The Means of Survival

Slums are created from a series of forces: rapid rural to urban migration, increasing urban poverty, decay in infrastructure, lack of secure tenure, etc. As a result, these people have nowhere to go and nowhere to live and thus squatters settle near urban dwellings creating slums. What is common among any slum is inadequate shelter and the lack of planning. There are alleyways between homes that are often places of violence and sewage is disposed of in the streets. The inevitability of the slum dweller and their lives are caused by the surroundings they live in. Improving housing is improving life by creating employment from building and maintenance to a safer community through the organizations and networks of people.

I have looked into shelter solutions that are currently in practice in organizations looking to improve living conditions or provide disaster relief.

sheltertheworld- funding shelters for the homeless around the world. They work with IADDIC shelters to build rigid class houses that only require 2 people to erect. They are resistant to rot, mold, fire, insects and are fully insulated. For more information visit IADDIC's main website.



Concrete Canvas Shelters- I found this product while watching and episode of daily planet. The shelter is described as a rapidly deployable hardened shelter that requires water and air to erect.



Water Shelter- Developed by Robert Nightingale. Designed for people in developing countries where floods are a common occurrence. It has been designed so users are self sufficient and target four major needs: shelter, water, product transport and information.

However, the solution cannot be solely put on adequate shelter. Survival also depends on other basic needs such as water. Clean drinking water is hard to find and in many parts of the world the demand for water exceeds the supply. Proper sanitation, filtration and storage must be considered as well and in a world with very few resources and technology, this is a huge obstacle to overcome.



Access to water is essential to life and overall well being. Early settlements have developed based on this need and the inability to find a source of portable water. Before the invention of clay pots and containers, people did not have the means to transport water from the rivers to their homes. Therefore, homes were situated right beside the water source to eliminate the issue of transport. In the modern age, we do not have the luxury of simply settling by the water and if we do it is often not safe to drink. As a result, water scarcity is a global problem but more so in the Third World. The United Nations Development Program estimate that 1.1 billion people lack safe water supply and even more do not have access to proper sanitation. The problem in many third world countries is not necessarily that they lack the sufficient resource of water but rather they lack the technology to extract and distribute it to their communities. Transportation of water through pipelines or trucks is often difficult because of poorly developed infrastructure.



Reach Out Water Solutions is an organization that helps in the supply of water to slum communities. They have created a efficient model that has worked in many projects.
Its seems that we are finding a trend among the many issues surrounding subsistence urbanity in that lack of transportation is impeding developing. Whether it is the transportation of resources to communities, people to their jobs or information from the world, transportation is the key to survival and growth. seems that we are finding a trend among the many issues surrounding subsistence urbanity in that lack of transportation is impeding developing. Whether it is the transportation of resources to communities, people to their jobs or information from the world, transportation is the key to survival and growth.



There is no doubt that investing in transportation can improve the overall situation of slum developments but careful considerations must be made to make the most of the few resources available. Many of these people rely on basic modes of transportation such as walking or cycling because they are too poor to afford motorized vehicles. In the past, much emphasis has been put on road construction to promote development in these areas. However, without any public transit put into place, roads were of no use to the poor as they were often displaced or had to revert back to the basic means of transport.

The implementation of a bus based mass transit system can benefit the poor which has been used in places such as Latin America. Operating costs were covered by passenger revenues , private owners covered the costs of buses and the construction and maintenance of infrastructure were publicly funded. In Bogota, Columbia, 37% of people who use the public mass transportation system are classified as poor and 47% are of middle income. Passengers saved $134 and 325 hours a year due to lower travel costs and shorter travel time. This system mainly benefits the lower income bracket and at the same time it is not heavily reliant on the wealthy to pick up the costs. Transportation can create employment opportunities through road construction and bus operation. Subsidizing bicycle ownership is another possibility in improving transport and could prove to be less costly than subsidizing road construction in slums. With improved transportation, time and money will be saved and therefore more income to flow back into the economy.

A physical network of roads, pipelines and various means of transportation link communities together but looking at a greater scale communications through a virtual network has the possibility of bringing the rich and the poor together creating a greater community working to improve the standard of living in the world as a whole. Many places are doing this already through the use of mobile phone services and the internet.



Companies such as GrameenPhone in Bangladesh have been practicing corporate social responsibility through programs to alleviate poverty. One of which is called Village Phone, allowing rural areas to have greater connectivity and has resulted in a consumer surplus for many of the people involved in their program. Village phones is an owner operated pay phone that generates money by selling this service to other villagers. This program is generally geared toward women to allow equal income earning opportunity which is quite rare otherwise. GrameenPhone's goal in their programs are to increase connectivity from urban to rural, spurring development and in the process provide employment and an overall easier way of living.

For more information visit GrameenPhone Official Site



Viva Favela is an organization that aims to reduce social inequality and giving a voice to people in the slums through the investment in information and communications technologies. Correspondents of Viva Favela are slum dwellers that act as reporters to show another slide of living that is not communicated in the media. Viva Favela challenges typical views and shows the potential of positive social change. This organization has helped find employment for youth and provides the latest health information to their communities.

Visit Viva Favela here

Connectivity is a huge factor in development and we must look beyond the traditional means to create a sustainable environment and promote growth in a subsistence world.

Divided City: Information Poverty in Nairobi's Slums

Bibliography

Brugmann, Jeb. Welcome to the Urban Revolution: How Cities Are Changing the World. New York: St Martins Pr, 2009.

"Corporate Social Responsibility ." Grameenphone Official site . http://www1.grameenphone.com/index.php?id=78 (accessed October 30, 2009).

Davis, Mike. Planet of Slums. New York: Verso, 2006.

"Iaddic Shelters." Rigid Shelter Solutions. http://www.iaddicshelters.com/urbanrenewal.php (accessed October 30, 2009).

Larson, Douglas. The Urban Cliff Revolution: New Findings on the Origins and Evolution of Human Habitats. Markham, Ontario: Fitzhenry and Whiteside, 2004.

"ReachoutWater." The Slum Water Program. http://reachoutwater.com/projects.html (accessed October 30, 2009).

"Shelter The World ." Shelter The World . http://www.sheltertheworld.com/index.html (accessed October 30, 2009).

United Nations Publications. "The Free Online Library." Divided City: Information Poverty in Nairobi's Slums.. http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Divided+City:+Information+Poverty+in+Nairobi%27s+Slums.-a0122092539 (accessed October 30, 2009).

"Viva Favela." An Inside Look at Viva Favela. http://www.vivafavela.com.br/publique/cgi/cgilua.exe/sys/start.htm?infoid=40489&sid=74 (accessed October 31, 2009).