EVOLVING A SUSTAINABLE ENVIRONMENTAL DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY

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.                                                                  2  

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,

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