where are squatter settlements located

Where are squatter settlements usually located?

Squatter settlements, widespread in urban Africa, Latin America, and South and Southeast Asia, are a characteristic feature of contemporary urbanization.

Where are squatter settlements in Latin America?

Squatter settlements, called barriadas in Peru, ranchosin Venezuela, callampas in Chile, villas miseriasin Argentina, and by a host of other names in other countries, are an important and permanent part of the urban social system, containing between 10 per cent and 50 per cent of the population of most cities.

Which countries have squatter settlements?

The world's largest informal settlements are located on the outskirts of cities such as Cape Town, South Africa, and Karachi, Pakistan....A Cape Town Hospital Transforms Into HousingKhayelitsha, Cape Town, South Africa. ... Tondo, Manila, Philippines. ... Dharavi, Mumbai. ... Ciudad Nezahualcoyotl (Neza), Mexico City.More items...•

What is an example of squatter settlement?

In Bhopal, India , and Mexico City, for example, squatter settlements were built next to deadly industrial sites. In such cities as Rio de Janiero, Brazil; La Paz, Bolivia; Guatemala City, Guatemala; and Caracas, Venezuela, they are perched on landslide-prone hills.

Why are squatter settlements found in major cities?

Rapid urbanisation in developing countries is causing many problems. Many new migrants to cities in developing countries cannot afford housing. They are forced to build temporary accommodation in spontaneous settlements. These settlements are commonly known as 'shanty towns'.

What are slums called in Mexico?

Ciudades perdidas: this is a broad concept referring to small-scale pockets of shanty housing on vacant land or undesirable urban locations.

What are the 5 largest slums in the world?

5 Largest Slums in the WorldKhayeltisha, Cape Town, South Africa. Khayeltisha's population is projected to be around 400,000, with a striking 40 percent of its residents under 19 years old. ... Kibera, Nairobi, Kenya. ... Dharavi, Mumbai, India. ... Orangi Town, Karachi, Pakistan. ... Neza-Chalco-Itza, Mexico City, Mexico.

Is squatting legal in the US?

In the United States, squatting is illegal and squatters can be evicted for trespassing. Real estate managers recommend that vacant properties be protected by erecting "no trespassing" signs, regular checks, tenant screening, and quickly finding new tenants.

Are there slums in USA?

After falling in the 1990s, the number of poor people living in high-poverty areas has been growing fast. Half a century after President Lyndon B. Johnson declared a war on poverty, the number of Americans living in slums is rising at an extraordinary pace.

What is a squatter area?

The term squatter settlement is often used as a general term to encompass low-quality housing, occupied by the poor, usually on the periphery of cities in the Global South.

What are squatter settlements made of?

Squatter settlement Housing built on illegally occupied land. Shanty town/shanty Area of poor-quality housing, built from materials such as cardboard and corrugated iron. A shanty is an individual dwelling made of such materials.

Are favelas squatter settlements?

Favelas indeed started as squatter settlements due to the absence of public or affordable housing and severe land inequality in Rio in the late 19th and throughout the 20th century when Brazilians fled the countryside to the cities due to limited access to rural land and following the country's particularly late ...

What are squatter settlements AP Human Geography?

Squatter. Settlement. An area within a city in a less developed country in which people illegally establish residences on land they do not own or rent and erect homemade structures.

When did squatter settlements start?

Under the California Land Act of 1851, squatters made 813 claims as the population in California increased from 15,000 in 1848 to 265,000 in 1852. The Squatters' riot of 1850 was a conflict between squatters and the government of Sacramento, California.

What was the first destination for climate migrants to Khulna?

