Squatter settlements, also known as slums, are informal settlements that lack basic services and legal rights. They are typically located on the outskirts of urban areas. Issues associated with squatter settlements include loss of agricultural land, environmental hazards from waste and overcrowding, spread of diseases due to lack of sanitation, and barriers to education and gender equality without proper facilities. However, slums also provide important economic functions by employing many residents and contributing to local economies through informal businesses. Redevelopment efforts aim to address issues but must consider impacts to livelihoods.

1. Guiding questions
1. What are squatter settlements, and
where are they located?
2. What are the problems associated
with them?
3. Are they a symbol of failure of good
planning and leadership - is it always
a negative entity?

2. What are squatter settlements?
A group of individuals living under the same roof in an
urban area who
lack one or more of the following:
1. Durable housing of a permanent nature
2. Sufficient living space
3. Easy access to safe water in sufficient amounts
4. Access to adequate sanitation in the form of a private or public toilet
5. Legal rights to housing
- UN Habitat Definition

4. Where are squatters located?

5. Overview of problems
Env
Urban
overspills
Vulnerabilities
magnified by
slum’s interaction
with nat & mn
hazard
Social &
Wellbeing
Public
Health
Gender
Access to
Education
Economic
Employment
Formal –
Informal
Political
Securing
legal
housing
rights
Corporation -
Slum

6. Environment
Urban Overspills
Loss in arable
land
Man encroaching
into nature
Interaction with Natural &
Manmade hazard
Floods, Bad
Geology
Fire, Toxic Waste

7. Slums of Hanoi

8. Urban Overspill in Hanoi – Loss in
agriculture
Annual urban growth of 6% -> 41% of urban
population live in slums
– 9 million Vietnamese
Rapid land use change 
reduction in arable land in
peripheral areas of Hanoi (1/3
converted into built-up areas)
Peri-urban agriculture
contaminated by toxics
found in human and
animal manure.

9. Urban Overspill – whose encroachment
Man encroaching into
nature spaces
‘Invasion’ into ecological
sanctuaries
Tensions in Man – Nature
relationship
Nature’s response

10. Sanjay Gandhi National Park, Bombay

11. Environment
Urban Overspills
Loss in arable
land
Man encroaching
into nature
Natural & Manmade
hazards
Floods, Bad
Geology
Fire, Toxic Waste

12. Presence of slums aggravates natural and
manmade hazards

13. Manmade hazards
Tudor Shaft, Johannesburg
Previously, gold mining activities creates mining
waste (uranium rocks)  radioactive tailings
Radioactivity level x32times more than limit allowed
Enters groundwater and river system
Establishment of squatter settlements

16. Natural -
Bad Geology
‘Caracas Valley’, Venezula
Natural factors:
Unstable hillsides, seismically active valley
Establishment of informal settlements (human
activities) -> greater surface pressure
Destabilization of hill  Increase in major landslides
and slope failures

17. Natural –
Flooding

18. Flooding in Slums of Manila
Natural factors:
Increase in frequency of
tropical storms. Philippines
located at the Typhoon Belt
+ Pacific Ring of Fire
+
Interaction with squatters:
Garbage clogged
waterways. Crammed
alleyways.
= ?

19. Social &
Wellbeing
Public Health
Contamination
of resources
Spread of
Infectious
diseases
Clean
sanitation
Access to
education

20. Contamination of potable water
supply

21. Situation + Response
Kibera Slums, Nairobi
PRIVATISATION OF WATER
Privatization of water

25. Spread of vector borne & infectious
diseases

26. Diseases affecting squatter
settlements
1.Water-borne diseases - contamination of
water supply with raw sewage
2.Vector-borne infectious diseases -- living
environment & carried by hosts

30. Implications on gender equality

31. Lack of toilets & privacy  ?
Sanitation facilities in India
Lacking in
functional
common toilet
lacking in toilets
for girls
presence of
functional female
toilets

33. Link between sanitation facilities and
school drop outs
Lack of sanitation facilities -> inconvenience &
embarrassment
+
Religious Taboos  social stigmas
A taboo is defined as that which is “always seen as
symbolically dangerous or otherwise defiling” (Delaney
1976:4)

34. Importance of providing better sanitation facilities
Bridging the education gap 
• Economic benefits: increase in GDP,
higher labour force participation
• Social benefits: gender equality, good
family planning

35. Informal slum economy
• “Self-created special economic zone (SEZ)
for the poor”
• Exists outside government oversight, help
or encouragement
• “Every slum has its businesses. Every kind
of business is there in the slums.”
–Mr Mobin, Dharavi Millionaire
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Im0tHRs
9Bng

37. Dharavi, Mumbai
90% employment rates, 1 million
people
Lower crime rates than wealthier,
less dense areas
Annual economic output of $500
million

38. Dharavi Redevelopment Plan –
 
http://www.youtube.com/w
atch?v=f7y9WoGwJJI

39. Conference of the Parties
starring

40. Rakesh, 24
Leather Worker
US$65/month + US$11/month
Shares 2 rooms with 5 others

41. Arockia, 18
College student
Family income $196/month
Lives with 8 family members
over 2 floors

42. Vimla, 27
Domestic maid, Flower band
maker
Has 4 children
$22/month
Hut by railway tracks with no
toilet or water

43. Esakkiamal, 40
Housewife
Has 3 sons all of whom are
studying
Lives on 1 floor, rents out the
other for $11/month

44. Janjibhai, 45
Pottery worker
$260/month, no $ during monsoon
Stays with family of 5

45. Selvaraj, 46
Aircraft engineer for Jet Airways
$260/month
Lives in 1 room with wife & son

47. https://todaysmeet.com/DharaviSlum