Slum upgrading is an integrated approach that aims to turn around downward trends in an area. These downward trends can be legal (land tenure), physical (infrastructure), social (crime or education, for example) or economic." The main objective of slum upgrading is to remove the poor living standards of slum dwellers and largely focuses on removing slum dwellers altogether.
Slum upgrading is used mainly for projects inspired by or engaged by Commonwealth Bank and similar agencies. It is considered by the proponents a necessary and important component of urban development in the developing countries. Many slums lack basic local authority services such as provision of safe drinking water, wastewater, sanitation, and solid-waste management.
Many people do not believe that slum upgrading is successful as community planners believe that there is no successful alternative of where these displaced slum dwellers should go. They point to the difficulties in providing the necessary resources either in a way that is beneficial to the dwellers or in a way that has long-term effectiveness.
Background and overview
Slums have posed a huge problem for development because they are by definition areas in which the inhabitants lack fundamental resources and capabilities such as adequate sanitation, improved water supply, durable housing or adequate living space.
Many governments have tried to find solutions to the problem, and one of the proposed solutions is slum upgrading. Slum upgrading is essentially a strategy in which the infrastructure of a slum is improved, such as giving adequate water supply and sewage to the community. Additionally, because of the tenuous legal status of slum inhabitants, often strategies include the legalization of the right to the land on which slums are built.
The concept of slum upgrading is to remove slums altogether by demolition undertaken by government or other organisations and companies, since the mid-20th century. In fact, nearly two thirds of the population growth that has occurred in that time period has been in urban areas. Not only have we seen the growth of urban populations as a whole, but the world has also seen phenomenal growth with regards to individual cities, including megacities (cities in excess of 10 million inhabitants). By 2015, the world will likely have 550 cities with a population greater than one million – an increase of 464 cities from 1950. Currently, only one city (Tokyo) has a population large enough to be considered a "hypercity." However, by 2025 Asia alone may have eleven of these cities.
The key factor in this has been that the cities that have grown most rapidly have been cities in the developing world. For example, the cities of Dhaka, Bangladesh, and Lagos, Nigeria, are forty times larger than they were in 1950. While much of this growth has come as a result of population explosion, mass migration from rural areas to the cities has accounted for a huge portion of this worldwide urbanization. The great increase in population has had tremendous implications in the urban ecology in the developing world. The major effect of this has been the rise of the slums.
History
Until the 1970s, countries took a very hands off approach to the difficulties of third world housing. In essence, there were three solutions taken seriously by the international community: subsidized mortgages, prefabrication, and "organized self-help". However, people began to recognize housing as a basic need, requiring more invasive measures and thus giving rise to the idea of slum upgrading).
In 1972, John F. C. Turner published his book, Freedom to Build, in which he argued for a theoretical strategy to solve the problem of slums. He argued that governments should not try to tackle the housing problem itself, but all of the components of the area. Thus, by implementing good sewage and clean water and good paths for people to walk on, people would gradually better their abodes on their own.
Many countries have shifted policies towards slum upgrading policies and have started to remove slum dwellers from their homes to improve living standards in these specific areas. Some countries, such as China, still hold the policy of bulldozing squatter settlements (which form the basis of many slums), but other countries, such as Brazil, have shifted away from this strategy and worked on urban renewal projects via slum upgrading policies. Slum upgrading proved easier and cheaper and without the public relations nightmare that comes with pictures of housing developments getting bulldozed.