land rights, and the ability of residents to use their property as collateral, are a distortion which limits private investment. Another is formal density restrictions, which are mostly far too strict in developing contexts, and push up the cost of housing prices. In Dar es Salaam, for example, <a href="https://www.wri.org/wri-citiesforall/resources/videos/opening-doors-world-can-african-cities-deliver-promise-growth">the minimum lot size is 375m²</a> – as compared to 28m² in Philadelphia, US, at early stages of development.</p>
<p>With the share of Africa’s population living in urban areas set to reach <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/events/2015/06/01/urbanization-in-africa-trends-promises-and-challenges">50% by 2030</a>, the demand for housing is also rising quickly. The supply of an affordable and decent quality housing stock is not keeping up, resulting in the further proliferation of informal settlements.</p>
<h2>In-situ upgrading</h2>
<p>Informal settlements are often located quite centrally within cities. Research has shown that <a href="https://www.theigc.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/GalianiShelterStorm.pdf">people often choose</a> to live in these settlements, rather than in others with better quality housing, because they are closer to economic activity. </p>
<p>Within these settlements dense social networks are formed and therefore in-situ upgrading schemes to improve liveability have the major benefit of maintaining locational and network advantages of settlements. At the same time, upgrading programmes can signal that governments are officially recognising settlements – an important (but insufficient) step to formalisation.</p>
<p>There are costs to in-situ upgrading too. Retrofitting permanent infrastructures where people have already settled can be up to <a href="https://www.theigc.org/research-themes/cities/cities-that-work/urban-land-use/">three times more expensive</a>. Furthermore, the central location of some of the land may mean that residential settlement is <a href="https://www.theigc.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Franklin-igc_housing.pdf">not the most efficient use</a> of that land in a rapidly growing cities. And informal settlements may be located in dangerous areas prone to flooding or landslides. </p>
<p>In addition, upgrading increases the value of the land and property in that area. The unintended consequence of such schemes can be gentrification. This was the case with the attempts to upgrade the <a href="https://www.theigc.org/blog/kampalas-missing-houses/">Namuwongo slum</a> in Kampala, where higher costs forced residents to move and establish informal settlements elsewhere.</p>
<h2>The conditions of resettlement</h2>
<p>Where the challenges outweigh the benefits, and <a href="https://www.theigc.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/informal-settlements-policy-framing-paper-March-2019.pdf">there is clear economic and social reasoning</a>, relocation of people to greenfield sites is another option. But it’s important that these sites have been planned and serviced before people settle. This was done, for example, in various <a href="http://personal.lse.ac.uk/michaels/Michaels_Nigmatulina_Rauch_Regan_Baruah_Dahlstrand-Rudin_SitesServices.pdf">Tanzanian cities in the 1970s and 1980s</a>. </p>
<p>Residential plots on the outskirts of the cities were serviced primarily with water mains and roads. People were then invited to relocate to these plots for a fee. Interestingly, this was done at the same time as some informal settlements in other areas in Tanzania underwent upgrading programmes, allowing a comparison of both interventions to be studied 30 years later. </p>
<p>It is clear that the settlements receiving sites and services fared significantly better than those that were upgraded – they were better planned and currently have <a href="https://www.theigc.org/reader/informal-settlements-and-housing-markets/setting-the-right-regulatory-environment/">land values up to five times higher</a>.</p>
<p>Moving people to another site is not always feasible. In some cases, the land may simply not be available. More importantly, evidence shows that <a href="https://pubs.aeaweb.org/doi/pdf/10.1257/app.20150397">even where relocation is voluntary, residents may not want to move</a>. </p>
<p>In Tanzania, the sites and services programme was actually stopped as the initial capital investments were high and could not immediately be recouped by the fees paid. </p>
<p>This comes back to the fact that the value of a home is far more than the bricks and mortar. It’s about proximity to opportunities and social networks. Governments need to find ways of making alternative options more attractive to residents, through strong dialogue and understanding of their priorities, as well as compensation which reflects that.</p>
<h2>The key is well-managed density</h2>
<p>Short-term measures to upgrade informal settlements as announced by the South African government are essential when thinking about tackling COVID-19. However, given that <a href="https://www.theigc.org/blog/in-defence-of-density/">emerging evidence</a> shows that the majority of the transmission is through extended contact of people in small spaces, longer term policy considerations and investments will be needed to ensure density is well managed across the board. </p>
<p>To increase the liveability and resilience of Africa’s cities over the long term, we don’t need to reduce density. We need well-managed density achieved by addressing the regulatory limitations that keep formal housing at unattainable costs, as well as those that prevent township residents from investing in their properties.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/142577/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Astrid R.N. Haas is affiliated with the International Growth Centre. The views represented here are her own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the IGC.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Victoria Delbridge does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The demon is not density but rather that African countries have not planned and made the investments necessary to manage the downsides of the type of density found in informal settlements.Astrid R.N. Haas, Policy Director, International Growth CentreVictoria Delbridge, Head of the Cities that Work initiative, International Growth CentreLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1430522020-07-28T14:14:03Z2020-07-28T14:14:03ZAdolescents in Nairobi’s slums are being hit hard by COVID-19 measures<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348590/original/file-20200721-37-1njx7wf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Artwork of men wearing facemasks seen on the street walls in Mathare slums to create awareness of stopping the spread of COVID-19. </span> </figcaption></figure><p>As the COVID-19 pandemic spreads in Kenya, measures to control it – such as school closures and partial lockdowns – continue. These can have adverse social and economic effects on vulnerable groups. One of these groups is young people, particularly those who live in Nairobi’s low-income neighbourhoods. </p>
<p>Adolescents (aged 10 to 19) are in a key phase of life, making rapid transitions from childhood to adulthood. Critical shocks or negative events in this period of life, such as dropping out of school or getting pregnant, <a href="https://www.grin.com/document/199931">could negatively alter</a> the course of their lives. Therefore, ensuring that COVID-19 does not lead to irreversible outcomes for adolescents is critical for Kenya for decades to come.</p>
