EVOLVING A SUSTAINABLE ENVIRONMENTAL DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY FOR POVERTY REDUCTION AMONG URBAN DWELLERS IN NIGERIA
Abstract
The environmental consists of
natural and built components. It is the vast domain comprising all the
characteristics of the living and non-living components of the natural world,
and the interaction between them that together support life on earth.
Its contribution to human welfare
is enormous, as it provides the goods (natural resources) and services
(ecosystem function) used for production, especially in the urban centres all
over the world. Urbanization is seemingly an unstoppable process which has
placed a great pressure on the Nigerian urban environment. With a peculiar demographic
history and unique urbanization trend, the country has got a dense network of
urban poverty. Any concerted effort to reduce urban poverty must understand
that the relationship between the environment and the economic process is a
reciprocal one.
As such, this paper will try to evolve a sustainable urban
environment development strategy that
could impact positively on the Nigerian urban poor through a proper
mobilization of the most important links between poverty, environment and
sustainable development.
1.0 Introduction
The environment consists of all the living and
non-living things that surround man. It is made up of two major aspects namely
the physical and non-physical. The physical environment consists of air, water,
land and the physical features such as hills, mountains, vegetation, etc. and
also climatic factors such as rainfall, temperature and humidity. The
non-physical aspect of the environment includes the social, political economic
and cultural dimensions of the
environment, among others.
The physical angle of the environment is of utmost
importance to man because that is the part of the environment where all his
social, political, economic, cultural, religious, and residential activities
among others take place. The physical environment supplies practically all of
man’s needs by way of providing him with all manner of natural resources. Man
also renders services in the environment as his own contribution towards the
maintenance of equilibrium in the ecosystem. The components of the physical
environment that concern the architect most are buildings and other facilities
or infrastructure, all of which are built to support the various activities of
man in the environment.
Urbanization gingers up the migration of man from the
rural to the urban areas in search of better conditions of life. Although
urbanization helps to create the built environment for man’s habitation, this
same process also consumes it. This is because as man gets disillusioned about
the better life in the township earlier hoped for, urban poverty sets in. This
results from poorly paid employment or joblessness which makes it impossible
for the urban dwellers so affected to meet the basic needs of life for self and
family. The end result is the resort to habitation in squalor settlements which
do not work in tandem with the natural and original beauty of the built
environment.
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This paper will try to proffer a sustainable
development strategy for the reduction of this nagging urban poverty through
the practical application of user-participation in problem solving by adopting
the integrated project methods mechanism
proposed by Nwanguma (2002)
2.0 Urbanization Trends in Africa.
The urban environment has been known to exist in Africa for a very long time. As Peil and Sada (1984) observed, urban settlements
have existed in tropical Africa for more than
2000 years. However, it was not until the twentieth century that the number and
size of cities grew quite significantly. That was as a result of the massive
influx of people into the urban areas following the liberation of many African
nations from colonial stranglehold. Ever since then, the population of the
urban centres in African countries, including Nigeria, has grown phenomenally.
The rapid rate of growth of the urban population has
been said to be one of the most striking features of the demographic shift
taking place in the world today. This is proved by the fact that in 1800, only
2% of the world’s population was urbanized. The figure rose to 30% in 1950 and
47% in 2000. It has been projected that by 2008, more than 50% of the world’s
population, of more than six billion persons, will be living in urban centres,
and 60% by the year 2030. (United
Nations, 1996). The urban population in developed countries has stabilized at
about 75% and is expected to rise to 84% by 2030.
On a comparative basis, however, it has been found that, although Africa had
only 37.3% of her population living in urban areas in 1999, yet, with a growth
rate of 4.8% per annum, Africa is the
continent with the fastest rate of urbanization in the world today. (United
Nations, 1996).
3.0 Urbanization Trends in Nigeria
Generally speaking, urbanization is the upgrading of
a rural area by the addition to it of the features that characterize city life
(Webster, 1995) The city may also be described as “a relatively large, dense
and permanent settlement of socially heterogeneous individuals”. (Wirth, 1938).
Although this definition has been challenged by several authors on the ground
that it is not all encompassing (Peil and Sada, 1984), this paper shall adopt
it because the paper will discuss urban poverty in terms of permanent urban
residents in Nigeria.
Having given a picture of what the urban setting could mean in Nigeria, it
will now be appropriate to discuss urbanization trends in Nigeria.
