6.4 Management Of Urban Settlements

Question 1

General facts about Favelas in São Paulo (shanty town)

Answer 1

• Heliópolis is the largest areas of slum housing in Latin America
• over 100,000 people live here in a mix of absolutely and semi-poverty
• developed rapidly in the 1970s, and has continued to grow
• drug gangs developed considerable power in the area + murder and violence were at a high level

Question 2

What is absolute poverty?

Answer 2

a condition characterised by severe deprivation of basic human needs, including food, safe drinking water, sanitation facilities, health, shelter, education etc.

Question 3

What is relative poverty?

Answer 3

• basic needs may be met but those who live in relative poverty are are considerably worse off than those around them
• it is defined as living below 50% of the average income

Question 4

What are the challenges of Favelas

Answer 4

• finding the expensive investment capital for construction
• noise + disruption during development phase
• distribution of the service - who gets what + where
• size or scale of area involved
• environmental issues - pollution during construction phase

Question 5

What were the solution for Heliópolis?

Answer 5

• 2003 - UNAS (residents association), NGO - action aid and architect, Roy Ohtake came up with a plan to radically improve the environment
• this involved a coordinated street colour scheme, a library, recreational centre + housing project
• led to the development of the Heliópolis Housing Project iniates by SEHAB (the department of housing) in 2010

Question 6

What would the Heliópolis Housing Project provide?

Answer 6

• housing for 70,000 people in 18,000
• improving urban living, leisure spaces, educational and health facilities
• SEHAB also engaged in slum upgrading programmes, sanitary improvement and regularisation of informal land subdivisions - changed the focus from removing slums to upgrading them
• the first stage (2011) produced 11 five storey towers, each containing 18 apartments
• second stage developed 29 towers containing 542 new apartments
• cost estimated to be between $60,000 to $70,000

Question 7

Did the Heliópolis Housing Project work?

Answer 7

• Basic Sanitary Company of São Paulo states there is now 100% water connection, 77% sewage connection, almost 100% street lighting, now has Wi-Fi connection + most of the streets are paved
• security + stability have improved in the area, encouraging more people to invest
• Heliópolis is now considered a town
• there has been schemes to encourage entrepreneurship + small commercial ventures are located throughout the area - praised by ‘The Economist’ in 2010 for their innovation + entrepreneurship spirit
• however much remains to be done - fragile nature of house construction in Heliópolis was shown in July 2013 following a fire that killed 3 people + left 900 homeless - ActionAid still condemn some of the housing conditions

Question 8

Problems of transport infrastructure in Cairo?

Answer 8

• largest city in Africa - pop. growth has been rapid over the 50 years
• transport infrastructure designed for 2 million, but population was 8 million in 2014
• congestion is a constant issue - raising concerns about greenhouse gas emissions, poor air quality + noise
• Cairo city transport operates the bus services - 450 formal bus routes
• Cairo’s metro carries about 2.2 million passengers a day in 2014
• Hugh ridership of public transport highlights demand for improvement in infrastructure

Question 9

What are the problems with improving transport infrastructure in Cairo?

Answer 9

• the problem is huge + city planners have struggled to keep pace to keep pace with rising demands + sheer size or scale of area involved
• finding sufficient funds to pay for the engineering contracts is a continuous challenge
• current public transport provision is inadequate - the planned extension to Cairos metro takes time + will cause disruption during the development phase/construction

Question 10

Solution to road transport in Cairo

Answer 10

• road transport has required sustained Hugh-level investment as the city has grown (population + land area)
• 7 bridges have been constructed- downtown expressways + flyovers bypass the congestion
• 100km ring road (build in 1990s) surrounds the city

Question 11

Solutions to the metro in Cairo?

Answer 11

• metro system was developed to reduce the number of vehicles on the road
• line 1 opened in 1987, line 2 1996, line 3 in 2012
• an extension to line 3 (phase 4B) was completed in 2020 to link the metro with the eastern part of the city
• a further link (to the airport) from line 3 is planned/under construction
• line 4 began construction in 2016 + 2 more lines are planned

Question 12

Solution for the airport in Cairo?

Answer 12

• located 15km from the centre of Cairo - second largest in Africa after Johannesburg
• 3 main terminals
• a season flight terminal opened in 2011 to ease the strain on existing terminals

Question 13

Evaluation of solutions in Cairo?

Answer 13

• most people see the development of the road system as essential, but critics say new roads simply generate more traffic
• despite new developments, the road system is till overcrowded + traffic jams are routine
• congestion is a result of insufficient public transport system according to a world Bank traffic study (2014)
• main limitations with the metro system is that it only reaches a limited area of the city - the extension of line 3 has increased the capacity of the metro so it now carries 4 million passengers a day
• it is hoped that further metro expansion will increase the metros capacity + thereby reduce the number of private vehicles on the road
• the expansion of the airport has been vital to maintain Cairo’s global city status