The first destination for most of the climate migrants to Khulna was its slums and squatters settlements to which they had easy access, but the migration destination offered them little or no improvement in their housing because they could not afford the cost of formal housing. Not all the migrant households could gain access to established urban slums ; only a few who had relatives or social networks could access or rent a place in the established urban slums . Most of these urban slums are maintained or owned by “musclemen” (local community leaders whose power and influence stems from the political leaders and current ruling party of the country), who did not allow just anyone to live in their slums. Migrant households who could not afford or gain access to the urban slums usually established themselves as squatters in urban fringe areas, on marginal agricultural land, along rail corridors, next to the highway, or even in the natural drainage network, as well as in low-lying flood-prone areas and on river banks. These migrants settled wherever they could get free or cheap land. In most cases, they built their own informal shelters with dry leaves, plastic bags, bamboo, and mud on whatever land they could access. In some cases, migrant households chose to live on public construction sites (bridges or culverts). Sometimes, private landowners allowed these migrant families to live on their agricultural land or construction sites in order to protect their land and provide security for the assets on the site. These informal settlements provide immediate shelter for the migrant communities, but impact the existing land use pattern. Figure 19.5 shows the location of the climate migrants in Khulna’s urban area ( Ahsan, 2013 ).

What percentage of the population lives in informal settlements in Ahmedabad?

In Ahmedabad, about 40% of the population resides in informal settlements. A substantial number of the urban poor reside in these locations. The two dominant types of informal settlements are slums that have developed out of the illegal occupation of the marginal areas of the city by migrants and squatters, and chawls, which are residential units originally built for workers in the mills and factories. Most slum dwellers tend to settle along the waterways in the city, like Sabarmati River, on vacant land or in low-lying areas ( Bhatt, 2003 ).

What are the challenges of WSUD?

The (re)development and upgrading of informal settlement areas in a water-sensitive manner pose several challenges, such as limited budgets, increasing population, and a National Housing Policy advocating for only basic water supply and sanitation services for these areas. WSUD should no longer be the domain of the upper socioeconomic class as it is equally important to the poor communities in need of quantity and quality water. WSUD not only entails far more than retrofit of urban systems to be more water sensitive but also includes a social dimension to environmentally educate communities. As such, informal settlement development should attempt to “leapfrog” the stages through which the formal settlement areas have developed, thereby avoiding the need to retrofit these areas at some time in the future. Using water-sensitive technologies should also result in a range of secondary benefits for these communities, helping to address some of the misperceptions of authorities regarding the social advantages of WSUD. WSUD approaches should form part of national priorities, recognizing that advocating WSUD principles in policies will be confronted by challenges of density, scale of demand, and political sensitivities concerning the perceived quality of the engineering options it represents. The focus of providing WSUD in South Africa should be framed as a social component and justified in terms of equity and provision of services to all people ( Fisher-Jeffes et al., 2012 ).

How does remote sensing help in slums?

The application of remote sensing technique provides ways to map slums/informal settlements through using satellite imagery ( Kohli et al., 2012) ( Fig. 8 ). Remote sensing technology provides spatially rich data with high spatiotemporal consistency for monitoring the slum/informal settlements and effective intervention by local authorities. A substantial literature has emerged that covers topics related to application of remote sensing and image processing for characterizing informal settlements and estimates population distribution patterns ( Aminipouri et al., 2009; Kohli et al., 2012; Owen and Wong, 2013; Sietchiping, 2004 ), assessing the socioeconomic status by area ( Niebergall et al., 2007) and object-oriented classification of informal settlements within urban area ( Niebergall et al., 2008) and extraction of informal enclaves within the concentration of large settlements ( Hofmann et al., 2008; Mayunga et al., 2010 ). Informal settlement classification takes advantage of object-based image analysis (OBIA) methods for examining dwelling patterns and to estimate based on shape, size, and spacing ( Blaschke and Lang, 2006; Hay and Castilla, 2006; Hurskainen and Pellikka, 2004 ). Indicators to measure informal settlements encompass vegetation, road type, materials, accessibility, terrain geomorphology, texture, spacing of housing structures, proximity to hazards, consistency of housing orientation, proximity to city center and social services, dwelling size, dwelling set back, building density, and roofing materials ( Kohli et al., 2012 ). Research by Angeles et al., 2009, used VHR satellite imagery to extract concentration of urban poverty. Jain, 2007, demonstrated that remote sensing application could explain the patterns of informal development over time.

What is Figure 19.6?