<p>A team of us at the Population Council are working with the government’s taskforce committee to do just that. The council is an organisation dedicated to carrying out research on critical health and development issues. </p>
<p>Over four days in June, we used a rapid phone-based survey to collect information on knowledge, attitudes and perceived risk of infection from 1,022 adolescents living in five urban slums; Kibera, Huruma, Kariobangi, Dandora, and Mathare. These are Nairobi’s five main informal settlements. The average age of respondents was 16 years and 84% were female. These adolescents were part of ongoing cohorts that had been set up prior to COVID-19 to study the impact of different packages of interventions on adolescent health and well-being. </p>
<p>This is part of an <a href="https://www.popcouncil.org/research/covid-19-related-knowledge-attitudes-and-practices-in-urban-slums-in-nairob">ongoing programme</a> that we are working on with the Office of the President and the Kenyan Ministry of Health’s COVID-19 taskforce to control the spread of the new coronavirus.</p>
<p><a href="https://dataverse.harvard.edu/file.xhtml?persistentId=doi:10.7910/DVN/VO7SUO/0ELXWU">Our data</a> shows that adolescents are experiencing great stress and anxiety due to the mitigation measures put in place. This is most likely due to school closures and the economic stress experienced by their households. People in low income areas are <a href="https://theconversation.com/we-wanted-to-know-how-coronavirus-affects-nairobis-slum-residents-what-we-found-137621">starting to struggle</a>: many are missing meals, have lost work and say that the cost of living is going up.</p>
<p>This group urgently needs social protection measures like food distribution, cash transfers and access to health services. </p>
<h2>Stress and anxiety</h2>
<p>COVID-19 is taking a toll on the mental health of adolescents. It appears that younger adolescents are more worried about the virus itself whereas older adolescents are more concerned about the social and economic impacts of the pandemic. </p>
<p>There are <a href="https://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/business/Covid19-Over-a-million-rendered-jobless-in-Kenya/2560-5571598-ui6l8d/index.html">reports</a> that at least one million Kenyans have lost their jobs, or have been put on indefinite unpaid leave, since the start of the pandemic. In Nairobi’s informal settlements, 39% of households <a href="https://theconversation.com/we-wanted-to-know-how-coronavirus-affects-nairobis-slum-residents-what-we-found-137621">reported</a> a complete loss of income and another 48% lost part of their income.</p>
<p>Nearly half of the adolescents (46%) reported having felt down, depressed, or hopeless at least once in the past two weeks. This was more frequent the older the respondent was. </p>
<p>The vast majority of respondents (81%) said they felt threatened, concerned, scared or anxious because of COVID-19. Most respondents (87%) also worry that they or their loved ones will be infected with COVID-19.</p>
<p>Added to this is uncertainty over their schooling. </p>
<p>The government <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-53325741#:%7E:text=All%20schools%20in%20Kenya%20will,November%2C%20have%20also%20been%20cancelled.">announced</a> that all schools will remain closed until next January because of the coronavirus pandemic. Final year exams, usually taken in October and November, have also been cancelled.</p>
<p>This has put new pressure on these young people who were already struggling to do their studies. During the closures, 87% of the respondents said they were in school when the pandemic hit and were trying to learn from home. Yet, 20% weren’t provided with lessons from their schools and 40% couldn’t access the online lessons provided. It’s also important to note that there is a gender gap in digital access as boys were significantly more likely to use a computer or tablet to access materials. </p>
<p>Now that the schools have closed, 89% of adolescents think they will return when they reopen. But of those who reported not being sure of returning to school, 59% said it was because of difficulty in paying school fees. While government primary schools are free, there are extra costs for things like exams, uniforms and transport. </p>
<p>As secondary school is not free, older adolescent girls may experience greater challenges returning to school. Girls were less confident they would return than boys and there were fears that families may prioritise sending boys to school or that girls may be pregnant by the time schools reopen.</p>
<p>The pandemic is also affecting how much adolescents eat. Of those respondents who reported skipping meals, 78% were eating less or skipping meals more often than before the COVID-19 pandemic began. This is because households have less money and the cost of food has gone up. In addition, 74% are no longer receiving the daily free meal at school that they were prior to COVID-19. </p>
<p>In addition to this, there are gender differences emerging in how adolescents are experiencing the pandemic. There appears to be more pressure on boys to go out and work or look for income, while girls are picking up more of the increased domestic burden – reinforcing traditional gender norms and putting them at increased risk of sexual exploitation to meet their needs. </p>
<h2>What can be done?</h2>
<p>We have a few recommendations for policymakers.</p>
<p>As school closures are prolonged, adolescents will need access to resources to continue learning. Enhancing television and radio-based learning may be more equitable due to the gender digital divide.</p>
<p>Adolescents expressed concern that their families will not be in a position to pay school fees when schools reopen, girls more so than boys. Policymakers must account for the economic hardship caused by COVID-19 and not keep them out of school if households cannot afford to send them back to school. This is particularly important for girls in secondary school who may be at higher risk of not re-enrolling. This may require changes to the country’s education budget for the 2021 school year beyond resources for school infrastructure.</p>
<p>Finally, from our research, we see that there are small pockets of highly vulnerable adolescents that are forced to work, engage in transactional sex or are experiencing violence. These adolescents are in need of immediate social protection and assistance. While the numbers are small, these extreme outcomes should be monitored and addressed as they are likely rise with prolonged social and economic hardship.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/143052/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Social protection measures and food distribution targeting adolescents in informal settlements are urgently needed.Karen Austrian, Senior Associate in Kenya, Population CouncilBeth Kangwana, Senior research analyst, Population CouncilLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1382972020-06-09T19:53:18Z2020-06-09T19:53:18Z‘Forced’ evictions eat away at a Manila community as developer spares the golf course next door<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/340443/original/file-20200608-176538-x3vpnx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C37%2C1576%2C1028&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">One of the entry points to San Roque, with a makeshift guard shelter on the left. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kim Dovey</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Q – Ricky sits at one of half-a-dozen entrances to the San Roque settlement in Metro Manila’s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangle_Park_(Quezon_City)">North Triangle district</a>. Ricky (not his real name) is part of a large team that guards the settlement 24 hours a day with two specific tasks: to prevent the entry of any construction materials and to stop any building activity or repairs by residents. </p>
