Slum upgrading

Slum upgrading is an urban renewal strategy which consists of physical, social, economic, organizational and environmental improvements to slums undertaken cooperatively and locally among citizens, community groups, businesses and local authorities. The main objective of slum upgrading is to alleviate the poor living standards of slum dwellers. Many slums lack basic local authority services such as provision of safe drinking water, sanitation, wastewater and solid waste management. Slum upgrading is used mainly for projects inspired by or engaged by the World Bank and similar agencies. It is considered by the proponents a necessary and important component of urban development in the developing countries. However, many people do not believe that slum upgrading is successful. They point to the difficulties in providing the necessary resources either in a way that is beneficial to the slum-dwellers or in a way that has long-term effectiveness. Alternatives to slum upgrading include the construction of alternative tenements for people living in slums (rather than fixing the infrastructure itself) or the forced removal of slum dwellers from the land.

Slums have posed a huge problem for developing because they are by definition areas in which the inhabitants lack fundamental resources and capabilities such as adequate sanitation, improved water supply, durable housing or adequate living space. Many governments have tried to find solutions to the problem, and one of the proposed solutions is slum upgrading. Slum upgrading is essentially a strategy in which the infrastructure of a slum is improved, such as giving adequate water supply and sewage to the community. Additionally, because of the tenuous legal status of slum inhabitants, often strategies include the legalization of the right to the land on which slums are built.

The concept of slum upgrading, a strategy for the improvement in a slum's infrastructure, is one that has evolved out of a period of unprecedented urban growth since the mid-20th century. In fact, nearly two thirds of the population growth that has occurred in that time period has been in urban areas. Not only have we seen the growth of urban populations a whole, but the world has also seen phenomenal growth with regards to individual cities, including megacities (cities in excess of 8 million inhabitants) and hypercities (in excess of 20 million inhabitants). By 2015, the world will likely have 550 cities with a population greater than one million – an increase of 464 cities from 1950. Currently, only one city (Tokyo) has a population large enough to be considered a "hypercity." However, by 2025 Asia alone may have eleven of these cities.

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