Clarissa Campos
Ms. Jaegar
World Geography (Section 3)
8 November 2011
8 November 2011
Life in the Slums: World Problem
In the near future by 2030, about a fourth of the World’s estimated 8.1 billion will end up living in slums. The rapid growing population the world is expecting in the future will cause an expeditious growth in slums. A slum is a run-down area of a city characterized by poor housing and lack of security. The existence of slums affect human populations around the world by being enormously populated, unhygienic, and having a lack of resources that meet human needs. One-way slums are utterly inhabitable is the fact that there is not enough space causing slums to be overly populated.
Undoubtedly, slums contain so much people that the percentage is rising 7 billion by the decade. Nil Blythe states, “Mumbai – according to the UN – has a population of 19 million. And the UN forecasts that total will rise to more than 26 million by 2025.” (Blythe 3) Slums are enclosed with people crowded together unable to travel around. Slums rising population can cause many future problems to the human population. Even though a vast population leads to fewer resources, it also leads to an unhygienic lifestyle.
In addition, slums are very unsanitary usually obtaining dangerous chemicals and litter, which can cause sickness or death. Sheri Fink states, “The foul river carries not just sewage, but also chemicals from farming estates outside the slum. It’s littered with refuse, too: plastic bags, glass bottles.” (Fink 2) Due to the filthy unhygienic lifestyle of these disadvantaged people are living in many people soon die of sickly diseases Slums are unsanitary because of many different reasons varying from grimy sewage rivers to “flying toilets.” While slums are unsanitary, they also lack the resources that meet human needs.
As the last point, slums lack resources that meet human needs due to the massive overpopulating of slums. Sheri Fink states, “They make toys out of simple objects: A string of audiotape tied to a stick. A plastic hanger passed back and forth through a wooden gate.” (Fink 2) Based on this quote it shows life in slums and the simple resources that do not meet human standards. Slums have very few resources that help people live their life like everybody else in the world. Through all of these problems, the existences of slums affect human populations.
Lastly, in the near future by 2030 about a fourth of the World’s estimated 8.1 billion will end up living in slums. In conclusion, the existence of slums affect human populations around the world by being enormously populated, unhygienic, and having a lack of resources that meet human needs. With more population, the forceful request for resources becomes greater, creating more unsanitary litter and pollution to the environment. The earth can only take so much population, pollution, and resources soon there might be nothing left to depend on.
Works Cited
Blythe, Nils. “Mumbai’s slum life poses world problems.” BBC News Online. 29 Sept 2011. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/>.
Eaves, Elisabeth. “Two Billion Slum Dwellers.” 6 Nov. 2006. 29 Sept. 2011. <http://www.forbes.com/>.
Fink, Sheri. “Cities of the Poor I: Life in the Slums (Kenya).” Public Radio International: The World. 29 Sept. 2011. <http://www.theworld.org/>.
“Urbanization.” World Geography: Understanding a Changing World. 29 Sept. 2011. <http://worldgeography.ab-clio.com/>.
