UN-Habitat warns Asia of urban slum problem

UN-Habitat warns Asia of urban slum problem

P. Parameswaran, Agence France-Presse, Manila

The United Nations warned Asian governments on Friday to swiftly control the growth of urban slums as mega cities continue to mushroom in the region.

"Unless you do something about this situation, it will get worse," said Anna Tibaijuka, the executive director of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat).

UN-Habitat was elevated into a fully fledged UN program by the world body's general assembly to tackle the explosive problem of urban slums, particularly in developing countries.

Tibaijuka said in an interview with AFP here that slum dwellers make up 30 to 40 percent of Asia's urban population, warning that the problem was getting worse with the growth of mega cities in the region.

Mega cities are those housing more than 10 million people.

"Asia at present has the world largest number of megacities and the trend is, this seems to be on the increase, and when cities have such kinds of (population) numbers, their management becomes more difficult," Tibaijuka explained.

In 2000, 12 of the world's 19 mega cities were in Asia, comprising Tokyo, Bombay, Calcutta, Shanghai, Dhaka, Karachi, Delhi, Jakarta, Osaka, Metro Manila, Beijing and Cairo.

The UN-Habitat projects the region would have 15 of the 23 mega cities in 2015, with the inclusion of Bangkok, Hyderabad and Tianjin.

Tibaijuka urged Asian governments to "redouble their efforts" to cope with the rapid growth of urban slums fueled by rural- urban migration and rising population, among other factors.

Governments could, for example, nip the problem in the bud by decentralizing development to regulate the rural-urban migration.

"The good thing about Asia is the role of civil society, which is picking up," Tibaijuka said.

Some city mayors are gradually empowering the poor by providing them land, housing, education, water and sanitation and other basic facilities, she said.

The UN-Habitat says in a report that households in cities of Asia's developing countries need an average of eight times their annual income to buy a house. Real estate costs are the highest in Asia.

Even for water, Tibaijuka said, the urban poor paid much higher prices than others because they were not connected to municipal supplies, which were normally subsidized.

"We need to accept the urban poor as an asset rather than a liability. By improving their lot, for example, we are indeed increasing purchasing power and therefore increasing incomes in central business districts," she said.

The UN-Habitat projects that by 2030, Asia and Africa will both have higher numbers of urban dwellers that any other major areas of the world.

Tibaijuka was in Manila to launch a so-called "secure tenure campaign," in which efforts would be stepped up to involve the urban poor in local governance and for them to have equal access to socio-economic privileges.

There are nine million urban slum dwellers in the Philippines amongst the country's 80 million population, of which 50 percent live in cities.

The Philippines is urbanizing at an annual pace of four percent, slightly higher than the regional urban growth rate of 3.7 percent, with its population growing at a relatively high rate of 2.36 percent.