Figure 19.6. Informal Settlement and available service facilities for forced migrants. (a) Informal settlements in urban agricultural land and along the highways in Khulna. (b) Informal settlements in urban fringe and low-lying areas in Khulna. (c) Sanitation facilities for urban poor and the migrant residents in fringe and urban areas.

What is remote sensing used for?

It is notable that the application of remote sensing and EO-based satellite data along with GIS is widely used for a variety of applications ranging from detecting and mapping human settlements, informal settlements, or slums, assessing humanitarian crisis, to monitoring refugees and IDPs. Limitation of natural resources, rapid population growth, higher concentration of urban population, frequent natural disasters, and humanitarian crises are major global concerns that researchers and practitioners focusing on settlement issues are well poised to address. To address issues related to human settlements, sustainable development, and human impacts on the environments, application of remote sensing spanning local to global scales demonstrates strong utility for assessing and monitoring current settlement conditions, predicting future issues, and contributing to decision-making for a better and sustainable world or human settlement.

What is the clash of rationalities in dealing with informal settlements in the global South?

Our study illustrates a clash of rationalities in dealing with informal settlements in the global South: the neoliberal visioning of a modern, globally competitive, and orderly city, and the right of city authorities and the private sector to “upgrade” the city and the rights of ordinary citizens for access to services, housing, space, and a decent life. Both positions offer promises of a better future but cannot guarantee that experience will be improved for all, particularly the poor. Neither approach provides much clarity about the social and spatial outcomes and the effects of (re)making place on broader political, economic, and social processes of the city.

What are the problems of living in a squatter settlement?

Population density is very high in squatter settlements in Lagos. This is because of the lack of available land to build on. The area known to outsiders as Makoko is actually six distinct “villages” spread across land and water: Oko Agbon, Adogbo, Migbewhe, Yanshiwhe, Sogunro and Apollo. The first four are the floating communities, known as “Makoko on water”; the rest are based on land. In these floating communities, homes are built on stilts on the edge of the Lagos Lagoon. It is estimated that a quarter of a million people live in Makoko.

Should Makoko be demolished or improved?

After all, it is their home. Residents have already taken steps to improve services crisscrossing the lagoon bed are pipes, paid for and laid by enterprising residents to bring in clean water – for a modest fee – from boreholes in neighbouring Sogunro.

How many squatter settlements are there in Lagos?

There are 13 squatter settlements in Lagos, These are: The map below shows the location of a number of squatter settlements in Lagos. Squatter settlements are found all over Lagos. They are typically found in areas where more wealthy people do not want to live. This includes marshland and land close to industry.

What is a squatter settlement?

Squatter settlements are any collection of buildings where the people have no legal rights to the land they are built upon. The people are living there illegally and do not own the land. They provide housing for many of the world’s poorest people and offer basic shelter.

When did Makoko Floating School open?

Makoko Floating School. Photograph: Andrew Esiebo for the Guardian. Doctors Without Borders opened a floating clinic in January 2011; although very popular when it launched, it stayed open less than a year. Today Makoko continues to be served by a network of informal, unregistered clinics that attend to basic ailments.

Why did the authorities demolish Badia?

However, the authorities want to demolish it to help improve the image of the city. Though residents have nowhere else to live. In recent years the authorities have demolished areas of squatter settlements, like the one in 2012. Badia, a swampland settlement on the edge of the city’s Apapa Port, was one of the worst-hit targets. More than 15,000 people have lost their homes.

What is the lack of housing in Lagos?

In Lagos, the lack of housing and rapid rate of urbanisation has forced millions of people to build their own homes. These are typically on land they do not own. However, in Lagos, some homes have been built on water.

How can we make shanty towns better?

Effective solutions to make the shanty towns better may come in the form of help from the government or nongovernmental organizations, and they should be given education regarding public cleanliness. The self-help schemes should be introduced and they should be provided with the loans for making improvements in their lives. It is seen that the breeze-blocks and the ceramic tiles on the roof were used to stop the rain, schools are built for education and for healthcare facilities hospitals are also built in this area. Renovation of water pipes for fresh water, hygienic toilets, and road tarring may also be provisioned for.

