Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
one a year. Thereafter, the frequency of landslides
increased dramatically, from an average of twenty-
five per year in the 1970s to thirty-five per year
during the early to mid-1980s.
However, the salient fact is that up to the
1960s, the majority of slope failures recorded in
Caracas were associated with the incidence of
earthquakes as the initiating mechanism; but
from 1970, slope failures and mass movements
became associated with the occurrence of heavy
rainfall rather than seismic activity. Spatially, it is
noticeable that they have tended to occur in the
barrio
areas. This is shown clearly in map form in
Figure 37.4. The principal areas of landslide
activity are almost exactly spatially coincident
with the main
barrio
areas. As a recent example of
the outcome, when tropical storm Bret hit
Caracas in August 1993, over 150 people are
thought to have been killed and thousands lost
their homes as a result of mudslides on hilly
shanty towns.
The example afforded by Hong Kong serves
to pinpoint the pressing nature of the more
mundane, day-to-day environmental problems
that have to be faced by residents and authorities
alike in large third world cities. In the case of
Hong Kong, 6 million inhabitants are to be
found living on a small piece of land that exhibits
some of the world's highest population densities
(Chan 1994). It is estimated that every day Hong
Kong produces 23,300 tonnes of solid waste and
21 tonnes of floating refuse, along with 2 million
tonnes of sewage and industrial waste water. In
addition, the city has to deal with 100,000 tonnes
of chemical waste annually. For the inhabitants
of low-income communities, a variety of
environmental hazards and safety risks have to be
faced on a more or less daily basis. For the
denizens of squatter areas, vulnerability to fires,
dangerous slopes, landslides, slippery walkways,
the effects of excess heat and the lack of public
toilets, standpipes and other public facilities, are
among the most prominent. For those living in
inner city slums, the problems include the illegal
construction of dwellings, falling balconies and
outer walls, pollution from industry, noise
pollution, congestion, and poor ventilation
(ibid.)
.
However, despite such day-to-day problems,
applied research has shown that Turner and
Mangin were right, and that as long as real
incomes and a degree of security of tenure are
available to the residents of low-income
settlements, then social stability, housing
improvement and consolidation are frequently the
outcome. A very good example of this type is
provided by Eyre's examination of the squatter
settlements of Montego Bay, Jamaica (Eyre 1972;
1997). The early work demonstrated that the
majority of the population of the shanty town
were not rootless migrants who had just travelled
to the town from the countryside. Rather, they
were shown to be urban residents of some
standing, On average, household heads had lived
in the urban area for eleven years. In addition, it
was revealed that over three-quarters of the
population living in the ten shanty towns had
been born within the city itself. The majority of
residents had jobs and were well integrated into
the urban economy.
In a recent follow-up study, Eyre (1997) has
shown that after ignoring squatters in the urban
area for several decades, as part of a changing
policy, the Jamaican authorities have started to
clear some of these longstanding and well-
established low-income housing areas. This has
been happening, for example, in connection with
the land at the end of the runway at the
international airport at Montego Bay. Eyre notes
how this reflects the fact that within a context of
deregulation and neoliberalism, such land is now
wanted for lucrative commercial development.
CONCLUSION
Low-income housing is a topic of continuing
applied and practical importance, reflecting the
fact that adequate provision must be seen as a basic
human right (Chant 1996; Desai 1995). Research
has been, and needs to continue to be, pluralist in
nature. Empirical-cum-logical positivist
approaches are needed in so far as baseline studies
of housing conditions and housing change over
time will always be needed, in addition to studies