<p>San Roque is an informal settlement of about 30,000 people within walking distance of a major transport and shopping hub in Quezon City, in Manila’s north-east. While the settlement, which <a href="https://www.newmandala.org/peripheries-of-development/">dates back to the early 1980s</a>, is to be demolished for redevelopment, a golf course on state land across the road will remain untouched. The settlement <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/15/world/asia/manila-coronavirus-lockdown-slum.html">gained global attention</a> when 21 residents were jailed for protesting in April about a lack of promised aid amid a COVID-19 lockdown. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-mumbais-poorest-neighbourhood-is-battling-to-keep-coronavirus-at-bay-137504">How Mumbai's poorest neighbourhood is battling to keep coronavirus at bay</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The “<a href="https://www.ayalaland.com.ph/estate/vertis-north/">plan</a>” for the area is to build a new central business district for Quezon City. All forms of informality – settlements, street vendors and pedicabs – will be removed. The process has continued even through the pandemic.</p>
<p>While the original land title is <a href="https://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/investigative/156843-part-2-ragua-heirs-quezon-city-land-dispute">contested</a>, the area falls under the jurisdiction of the <a href="http://nha.gov.ph/">National Housing Authority</a> (NHA). The state has <a href="https://www.rappler.com/move-ph/2321-can-informal-settlers-co-exist-with-the-rich-in-the-big-city">offered residents a path to secure tenure</a> in the past, only to withdraw it. In 2009, the NHA signed a joint-venture agreement with Ayala Land, a developer of shopping malls, residential compounds and private cities. </p>
<h2>Eviction house by house</h2>
<p>Over the past decade, the Ayala-NHA alliance has engaged in incremental coercive eviction. Home owners are offered a small compensation package plus relocation to public rental housing if they demolish their house and clear and vacate the site. The community is now pock-marked with vacant sites.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333943/original/file-20200511-49589-c2c97v.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333943/original/file-20200511-49589-c2c97v.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333943/original/file-20200511-49589-c2c97v.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333943/original/file-20200511-49589-c2c97v.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333943/original/file-20200511-49589-c2c97v.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333943/original/file-20200511-49589-c2c97v.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333943/original/file-20200511-49589-c2c97v.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Houses are demolished and then fenced to prevent re-encroachment.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Redento Recio</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A census in 2009 counted about 9,000 households in San Roque. About 6,000 remain. Only about 2,000 of them qualify for relocation due to long-term residence and ownership. </p>
<p>The unqualified residents are the most vulnerable. If evicted, they will likely move to other informal settlements nearby. </p>
<p>Ayala Land claims to uphold the UN Sustainable Development Goals through developments that have a “<a href="https://www.ayalaland.com.ph/sustainability/#sustainability-governance">positive impact on the community</a>”. The NHA, in its charter to house the urban poor, is notionally committed to efficiency, social equality and justice.</p>
<p>The Quezon City mayor has agreed not to conduct “forced” evictions. She has called on the NHA to find a “<a href="https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1200337/belmonte-san-roque-residents-vow-to-find-win-win-situation?fbclid=IwAR1mjU651fJ0d79IufAKbYzAuhqbJgtbh7O5ThdMYVNjiL3EBvGbvpdJcfI">win-win</a>” solution.</p>
<p>Globally, forced eviction of informal settlements is now widely regarded as a violation of human rights, which mostly <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0016718516300458">results in new encroachments</a>. UN policy is to <a href="http://habitat3.org/wp-content/uploads/Habitat-III-Issue-Paper-22_Informal-Settlements-2.0.pdf">focus on on-site redevelopment</a>.</p>
<p>Informal settlements emerge where people can make a living. San Roque residents work as labourers, street vendors, informal transport operators, security guards – low-paid jobs that make the city work. When the state cannot build much-needed housing, residents build it themselves. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/street-vendors-self-help-strategies-highlight-cities-neglect-of-how-the-other-half-survive-110283">Street vendors' self-help strategies highlight cities' neglect of how the other half survive</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>A plan that puts golf before people</h2>
<p>The relocations involve a long-term rental or mortgage agreement for a 24-square-metre dwelling of relatively poor quality and design. The housing is up to two hours away from San Roque. Along with losing the main asset they have invested in over many years, residents will lose access to jobs and income, and the social networks that help them cope with the daily grind of poverty. </p>
<p>Many will be left with rent and mortgage obligations they can’t afford. Little wonder some residents succumb to the coercion, demolish their houses, take the compensation and later return to rent rooms in other informal settlements. </p>
<p>From an urban planning perspective, moving the poor to cheap land on the urban fringe simply makes an already dysfunctional transport system worse. </p>
<p>Some will argue no other land is available for the market-led residential towers, shopping malls, casinos and walkable parks for the growing middle class. Yet just across the street from San Roque is an 18-hole <a href="https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1257376/sell-military-golf-courses-to-fund-covid-19-stimulus-package-says-lagman?fbclid=IwAR09kclE-NeF_Eeo6M4SF0dOmEBWF5RYc0q9L_TZvtdU9dPPmmCFcV-wUIA">golf course</a> on NHA-controlled state land that is ripe for redevelopment.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333944/original/file-20200511-49565-ea8txd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333944/original/file-20200511-49565-ea8txd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=306&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333944/original/file-20200511-49565-ea8txd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=306&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333944/original/file-20200511-49565-ea8txd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=306&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333944/original/file-20200511-49565-ea8txd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333944/original/file-20200511-49565-ea8txd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333944/original/file-20200511-49565-ea8txd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Why displace the urban poor when an 18-hole golf course occupies state land just across the road?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kim Dovey</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-sort-of-development-has-no-place-for-a-billion-slum-dwellers-120600">What sort of 'development' has no place for a billion slum dwellers?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>This is neither rational urban planning nor the result of villains in smoke-filled rooms. It is more about a lack of imagination and political will. </p>