The rate of urbanization in Nigeria is
quite amazing, just as is the case in many other African nations. In the past
three decades, Nigerian’s urban population has been growing at a rate of almost
5.8% per annual. This figure is far
above the African growth average of 4.8%, and ranks among the highest urban
population growth rates in the world. [Department of Urban and Regional
Development (DURD), 2003].
According to the same report, in 1980, about 15% of
the total population of Nigeria
was living in urban centres of more than 20,000 inhabitants. The figure rose to
23.4% in 1975, and 43.3% in the year 2000. It is projected that by the year
2010, more than 50% of Nigeria’s
entire population will be living in the urban centres (DURD, 2003). In line
with this trend of rapid urban growth, Lagos
has already been named as one of the world’s mega cities – that is, cities with
a population of over 10 million inhabitants. It is expected that very soon,
other cities, such as Ibadan, Kano
and Port Harcourt
would join this league of mega cities. (United Nations, 1996).
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4.0 Nigerian Urban Dwellers
These are people who live permanently in Nigerian
urban centres; people who come from different backgrounds and ethnic origins.
Peil and Sada (1984) observed that the rapid growth of towns and urban centres
in Africa is largely due to the influx of
migrants from rural area, and elsewhere, who come in search of better economic
opportunities than they have at home. However, this argument is countered by
Donohue (1982) who reports that the United Nations studies in 1980 show that
61% of the urban population growth in developing countries (including Nigeria)
results from natural increase rather than migration, which accounts for only
39%. Indigenous inhabitants of the urban centres also constitute a part of the
urban dwellers.
In any case, the place of origin of the urban
dwellers is not as important as the consequences of unprecedented urban
agglomerations. In effect, the rapid urban population increase naturally
changes the social, political, and economic equations of the urban society.
5.0 Urbanization Problem in Nigeria.
Although Tolba (1984) stated that urban areas are
creators of wealth, the location for, and supporters of employment–generating
activities, as well as, agents of the social change necessary for development,
it is now clear that most urban centres in Nigeria are no longer capable of
meeting these socio-economic requirements to an acceptable level. Thus,
urbanization generates some problems in Nigeria. These problem will be
discussed in three dimension namely physical, social and economic structure. (Fadamiro
and Fadariro, 2000).
5.1 Physical Problems
The major physical problem encountered in Nigerian
urban centres is that of housing. The supply of housing and other ancillary
amenities, such as water, electricity, access roads, and waste disposal systems
are grossly inadequate to cope with the teeming urban population. The demand
for housing and other facilities, eventually degenerates to the proliferation
of shanty towns and squatter settlements in the urban areas which destroy the
natural beauty of the environment. Such urban slums may be seen at Ajegunle and
Mushin areas of Lagos
state, Ugwuagor and Obiagu areas of Enugu and
Gwange and Bulumkutu areas of Maiduguri.
5.2
Social
Problems
Many urban dwellers in Nigerian large cities such as Lagos, Port Harcourt, Enugu
Kano, Onitsha Kano, Aba and Abuja, among others, are constrained to live
in over-crowed, slum accommodations, under an excruciating high cost of living,
among other deprivations, all of which have a negative psychological impact on
them. The result is the high rate of turn-over of criminals among such
settlements. In such circumstances, even the attempt to maintain law and order
may be hampered due to the ruggedness and impassability of the terrain.
5.3
Problem of
Economic Structure
The massive influx into the urban centres also
results in unprecedented levels of unemployment, with swarms of employable
youths roaming the streets in form of area
boys or street urchins. This is because the few available jobs would not be
enough for all.
Joblessness may eventually lead to over-indebtedness,
uncomfortable economic dependence, lack of dignity and social freedom,
inability to provide the basic needs of life for self and family, lack of
access to good housing, land and credit, and inability to save and own assets.
The above scenario qualifies to be taken as a classical definition of a
situation of poverty. Thus we arrive at the issue of urban poverty.
6.0` Urban Poverty in Nigeria
Admittedly, the National Planning Commission, NPC,
(2004) recognizes that urban poverty in Nigeria ranges between 56% and 71%
depending on the locality in question. It also agrees that the main cause of
poverty in Nigeria
is inadequate economic growth. Other factors include problems in the productive
sector, income inequality, weak governance, social conflict, inter-sectoral and
environmental issues. (NPC, 2004). The limited growth of investment and technological
innovation has hampered the labour absorption capacity of the productive
sector, thus exacerbating poverty.
