finall draffffffffffffffft

Karla Rodriguez

October 29, 2011

World Geography

Negative Effects of Slums

 Slums have a major negative impact on countries all around the world. They are heavily populated rural areas that are cheap to live in but are unsafe. The crime rates are high and they are very dirty. Many are hidden by their governments because they are ashamed of how disturbing they look, by this the trash, the over layering of houses, and the condition that people live in. Three negative effects that slums have on human populations are that they are rapidly growing, can help contribute to global warming, and have a high percentage of people that live in poverty. Slums affect not just the people living in them but around them because they grow rapidly.  

Although slums are cheap and very open to new people they grow rapidly endangering surrounding civilization. "The neighborhood, Dharavi (a slum), is home to about 600,000 people crammed into one square mile"(source 4). This area is super small for that amount of people; this means that all the houses are small, really close to each other, if not on top of each other. In an area so close with so many, sanitation is a big problem.  The people living in slums are great contributors to unsanitary and over use of natural resources.

       Therefore the unsanitary conditions are helping lead to global warming. The slums have a lot trash everywhere and bad smells. "There are public toilets and water taps, but poor sanitation with open sewers along the alleyways," (source 3).
That means that now there is no water since it can be contaminated in that place which creates another problem.  It does not rain because the water cannot condense therefore there is no water for the plants either. If the plants cannot grow then the CO2 of all the people is just roaming around allowing sun raise to enter. This is also a great contributor to why the poverty is so high.

Finally the last effect is that it has high poverty problems. Due to the fact that most people have no income the economy is very low, meaning that they cannot afford good sanitation conditions. "And a muddy swamp of plastic bags obstructs the entrance to the latrine. It's a collection of what's known in a slum vernacular as "flying toilets" - flinsy bags filled with human waste," (source2). Also in source 4 its says that most people living there do not have legal papers so that means that at any point the government can just take their land away. Poverty happens when there is a lack of necessary items, needed items, food shelter clothing and sanitary living. This people living in slums lack most of the necessary things. Poverty has a lot of effects on the country and its government.

         In conclusion Slums have a major negative impact on countries all around the world. Slums negatively affect the world by rapidly growing, contributing to global warming, and having a high percentage of people that live in poverty. The slums grow each year because people cannot afford to live in the cities, there is a lot of sanitary problems contributing to global warming and a lot of people live without the necessary every day materials. When will this ever change?

Works cited

Source One

“World Geography: Understanding a Changing World.” 2011. http://worldgeography.abc-cllo.com/search/display/1095691?terms=slums.

Source Two

Fink, Sheri. “Public Radio International :The World”. December, 2006. http://www.theworld.org/node/6669.

Souce Three

Blyth, Nils. Business correspondent, BBC news, Mumbai, India. Tuesday 26 February,2008. <http:// news.bbc.co.uk/2/HI business/7265333.stm>.

Source Four

Eaves, Elizabeth.  Two billion Slum Dwellers.  6 Novembe,2006. http://www.forbes.com/2007/06/11/thirdworldslums-biz-ex_21cities_ee_0611slums.html.