<p>Most agents of this planning process are trapped within a system where “sustainability” and “social inclusion” are a legitimating facade. This is the ugly face of neoliberal planning: market-led development becomes its own justification and the state is left to socialise the cost.</p>
<h2>Bring in cheap labour, but remove their homes</h2>
<p>The role of Ayala guards in San Roque highlights the paradox of this approach. Flows of capital are at once generating work for the urban poor and stimulating the growth of settlements they are trying to erase. The massive construction projects require huge reserves of cheap labour in the very districts where affordable housing is being demolished to make way for those projects.</p>
<p>Ricky, the Ayala guard, is one of the residents who doesn’t qualify for relocation. He came to Manila over two years ago, escaping the <a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/philippines/insecurity-mindanao-conflict-and-state-sponsored-violence">violence in Mindanao</a>. San Roque offered cheap rental housing and work. His job is to paralyse any form of upgrading and so help to erase his own neighbourhood. </p>
<p>This is forced eviction made to appear consensual. Indeed, it looks legitimate from a middle class and elite perspective. Their livelihoods and lifestyles depend fundamentally on the supply of cheap labour. Yet, by displacing the urban poor, shopping malls and enclaves protect the middle class from everyday encounters with urban poverty. They can ignore the contradictions that saturate the city. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333941/original/file-20200511-49542-bsggat.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333941/original/file-20200511-49542-bsggat.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333941/original/file-20200511-49542-bsggat.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333941/original/file-20200511-49542-bsggat.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333941/original/file-20200511-49542-bsggat.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333941/original/file-20200511-49542-bsggat.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333941/original/file-20200511-49542-bsggat.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333941/original/file-20200511-49542-bsggat.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A hotel, shopping mall and commercial offices tower over San Roque.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kim Dovey</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-urban-poor-have-been-hit-hard-by-coronavirus-we-must-ask-who-cities-are-designed-to-serve-138707">The urban poor have been hit hard by coronavirus. We must ask who cities are designed to serve</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>There is an alternative</h2>
<p>San Roque has become divided between residents who believe they can resist and retain their livelihoods and those who feel they should take the relocation package before they are forcibly removed with nothing. </p>
<p>Every demolition weakens this community. However, the reduced density also makes on-site redevelopment more possible with NHA funding plus good design and planning. The <a href="https://www.facebook.com/SaveSitioSanRoque/">Save San Roque Alliance</a> – a group of architects, educators and artists – organised grassroots workshops that produced a <a href="https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1200337/belmonte-san-roque-residents-vow-to-find-win-win-situation?fbclid=IwAR1mjU651fJ0d79IufAKbYzAuhqbJgtbh7O5ThdMYVNjiL3EBvGbvpdJcfI">community development plan</a> for affordable housing and community infrastructure. After a ten-day intensive study project, urban design and planning students from the University of Melbourne have also offered <a href="https://www.infur.org/manila-studio-outcome/">design ideas</a>. </p>
<p>Effective on-site upgrading is clearly possible. The missing element is a commitment by planning authorities and Ayala to live up to the rhetoric of an inclusive and sustainable city. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/so-coronavirus-will-change-cities-will-that-include-slums-137072">So coronavirus will change cities – will that include slums?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/138297/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Crystal Legacy has received funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kim Dovey and Redento B. Recio do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Besides battling the coronavirus pandemic, San Roque residents have long been locked in a bigger struggle for their very survival as a community in the face of home demolitions and relocations.Redento B. Recio, Postdoctoral Research Fellow – Informal Urbanism (InfUr-) Hub, The University of MelbourneCrystal Legacy, Senior Lecturer in Urban Planning, The University of MelbourneKim Dovey, Professor of Architecture and Urban Design, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1375042020-05-20T20:03:34Z2020-05-20T20:03:34ZHow Mumbai’s poorest neighbourhood is battling to keep coronavirus at bay<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333924/original/file-20200511-49579-1y1vmrv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1109%2C0%2C3942%2C2277&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Aerial view of Shivaji Nagar.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Informal settlements are experiencing <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2020/04/16/are-slums-more-vulnerable-to-the-covid-19-pandemic-evidence-from-mumbai/">a greater surge in COVID-19 cases than other urban neighbourhoods</a> in Mumbai, India. Their high density, narrow streets, tight internal spaces, poor access to water and sanitation leave residents highly vulnerable to the spread of coronavirus. </p>
<p>One of Mumbai’s <a href="https://www.hindustantimes.com/mumbai/dumped-by-the-municipal-body/story-QD7603JFG09pUVjHzS3NkO.html">poorest and most underdeveloped</a> neighbourhoods, Shivaji Nagar, is one of three informal settlements I have been studying. More than a month before the Indian government imposed a national lockdown, Shivaji Nagar residents, supported by the NGO <a href="https://www.giveindia.org/nonprofit/apnalaya">Apnalaya</a>, adopted their own measures to counter the pandemic.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333524/original/file-20200507-49573-3x2fll.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333524/original/file-20200507-49573-3x2fll.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333524/original/file-20200507-49573-3x2fll.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=330&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333524/original/file-20200507-49573-3x2fll.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=330&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333524/original/file-20200507-49573-3x2fll.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=330&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333524/original/file-20200507-49573-3x2fll.