Reading 8 Reading 1: understanding the general idea
A Look at the picture and answer the questions below. 1. Do you know the word for areas of large cities like this? 2. What characterizes these settlements? 3. What characterizes the people who live in these settlements and what sort of problems do they face?
4. Is simply clearing settlements like these a solution to the problems that exist in them?
B Read the text below and check your answers to the questions in Exercise A. Highlight key words and phrases that relate to the questions.
Slum Population Is Growing
The United Nations defines a slum as a run-down area of a city characterized by substandard housing and squalor. Residents have no security in terms of ownership of property. The term once referred to areas that were relatively affluent, but which deteriorated as the original dwellers moved on to newer and better parts of the city, but has come to include the vast settlements found in cities in the developing world.
The percentage of the developing world’s urban population living in slums reportedly dropped from 45% to 25% between 1990 and 2020; though, due to the rising population, especially in urban areas, the actual number of slum dwellers is rising. Three billion people worldwide will almost certainly live in slums by 2050.
Although their characteristics vary between geographic regions, slums are usually inhabited by the very poor or socially disadvantaged. Slum buildings vary from primitive shacks to more permanent, well-maintained structures. Most slums lack clean water, electricity, sanitation and other basic necessities. A lack of garbage collection may allow rubbish to accumulate while narrow alleys may not allow access to vehicles like ambulances and fire engines. On top of all this, informal settlements often face the brunt of natural disasters, such as earthquakes, landslides and tropical storms.
The people inhabiting slums are characterized by poverty, illiteracy and unemployment. They are commonly affected by social problems such as crime, drug addiction, alcoholism, high rates of mental illness and suicide. In poor countries, they are prone to high rates of disease due to unsanitary conditions, malnutrition and lack of basic health care. Many slum dwellers employ themselves in the informal economy, doing domestic work or street vending, but can often be drawn into drug dealing or prostitution. In some slums, people recycle trash, selling either the odd usable item or stripping goods for parts or raw materials.
Recent years have seen a dramatic growth in the number of slums as urban populations have increased in the developing world. An additional 50 million people have joined the world’s slums in just the past two years. The number of people living in slums in India has more than doubled in the past three decades and now exceeds the entire population of Britain. The number of people living in slums is projected to rise to well over 100 million by 2030, around 15% of the population.
Governments have attempted to solve the problems of slums by clearing old, substandard housing and replacing it with modern accommodation. The displacement of slums is made easy by the fact that many are squatter settlements and property rights are not a consideration. Critics argue that slum clearance ignores the root social problems and simply redistributes poverty. Where communities have been moved to newer housing, social cohesion can be lost. If the original community is moved back into newer housing after it has been built in the same location, residents of the new housing are still poor and powerless.
118 Pathway to IELTS 6.0
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