As stated earlier, the urban poor are constrained, by
lack of financial means, to live in slums and squatter settlements. These are
usually characterized by old, dilapidated, and overcrowded housing, lack of
safe drinking water, electricity or good sanitary conditions. There are also bad
roads and non-functional drainage systems.
In an environment like this, the urban poor is
exposed to further impoverishment by incurring expenses on medical treatment
for diseases resulting from the polluted and
unsafe environment. It is in this poor environment that the poor urban
dweller lives; it is there that his children go to school; it is there that he
fulfills his religious obligations; it is there that he socializes; it is there
that his poverty is manifestly expressed and noticed!
6.0
Sustainable
Development Strategy
The concept of sustainable development connotes the
issue of carrying out a development strategy that will satisfy present needs
without compromising those of the future. In the New Thrust in Sustainable
Human Settlements Development in Nigeria, the Federal Government revised the National Urban Development and
National Housing Policies in line with the modern requirements for promoting
sustainable urban development and social order to include citizens’ participation
in decision making and programme implementation, monitoring and evaluation
noting that such a scenario would promote confidence in governance and
facilitate inclusion in national development. (FMHUD, 2003).
Government went further to roll out some programmes
including:
(a)
The National Sites and Services Programme
(b)
The Infrastructure Development Fund (IDF) Project.
(c)
The Urban Renewal and Slum Upgrading
Programme
(d)
The Urban Basic Services (UBS) Programme.
(e)
The Community Based Urban Development Programme.
The main reason for rolling out these programmes is
to ensure adequate provision of low-income housing delivery and improve the
conditions of health of urban dwellers, as well as that of the environment, all
geared towards the reduction of urban poverty.
It should be noted that most of these programmes are
well intentioned, but may not actually lead to the actual solution of the
problem at hand as a result of official corruption and programme inexactitude.
This paper, therefore, advocates the adoption of the Community Based Urban
Development Programme from among the rest. This is because it comes closest to
our assumed position of integrated project approach solution.
The combination of theCommunity Based Urban
Development Programme and the integrated project method will ensure proper and
cost effective housing delivery. This is because there will be proper consultation
with and participation of the users of the end products – housing and
environment – in the planning and development of the facilities. It will not be
appropriate to provide a one-bedroom flat where a two-room tenement structure
is more appropriate The construction of the facilities may be cheaper because
of the possibility of the use of communal help.
In conclusion, it is our view that if urban dwellers
are properly involved in the plans to enhance their living environments, and
architects adopt first principles in arriving at design solutions for the
project, then the quest for sustainable development for poverty reduction would
have been achieved in Nigerian urban centres.
7.0 Recommendation
With the idea of integrated project in mind, we wish to make recommendations as follows:
(a)
Government should provide a proper enabling environment to ensure the
full participation of all concerned in housing delivery programmes;
(b)
Students of architecture should be properly schooled in the integrated
project system of housing delivery so as to create more avenues for proper
research in architectural education.
REFERENCES
Department of Urban & Regional Development,DURD, (2003). Sustainable
Human Settlements Development in Nigeria: National Urban Strategies.
Federal Ministry of Housing and Urban
Development, Abuja, Nigeria.
Donohue, J. J, (1982). ‘Some Facts and Figures on
Urbanization in the Developing World’ .Assignment Children Journal,57/58,
UNICEF, Switzerland.
Fadamiro, J.A. and Fadairo, G. (2000). ‘The Persistent
Urbanization Problems in Nigeria:
A Challenge for Architects’. AARCHES Journal,Vol. 1, No. 5, p.101.
National Planning Commission (2004). National Economic
Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS), Abuja, Nigeria.
Nwanguma, E. O.(2002). ‘The Integrated Project Method: A
Veritable Tool for Educating Future Architects in Nigeria’. AARCHES Journal, Vol. 2,
No. 2, p.65 – 67.
Peil, M. and Sada, P. O. (1984). African Urban Society. John
Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Tolba, M. K. (1984) ‘Poverty too Close to Home:One Home, One
Earth’. Habitat 7.
United Nations (1996). ‘World Urbanization Prospects’.
Webster. N. (1995). The New Webster’s Dictionary of the
English Language (International
Edition). Lexicon Publications Inc., USA.
Wirth, L.(1938) ‘Urbanism as a Way of Life’. American
Journal of Sociology, 44,
pp.1-24.
