http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20031006/wl_afp/un_habitat_slums_031006163006
Mon, Oct 06, 2003
Two billion people will live in slums by 2030: UN
NAIROBI (AFP) - The
number of slum dwellers in the world will double
to about two billion by 2030 because of rapid urbanisation and
worsening
poverty, UN Human Settlement Programme (UN-Habitat) warned.
Currently, a sixth
of the world's population lives in slums, according
to the report titled "The Challenge of Slums," released
Monday to mark
World Habitat Day.
"The locus of
poverty is moving from the countryside to cities, a progress
now recognized as the urbanisation of poverty," United Nations
Secretary
General Kofi Annan wrote in his foreword to the report.
"If no serious
action is taken, the number of slum dwellers worldwide
is projected to rise over the next 30 years to about two billion,"
he added.
The report calls for
a more comprehensive approach to adressing
the problem of employment for slum dwellers and the urban poor
in general.
"Slum policy issues
should be integrated with broader, people-focused
urban poverty reduction policies that deal with aspects of poverty
including employment and incomes, shelter, food, health, education
and access to basic urban infrastructure and services," according
to the report.
UN-Habitat Executive
Director Anna Tibaijuka said in the report
that "improving the effectiveness of slum policies can be
achieved
by fully involving the urban poor and those traditionally responsible
for providing the slum housing."
She criticised what
she said was "apathy and lack of political will"
on the part of governments to address the issue of urban poverty.
"Much more political
will is needed at all levels of government
to confront the huge scale of slum problems that many cities face
today, and will no doubt face in the foreseeable future,"
she added.
The theme of this year's
World Habitat Day is "Water and Sanitation
in Cities".
Tibaijuka is on Monday
at a ceremony in the Brazilian city of
Rio de Janeiro, expected to present awards to groups and individuals
who have excelled in improving the living conditions of urban
poor.
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