Development, Urbanization, Migration, and Quality of Life - Dragons and Tigers: A Geography of South, East and Southeast Asia - page 104

Figure 4-6
This is Kali Besar , one of Jakarta' is squatter settle-
ments. Situated on a river near the sea, it is built
on stilts to withstand the tides. Photograph cour-
tesy of B. A. Weightman.

size. Consequently , NI rates in slums and squatter settle-
ments are significantly higher than those in middle-class
and elite districts.

There, forty percent of deaths are attributed to infections
and parasitic diseases derived from wretched sanitation
and water contamination. In Manila, more than 80 per-
cent of people are not connected to a sewer system. In
Manila, vendors sell bottled water with a markup as high
as 3,200 percent, which puts clean water out of economic
reach for the poor.
A 2002 UN study found that only 17 of more than
3,500 cities and large towns in India had any kind of pri-
mary sewage treatment. Jakarta still relies on open sewer
ditches to disperse human and other waste to the sea.
Thousands of individuals in slums have no access to a
latrine. Others might share a deplorable facility with as
many as 5,000 other people. Delhi has instituted mobile
“toilet vans.”
Being forced to tend to one' s bodily functions in pub-
lic while being expected to abide by rules of modesty is
an important feminist issue. In many regions, women
have to wait until very late at night or early morning to
avoid harassment, molestation, or rape.
Pay toilets are a growth industry in developing coun-
tries. Obviously , these are rarely affordable for the poor.
Men who cannot pay simply do their business in the
street. Women' s alternatives are unsanitary and even
dangerous.
Accurate statistics on slum populations are difficult
to come by since they are deliberately undercounted by
officials. Indonesian and Malaysian governments are
notorious for disguising urban poverty . At least 25 per-
cent of Jakarta' s population occupies slum dwellings,
but the official figure is a mere 5 percent. An estimated

SLUM DWELLERS
Across the region on average, the proportion of city
dwellers living in slums is 33 percent (Figure 4-6). In India
40 percent of city residents live in slums. Slums can be
found in both city interiors and peripheries. For exam-
ple, in Karachi 34 percent of slum dwellers live in the
inner city while 66 percent live in the urban periphery .
The five great metropolises of South Asia (Karachi,
Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, and Dhaka) alone contain
about 15,000 distinct slum communities whose total
population exceeds 20 million. In Mongolia, Nepal,
Laos, and Cambodia at least 50 percent of urbanites live
in slums.
A slum dwelling might be a room in a dilapidated
“apartment” building where 10 people share one room
with few , if any , sanitary facilities or other essential serv-
ices. Or it might be a primitive shelter of sticks and plas-
tic sheeting. It might even be a large drainpipe. In India,
even so-called middle-class dwellings often have running
water for no more than two hours a day , usually after
8:00 PM. Maids (if a family has one) rush home in the
evening to do the dishes or laundry .
Extreme health differentials are no longer between
city and countryside, but between the urban middle
classes and the urban poor. In Mumbai, slum death rates
are 50 percent higher than in surrounding rural areas.