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333524/original/file-20200507-49573-3x2fll.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333524/original/file-20200507-49573-3x2fll.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Satellite image of Shivaji Nagar and neighbouring areas.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Google Earth</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Here, 600,000 people, <a href="https://apnalaya.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Situational-Analysis.pdf">11.5% of Mumbai’s informal settlement population</a>, are crowded into an area of 1.37 square kilometres next to <a href="https://thewire.in/environment/deonar-mumbai-slum-waste-dumping-ground">Asia’s largest dumping ground</a>. There is <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/thane/raising-a-stink-145-people-compete-for-one-toilet-seat-in-govandi-slums/articleshow/66685546.cms">one toilet for every 145 people</a> and <a href="https://idronline.org/ground-up-stories/building-connections/">60% of residents have to buy water</a>. There is a <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/mumbai/m-east-ward-records-highest-covid-19-fatality-rate/article31578172.ece">severe lack of health facilities</a>. </p>
<p>Unsurprisingly, residents’ health suffers. The settlement is a <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/mumbai/in-tb-hotspot-m-east-ward-fear-of-more-lethal-covid-19-spread/article31334974.ece">tuberculosis hotspot</a>. Respiratory illness makes COVID-19 even more threatening for residents. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/335762/original/file-20200518-83357-xrj25y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/335762/original/file-20200518-83357-xrj25y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/335762/original/file-20200518-83357-xrj25y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=322&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335762/original/file-20200518-83357-xrj25y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=322&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335762/original/file-20200518-83357-xrj25y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=322&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335762/original/file-20200518-83357-xrj25y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335762/original/file-20200518-83357-xrj25y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335762/original/file-20200518-83357-xrj25y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Left: COVID-19 hotspots in Mumbai as of April 14 2020. Right: COVID-19 health facilities in Mumbai as of May 18 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2020/04/16/are-slums-more-vulnerable-to-the-covid-19-pandemic-evidence-from-mumbai/">Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai, Author provided</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>By April 13, Shivaji Nagar had 86 COVID-19 cases – an increase of 30 in two days – making it one of Mumbai’s hotspots. As the virus started spreading rapidly, COVID-19 data for individual areas became hard to get. The release of cumulative data for the entire city was much less useful for understanding the growth in cases. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333955/original/file-20200511-49546-1iesjbi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333955/original/file-20200511-49546-1iesjbi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333955/original/file-20200511-49546-1iesjbi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=303&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333955/original/file-20200511-49546-1iesjbi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=303&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333955/original/file-20200511-49546-1iesjbi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=303&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333955/original/file-20200511-49546-1iesjbi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=381&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333955/original/file-20200511-49546-1iesjbi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=381&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333955/original/file-20200511-49546-1iesjbi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=381&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ward-level data was available until April 25 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The lockdown begins</h2>
<p>On March 24, the Indian government announced a <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-52698828">national lockdown</a>. Barricades were installed on Shivaji Nagar’s main streets to curb people’s movement. TV and radio broadcasts urged residents to stay at home, practise good hygiene and regularly sanitise shared toilets and main streets. </p>
<p>Once the first few COVID-19 cases were detected in Shivaji Nagar, the government shifted patients and their families to isolation facilities outside the settlement. Fever camps were set up in parts of the settlement to screen people with symptoms. While the lockdown allowed essential services to continue, vegetable markets were shut down as cases increased. </p>
<p>After facing a backlash for not considering the impacts on the poor, the government eventually announced a nationwide relief package. Residents could receive free food by producing their ration cards. </p>
<p>Some measures worked while others created new problems. Quarantining people outside the settlement was effective (since home quarantine was not possible), as was setting up fever camps. However, the stigma and fear of being COVID-19-positive stopped many people from coming forward. </p>
<p>The sudden lockdown and market closures left most residents without food, water and medicines. Some <a href="https://twitter.com/ApnalayaTweets/status/1258409949736112133">35% of Shivaji Nagar residents</a> didn’t have the ration cards needed to get free food. Enforcing social distancing and stopping people from venturing out of their homes, by beating them, didn’t work either. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1258409949736112133"}"></div></p>
<h2>NGO fills the gap</h2>
<p>The lack of official figures on case numbers and testing rates made it hard to track the spread of the virus in Shivaji Nagar. Volunteers working for Apnalaya kept track on the ground. </p>
<p>As early as the second week of February, before India’s borders closed, Apnalaya had decided to drastically reduce contact between the residents and outsiders. The aim was to minimise residents’ risk of contracting the virus. </p>
<p>Apnalaya enrolled 40-50 volunteers from the neighbourhood to distribute relief supplies instead of bringing in staff. It <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/mumbai/caring-for-their-own-while-caring-for-others/article31561805.ece">arranged a year’s health insurance</a> for all volunteers. Elderly and pregnant women were encouraged to stay home and contact the volunteers for help with their daily needs. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1261335917186428930"}"></div></p>
<p>Even before the government announced its relief package, Apnalaya was providing food and essentials to residents. Distribution began within the containment zones, but later extended to the entire settlement. </p>
<p>Funds for these activities were raised in several ways: <a href="https://milaap.org/fundraisers/support-people-of-shivaji-nagar?utm_source=shorturl">a crowdfunding campaign</a>, an <a href="https://twitter.com/ApnalayaTweets/status/1254718748453371907">alliance between multiple organisations</a> and collaboration with the government. </p>
