A/42/427
English
Page 239
Given the distribution of incomes. given the foreseeable availability of resources national. local, and worldwide given present technology, and given the present weakness of local government and the lack of interest of national governments in settlement problems, I don't see any solution for the Third World city.
Third World cities are and they will increasingly become centres of competition for a plot to be invaded where you can build a shelter, for a room to rent, for a bed in a hospital, for a seat in a school or in a bus, essentially for the fewer stable adequately paid jobs, even for the space in a square or on a sidewalk where you can display and sell your merchandise, on which so many households depend.
The people themselves organize and help construct most new housing units in Third World cities and they do so without the assistance from architects. planners, and engineers, nor from local or national governments. Furthermore, in many cases, national and local governments are frequently harassing these groups. The people themselves are becoming increasingly the true builders and designers of Third World cities and quite often the managers of their own districts.
George Hardof
International Institute for
Environment and Development
WCED Public Hearing
Sac Paulo, 28/29 Oct 1985
overcrowded and overused, as are roads, buses and trains, transport stations. public latrines, and washing points. Water supply systems leak, and the resulting low water pressure allows sewage to seep into drinking water. A large proportion of the city's population often has no piped water, storm drainage, or roads.[1]
11. A growing number of the urban poor suffer from a high incidence of diseases; most are environmentally based and could be prevented or dramatically reduced through relatively small investments. (See Box 9–2.) Acute respiratory diseases, tuberculosis, intestinal parasites, and diseases linked to poor sanitation and contaminated drinking water (diarrhoea, dysentery, hepatitis, and typhoid) are usually endemic: they are one of the major causes of illness and death, especially among children. In parts of many cities, poor people can expect to see one in four of their children die of serious malnutrition before the age of five. or one adult in two suffering intestinal worms or serious respiratory infections.[2]
12. Air and water pollution might be assumed to be less pressing in Third World cities because of lower levels of industrial development. But in fact hundreds of such cities have high concentrations of industry. Air, water, noise. and solid waste pollution problems have increased rapidly and can have dramatic impacts on the life and health of city inhabitants, on their economy, and on jobs. Even in a relatively small city,
- ↑ J.E. Hardoy and D. Satterthwaite. 'Shelter: Need and Response; Housing, Land and Settlement Policies in Seventeen Third World Nations' (Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, 1981). For the situation in Sao Paulo, see Jorge Wilheim, 'Sao Paulo: Environmental Problems of the Growing Metropolis', submitted to WCED Public Hearings, Sao Paulo, 1985.
- ↑ J.E. Hardoy and D. Satterthwaite, 'Third World Cities and the Environment of Poverty', Geoforum, Vol. 15, No. 3, 1984. See also World Social Prospects Association. The Urban Tragedy (Geneva: UNITAR, 1986).