What are some examples of developing countries?

The examples from the developing countries include Asia’s largest shanty town, which is Orangi in Karachi, Pakistan, and many others across South Africa, Haiti, Kenya, India, and Bangladesh. In the developed countries, these can be found in some parts of the European Union, Spain, the United States of America, and France. 3. Sanitation and Disease. ...

When were shanty towns first developed?

Shanty town history in the U.S. dates back to the year 1929 when the unemployed people were thrown out of their houses, and they started building these shanty settlements. In the year 1930, when the economy saw a setback, the condition also worsened as more and more people settled here. As these shanty towns were first developed in America, so they were known as Hoovervilles but, by the year 1940, as the economy recovered so too did the conditions. The examples from the developing countries include Asia’s largest shanty town, which is Orangi in Karachi, Pakistan, and many others across South Africa, Haiti, Kenya, India, and Bangladesh. In the developed countries, these can be found in some parts of the European Union, Spain, the United States of America, and France.

What are shanty towns made of?

These improvised housing developments are often made up of corrugated metal, plywood, cardboard boxes and sheets of plastics, with these impromptu homes often called shacks. The characteristic features of these shanty towns are that one can see them near the parks, ...

Why do people die from hill slides?

As there is sanitation problem and due to lack of toilets or any kind of proper sewage pipes, the human waste becomes the breathing ground for mosquitoes and diseases. 2.

Why are there so many diseases in Shanty?

Shanty dwellers suffer from sanitation problems, and diseases are caused by the poor upkeep in these shanty towns. They have to drink poor quality of water, which results into diseases like Cholera and Typhoid. Even some of the natural disasters may occur in the areas formed near the hillsides which can result in death sometimes due to hill slides. As there is sanitation problem and due to lack of toilets or any kind of proper sewage pipes, the human waste becomes the breathing ground for mosquitoes and diseases.

Why is the income rate per capita low?

The income rate per capita of a person is low as the residents are often officially unemployed, and they work as a menial labor or housekeeper for cash in hand for a particular work in most of the countries. Even the crime rate is higher here as they are being controlled by the organized gangs and they carry out crime in the cities.

Why do untouchables squat?

The untouchables will squat in abandoned buildings for shelter and to protect themselves from attacks. Often the squatter settlements are located near trash dumps, where the untouchables can make money by sifting through the trash for recyclables.

How are squatter settlements formed?

1 Economics. Squatter settlements are most often formed by rises in the numbers of homeless people. The homeless people then seek shelter off the street in abandoned buildings. Some of the buildings may still have power and water, which causes the homeless to flock to the "free" resources.

What is a squatter?

Squatters are homeless people who illegally occupy buildings to use as permanent shelter. Squatter settlements are formed when large numbers of squatters occupy a building or group of buildings. These settlements occur around the world for a variety of reasons.

Why do artists squat in abandoned factories?

Some artists will squat in abandoned factories for the working room the buildings provide . Some real estate developers will actually encourage the formation of these artist squatters to gentrify an area and attract young urban professionals. When the real estate then becomes more valuable, the artists are forcibly evicted and trendy lofts are installed. Most artist colonies are in Europe where they are semi-tolerated in some municipalities. East Berlin became noted for its artist colonies after the fall of the Iron Curtain.

Why do squatters congregate in settlements?

Additionally, squatters congregate in settlements to protect each other from those who prey on the homeless. Criminals will target homeless because they only carry cash and are reluctant to contact the police. Additionally, many homeless are also weak from poor diets and disease, so they are easier targets for criminals.

What do anarchists believe?

Anarchists believe that no government is legitimate, nor is any associated national market. Anarchists do not even believe in the concept of property. Anarchists will squat in abandoned buildings as a form of protest.

Where do anarchist squatters live?

It is notable that anarchistic squatter settlements only occur in Europe, where anarchism is taken semi-seriously as a political ideology.

Characteristics of A Squatter Settlement

See more on worldatlas.com

Squatter Settlements in Developing Nations

Disadvantages of Squatter Settlement