<p>A dashboard was used to document, plan and monitor the distribution of relief supplies. As the government’s relief scheme excluded one in three residents, Apnalaya’s door-to-door relief delivery ensured no family was left behind. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333957/original/file-20200511-49546-w9637l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333957/original/file-20200511-49546-w9637l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=304&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333957/original/file-20200511-49546-w9637l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=304&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333957/original/file-20200511-49546-w9637l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=304&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333957/original/file-20200511-49546-w9637l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333957/original/file-20200511-49546-w9637l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333957/original/file-20200511-49546-w9637l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Volunteers from the settlement distribute relief.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Apnalaya</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Apnalaya’s permanent staff members were now managing everything from outside. The telephone became a medium to reach families who didn’t have a TV or a radio and to monitor the situation. Staff regularly phoned residents to give advice on hygiene and how to get essentials and contact doctors for other ailments. </p>
<p>Not everyone was in their database, but this didn’t matter. The residents played their part too. </p>
<h2>Community comes together</h2>
<p>As residents, the volunteers were committed to their community even when facing extreme hardships. Relief distribution was particularly tricky in areas where drains had overflowed on streets and foundations built on garbage had slipped. Yet these volunteers reached all residents, knowing they relied on their efforts. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333961/original/file-20200511-49565-1onm7bt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333961/original/file-20200511-49565-1onm7bt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333961/original/file-20200511-49565-1onm7bt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=304&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333961/original/file-20200511-49565-1onm7bt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=304&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333961/original/file-20200511-49565-1onm7bt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=304&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333961/original/file-20200511-49565-1onm7bt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333961/original/file-20200511-49565-1onm7bt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333961/original/file-20200511-49565-1onm7bt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Narrow internal lanes in the settlement.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The community even found a temporary way to deal with the water shortage. Parts of the settlement with piped water <a href="https://idronline.org/ground-up-stories/building-connections/">shared it with neighbours</a> who previously had to buy water from private suppliers. One supplier, a resident of the settlement, now <a href="https://idronline.org/ground-up-stories/building-connections/">provided water free of charge</a>. </p>
<h2>Lessons from Shivaji Nagar</h2>
<p>Shivaji Nagar’s story offers some important lessons. While the government acted pre-emptively, it failed to consider local conditions and needs. Apnalaya filled the gaps. </p>
<p>But the NGO’s reach was limited, too, and the resident volunteers became the missing link. Acting as community leaders, they took stock of the situation on the ground and reported back to the NGO’s office. </p>
<p>Some of the strategies that have worked have been tailored to local conditions and adapted to the evolving crisis. But the shortage of health facilities and lack of data transparency pose a great challenge. </p>
<p>Mumbai’s M East Ward, which includes Shivaji Nagar, now has the highest COVID-19 death rate in Mumbai. <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/mumbai/m-east-ward-records-highest-covid-19-fatality-rate/article31578172.ece">At 9.7%, it’s more than double the city’s overall rate</a>. Can Shivaji Nagar withstand the storm?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/137504/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ishita Chatterjee does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Long before the Indian government responded to the threat of COVID-19 with a lockdown, residents of Shivaji Nagar, with the support of a local NGO, were protecting and helping one another.Ishita Chatterjee, PhD Candidate, Informal Urbanism (InfUr-) Hub, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1380922020-05-14T21:06:01Z2020-05-14T21:06:01ZMegacity slums are incubators of disease – but coronavirus response isn’t helping the billion people who live in them<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/334830/original/file-20200513-156651-1nldcyf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=60%2C0%2C6720%2C4466&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A market area in Dhaka, the Bangladeshi capital, crowded with people despite the coronavirus pandemic, May 12, 2020. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/makeshift-stalls-at-a-market-along-a-pedestrian-area-of-an-news-photo/1212895418?adppopup=true">hmed Salahuddin/NurPhoto via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Having <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-51768274">ravaged</a> some of the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/new-york-coronavirus-antibody-tests-2645820969.html">world’s wealthiest cities</a>, the coronavirus pandemic is now spreading into the megacities of developing countries. Sprawling urban areas in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/25/rio-favelas-coronavirus-brazil">Brazil</a>, <a href="https://thecorrespondent.com/378/why-social-distancing-wont-work-for-us/50039243100-5409cfb5">Nigeria</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-closes-in-on-rohingya-refugees-in-bangladeshs-cramped-unprepared-camps-135147">Bangladesh</a> are all seeing COVID-19 infections rise rapidly. </p>
<p>We study the <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0956247814533627">fragility</a> and <a href="https://www.citylab.com/life/2012/11/making-our-cities-more-resilient-cant-wait/3758/">resilience</a> of such cities and their urban peripheries, with the aim of encouraging data-driven policy decisions. Given its deadly trajectory in marginalized communities of hard-hit <a href="https://www.politico.com/states/new-york/albany/story/2020/05/08/black-and-latino-new-yorkers-get-vast-majority-of-social-distancing-summonses-1283223">New York</a> and <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/c26434a2-5337-45e9-a94b-2c33fd55306a">London</a>, coronavirus may well devastate much poorer cities. </p>
