Urban centres in less developed countries such as Tanzania have grown rapidly in recent days leading to various problems such as population explosion, the spread of diseases, scarcity of housing, and increase in crimes.
This post is going to outline some of the problems associated with rapid urbanization especially in developing countries like Kenya and Tanzania
The following are Problems faced by urban areas in Low developed countries
- The increased cost of living like paying for basic needs and necessities causing poverty.
- Pollution of air, water, and land because of wastes and sewage from industries, urban settlement and because of heavy traffic.
- Unemployment and underemployment especially the unskilled labour and uneducated people.
- Congestion in terms of traffic and housing hence delays and inconveniences.
- High crime rate and social problems like prostitution, robbery.
- Development of slums with poor living conditions like poor drainage, houses and ventilation, poor transport.
- High government expenditure on social services and infrastructure.
- Easy spread of diseases which are contagious like flu, cough.
- Environmental degradation because of deforestation, swamp reclamation through construction work.
- Poor drainage causing floods.
- Over exploitation of resources causing exhaustion of minerals, forests.
- Rural urban migration causing urban and rural problems.
- Change of cultures and traditions causing social problems.
- Limited land for expansion making land expensive.
- Poor social services because of the increased population with limited facilities.
- Encroachment of gazetted areas like national parks and game reserves.
- Presence of conflicts and tensions like strikes, demonstrations because of people being
Urbanization if not well supervised and planned can lead to problems as explained in the article above
the challenges of living in Mumbai
traffic congestion
rapid raise to 1.8 privately owned cars in Mumbai as people gain wealth and cars becomes affordable
slum settlements
these are inner-city suburbs making traveling to work cheaper.
Slum are not officially recognized.
in Dharavi, water is only available from the standpipe for two hours period each day
working conditions
most people living in Mumbai work in informal sector which means low pay, long working hours and dangerous working conditions.
these conditions exist due to extreme poverty, and the need for any work to earn wage
rapid expansion
due to high population there is a major strain on the infrastructure and services.
ensuring a reliable electric supply and adequate water supplies is difficult
no waste collection, remember 800 millions tonnes of untreated sewage is dumped in mith river
Do you have anything to add on the points above? Please free to add it on the comment section below
10 thoughts on “8 PROBLEMS FACED BY URBAN AREAS IN LOW DEVELOPED COUNTRIES”
Comments are closed.