<p>Particularly concerning are the <a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-an-existential-threat-to-africa-and-her-crowded-slums-135829">slum areas</a> that are home to roughly a billion people – <a href="https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/report/2019/goal-11/">one in seven people on Earth</a>. Characterized by insecure property rights, low-quality housing, limited basic services and poor sanitation, these <a href="https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/interview/2020/04/01/coronavirus-cities-urban-poor">informal settlements</a> aggregate risk factors that accelerate the <a href="https://www.weforum.org/covid-action-platform/articles/cities-crowding-coronavirus-hotspots">spread of infection</a>. </p>
<p>Yet, our research finds, many residents of slums and squatter settlements are not getting the help they need to survive the coronavirus pandemic.</p>
<h2>Density and poverty</h2>
<p>Overcrowding is one reason slums are known <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4481042/">incubators of disease</a>. Informal settlements are typically <a href="https://academic.oup.com/oxrep/article-abstract/33/3/496/3926163?redirectedFrom=PDF">10 times denser</a> than neighboring areas of the same city. </p>
<p>The Dharavi slum in central Mumbai, for example, has some <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/04/concerns-mumbai-dharavi-slum-reports-covid-19-cases-200403053646046.html">97,000 residents per square mile</a>, compared to <a href="https://www.timesnownews.com/india/article/where-world-most-dense-populated-cities-mumbai/61774">11,500 people per square mile</a> elsewhere in the city. It is far harder to practice physical distancing, at home or on the street, in such close quarters. </p>
<p>Most of the world’s poorest urban neighborhoods <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21681376.2016.1229130">additionally lack</a> clean potable water and a private bathroom, making lifesaving practices like hand-washing <a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/18-06-2019-1-in-3-people-globally-do-not-have-access-to-safe-drinking-water-unicef-who">a challenge</a>. </p>
<p>To get to work – a necessity for those with very low incomes and no savings – many people in slums travel jammed together in vans and buses over long distances that are <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7118651/">perfect vectors</a> for disease.</p>
<p>For several reasons – among them little access to health care – people living in informal settlements also suffer disproportionately from <a href="https://medicine.yale.edu/news-article/23734/">underlying health conditions</a> such as obesity, diabetes and hypertension, according to a <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/series/slum-health">2016 special edition of the Lancet on slums</a>. All of these problems can exacerbate respiratory illnesses such as COVID-19.</p>
<h2>Rio de Janeiro</h2>
<p>In Brazil, which is fast becoming a global <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/05/brazil-coronavirus-hot-spot-bolsonaro/611401/">COVID-19 epicenter</a>, at least 1.5 million of Rio de Janeiro’s <a href="https://agenciadenoticias.ibge.gov.br/en/agencia-press-room/2185-news-agency/releases-en/25283-ibge-divulga-as-estimativas-da-populacao-dos-municipios-para-2020">6.7 million residents</a> live in the city’s 1,000 “favelas,” or slum settlements. </p>
<p>Many favela residents <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/joshualaw/2020/04/29/how-the-coronavirus-is-impacting-favelas-in-rio-de-janeiro/#208f463f3ee3">lack piped water or the resources even to buy soap</a>. But Brazil’s national government, which denies the severity of its outbreak, is <a href="https://theconversation.com/just-like-trump-brazils-bolsonaro-puts-the-economy-ahead-of-his-people-during-coronavirus-136351">offering very little pandemic aid</a>. That’s left community organizations to deliver <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/joshualaw/2020/04/29/how-the-coronavirus-is-impacting-favelas-in-rio-de-janeiro/#208f463f3ee3">food and hygiene products</a> to Rio’s poorest.</p>
<p>Hundreds of favela residents have already tested positive for COVID-19. But with <a href="https://g1.globo.com/rj/rio-de-janeiro/noticia/2020/05/10/hospitais-particulares-do-rj-estao-com-90percent-dos-leitos-de-uti-ocupados-associacao-preve-colapso-em-menos-de-15-dias.ghtml">90% of intensive care beds occupied</a>, those experiencing severe illness have little chance of getting proper emergency care. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/334827/original/file-20200513-156675-1mdfkbr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=163%2C163%2C5380%2C3526&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/334827/original/file-20200513-156675-1mdfkbr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334827/original/file-20200513-156675-1mdfkbr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334827/original/file-20200513-156675-1mdfkbr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334827/original/file-20200513-156675-1mdfkbr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334827/original/file-20200513-156675-1mdfkbr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334827/original/file-20200513-156675-1mdfkbr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A volunteer disinfects Rio’s Santa Marta favela, Brazil, April 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/volunteers-disinfect-a-road-at-the-santa-marta-favela-in-news-photo/1210468814?adppopup=true">Mauro Pimintel/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The economic fallout of COVID-19 is also devastating for poorer people. In Rio’s favelas, where residents typically make <a href="https://valor.globo.com/brasil/noticia/2020/01/24/favelas-tem-poder-de-compra-de-r-1198-bi.ghtml">less than US$5 a day</a>, over <a href="https://exame.abril.com.br/economia/renda-cai-para-7-em-cada-10-familias-nas-favelas/">70% of households</a> report an income decline since the coronavirus outbreak, according to a survey supported by the Locomotiva Institute and the Unified Center for Favelas.</p>
<h2>Lagos and Dhaka</h2>
<p>Fighting coronavirus is <a href="https://theconversation.com/lagos-size-and-slums-will-make-stopping-the-spread-of-covid-19-a-tough-task-134723">proving difficult in Lagos</a>, the largest city in Nigeria and its COVID-19 epicenter. The city, Africa’s biggest, is home to <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-12-20/lagos-building-luxury-homes-in-face-of-affordable-housing-crisis">an estimated 26 million people</a>. Nearly three-quarters of them live in one of Lagos’s 100 slums. </p>
<p>A large proportion of those in slums subsist hand-to-mouth, <a href="https://ng.boell.org/sites/default/files/uploads/2017/02/budgit_final_report_30.1.17.pdf">working in the informal sector</a> as street vendors, waste recyclers, artisans and the like. Such jobs offer no health insurance or pensions – no basic social safety net. </p>
<p>As in Rio, many informal workers in Lagos have been deprived of even this meager income during the capital’s <a href="https://nairametrics.com/2020/05/10/lagos-state-threatens-to-revert-to-full-lock-down/">intermittent coronavirus lockdowns</a>. Staying home to survive a pandemic <a href="https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/crp/2020/03/31/covid-19-in-africa-know-your-epidemic-act-on-its-politics/">is only an option if you can afford it</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/334831/original/file-20200513-156665-vy7cwy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/334831/original/file-20200513-156665-vy7cwy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/334831/original/file-20200513-156665-vy7cwy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334831/original/file-20200513-156665-vy7cwy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334831/original/file-20200513-156665-vy7cwy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334831/original/file-20200513-156665-vy7cwy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=519&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334831/original/file-20200513-156665-vy7cwy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=519&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334831/original/file-20200513-156665-vy7cwy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=519&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The scene in Ojodu-Berger, outside Lagos, May 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/people-wears-face-masks-in-compliance-with-state-directive-news-photo/1211735038?adppopup=true">PIUS UTOMI EKPEI/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Similar crises are playing out in many poor megacities worldwide. In Bangladesh, for example, COVID-19 is <a href="https://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/2020/05/02/coronavirus-bangladesh-records-5-more-deaths-another-552-new-cases-in-24-hours">spreading quickly through the capital of Dhaka</a>, home to almost 9 million people, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/mar/21/people-pouring-dhaka-bursting-sewers-overpopulation-bangladesh">40% of whom live in slums</a>. </p>
<p>The Bangladeshi capital has about 80 public intensive care units, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6549198/">far fewer</a> than required. Nationwide, just over 190 ICUs serve Bangladesh’s population of 161 million – 47 times less per capita than New York City after it surged its ICU capacity. </p>
<h2>Lockdowns and curfews</h2>
<p>Some developing countries acted early to prevent outbreaks and appear to have dodged the first wave of COVID-19. With memory of past pandemics fresh, governments, businesses and civil societies in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/03/world/asia/coronavirus-spread-where-why.html">Sierra Leone, Uganda and Vietnam</a> conducted extensive testing and contact tracing and to <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11524-020-00438-6">bolster their primary health care systems</a>, combined them with targeted education campaigns.</p>
<p>Yet, our research finds many governments are responding to coronavirus outbreaks in slums in one of two ways: with a heavy fist or with neglect. </p>
<p>In city after city, we see <a href="https://www.voanews.com/covid-19-pandemic/militaries-enforce-coronavirus-quarantine-experts-warn-escalating-violence">strict lockdowns imposed</a> on poor populations without regard to the factors that could impede compliance. Where food handouts are provided, supplies are <a href="https://www.cnn.com/videos/world/2020/04/15/kenya-africa-coronavirus-covid-19-pandemic-unemployment-sevenzo-pkg-intl-ldn-vpx.cnn">generally insufficient</a>. </p>
<p>People who violate quarantine – by trying to work, say – <a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-versus-democracy-5-countries-where-emergency-powers-risk-abuse-135278">risk police violence</a>. Conflicts have <a href="https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/interview/2020/04/01/coronavirus-cities-urban-poor">erupted over curfew enforcement</a> in cities across <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-02/locked-in-cages-beaten-and-shamed-virus-laws-lead-to-abuses">Kenya, India and South Africa</a>.</p>
<p>Such tactics risk undermining residents’ already low faith in government, just when <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10810730.2013.840696">public trust</a> is most needed to ensure compliance with health guidance. </p>
<p>State neglect also allows the criminal groups to consolidate their influence in slum areas. From Brazil to Mexico, <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2020/04/27/mexican-cartels-are-providing-covid-19-assistance-why-thats-not-surprising/">cartels</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/25/brazil-rio-gangs-coronavirus">gangs</a> and <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-mafia-poised-to-exploit-vulnerable-people-during-covid-19-pandemic-1198083%204">organized crime</a> are handing out food and medical supplies, deepening their grip on power.</p>
<h2>A better way</h2>
<p>A <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11524-020-00438-6">new Journal of Urban Health study</a> recommends that developing countries facing infectious disease outbreaks prioritize getting water, food and sanitation materials to their poorest residents. </p>
<p><a href="https://blogs.worldbank.org/impactevaluations/what-can-low-income-countries-do-provide-relief-poor-and-vulnerable-during-covid">Development economists</a> also advise making <a href="https://www.devex.com/news/cash-transfers-lead-the-social-assistance-response-to-covid-19-96949">cash payments</a> to the <a href="https://www.marketplace.org/2020/04/09/covid-19-low-income-help-cash-transfers-esther-duflo/">poorest households</a> and halting evictions, both measures taken to ease the coronavirus crisis in advanced countries. </p>
<p>To work in areas where trust in government is low, <a href="https://phys.org/news/2020-05-left-covid-settlements.html">all these measures</a> must be underpinned by a strong communications program involving credible neighborhood leaders, <a href="https://theconversation.com/clear-consistent-health-messaging-critical-to-stemming-epidemics-and-limiting-coronavirus-deaths-134529">radio, social media, TV ads and phone messages</a>. Groups like <a href="https://www.devex.com/news/opinion-slums-are-the-next-front-line-in-the-fight-against-the-coronavirus-97088">UN-Habitat</a> and <a href="https://www.iied.org/covid-19-front-line-where-crisis-meets-normal">Slum Dwellers International</a> are working with local organizations in slum communities to reach people in places where assistance is most needed.</p>
<p>Global pandemics require <a href="https://thecityfix.com/blog/cities-battered-covid-19-remain-key-recovery-ensure-investments-well-spent-schuyler-null-talia-rubnitz-hillary-smith/">global responses</a>. But places like Rio, Lagos and Dhaka face different challenges in the coronavirus fight than, say, New York City. </p>
<p>The public health response must look different, too.</p>
<p>[<em>You’re smart and curious about the world. So are The Conversation’s authors and editors.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklysmart">You can get our highlights each weekend</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/138092/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robert Muggah has received research funding from the Canadian, Norwegian and UK governments as well as International Development Research Council, Luminate, Open Society Foundation, Social Science Research Council, and Tinker Foundation. He is the co-founder of Brazil's Igarape Institute, a principal of the SecDev Group and author of "Terra Incognita: 100 Maps to Survive the Next 100 Years."</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Richard Florida is a distinguished fellow at New York University's Schack Institute of Real Estate and co-founder of the news site CityLab. He is author of "The New Urban Crisis." </span></em></p>COVID-19 is spreading fast through not only the world’s richest cities but also its poorest, ravaging slum areas where risk factors like overcrowding and poverty accelerate disease transmission.Robert Muggah, Lecturer, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio)Richard Florida, Professor, University of TorontoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.