May 27, 2013
Urban renewal has been on the front burner of the Lagos State Government but human settlement experts say the various efforts have not been very successful due to limited participation by slum dwellers, MAUREEN AZUH writes
Urban renewal or slum upgrade has for sometime been a major preoccupation of the Lagos State Government as part of the process of making the state a mega city of repute.
From the 1990s when the state government took over Maroko, it has extended its slum upgrade programme, which aims to increase access to basic urban services through investment in infrastructure, to other parts of the state, including Amukoko, Makoko, Ijeshatedo, Ilaje, Iwaya, Agege, Bariga, Ajegunle and Badia.
According to the United Nations Habitat Programme Manager for Nigeria, Mr. Kabir Yari, slum upgrade is a measure taken to improve the physical conditions of slum areas.
The interventions are usually in the provision of access roads, drainage channels, portable water and sanitation facilities, among others, aimed at improving the lives of residents.
Yari, a former President, Nigerian Institute of Town Planners, said, “The Millennium Development Goal 7, Target 11 is to improve the living conditions of 100 million slum dwellers by the year 2020.
“Slum upgrading has been very successful in many countries. In Africa, Tunisia, Egypt and Morocco for example, have eradicated slums in their countries. However, Nigeria and many other countries in sub-Saharan Africa have not been able to achieve this target.”
Like the mega city that it is, with a fast growing population, Lagos State took the challenge and began its urban renewal project in 2006 with a $200m credit facility from the World Bank, and a target termination date of 2013.
Within the period, there had been provision of boreholes, access roads and other amenities, but while physical planning experts commend the state for its efforts, they are of the opinion that the project has not been as successful as it should be.
Yari attributed the relative success of the urban renewal efforts to lack of proper planning.
He said, “The main reason for the problem is that there is no planning in the first instance. Currently, about 65 per cent of the urban population live in unplanned and informal settlements.
“Secondly, city authorities do not have the capacity to match population growth with the provision of serviced land, housing, roads and piped water supply. Lack of adequate maintenance has made many old parts of our cities to become unserviceable and the infrastructure already provided in a decaying situation.
“Lagos State has made significant gains in slum upgrading and this has changed the face of many neighbourhoods. But the problem is the interventions are not commensurate with the scale of the problem. However, the journey of one thousand miles begins with the first step.”
Another former President, NITP, Mr. Olubunmi Ajayi, said the issue of slums in Lagos had come a long way, right from the late 1970s and early 1980s, with 42 blighted areas recognised as far back as 1978.
“As of today, there are more than 100 blighted areas in Lagos. In fairness to the Lagos State Government, it has always recognised that it has to do something about slum upgrading and that is why right from a long time, it always had a department of urban renewal, which is now an agency under the Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development.
“But how successful has this been? The upgrading has been largely dependant on some foreign grants and loans, and in terms of approach, it has been faring well, but in terms of implementation, I think there is a shortfall because a number of projects have not been successful; so, I think in that area, there is need for improvement.”
According to Ajayi, the state government needs to galvanise resources that should be deployed on urban renewal.
“They can involve other bodies such as the Rotary Club in building boreholes or public toilets. They have not succeeded in giving enough information to the public for stakeholders to be able to invest in slum upgrading. They have always relied on foreign aids, that is one area they must do more work on,” Ajayi said.
According to the Vice-President, Association of Town Planning Consultants of Nigeria, Mr. Moses Ogunleye, lack of proper planning remains the main stumbling block to slum upgrade.
Ogunleye is of the opinion that before engaging in any upgrading, there ought to be a plan on what should be achieved, the likely problems to be encountered and how to tackle such problems.
He said, “I know there are plans to upgrade some slum areas and only a few have been implemented. Not many have been successful due to various reasons ranging from paucity of funds to communities not buying the idea, and then, residents becoming a threat because they are not sure of what government wants to do. Only a few have been successful.
“There have not been much of urban renewal though there have been some redevelopment like we have on the Island through the improvement of some roads. But in terms of taking up a community, apart from some work done in Badia recently in terms of saying there are blighted communities mapped out for regeneration, we have not had so many.”
Proper planning, according to the experts, must incorporate residents in the process and should lead to less eviction, which is the first thing slum dwellers try to resist when there are plans for upgrading their dwellings.
Yari said, “The new human rights approach to housing considers forced evictions as violations of fundamental human rights. If you involve the people in the planning of the upgrading process and they have ownership of the process, there will be no resistance.
“In fact, the people may even contribute from their meagre resources; after all, they invested their savings to build the existing houses.”
Ajayi opined that the state government could be more successful if it emphasised social participation as part of its planning process.
He said, “There are situations where some of the infrastructure to be provided will infringe on some buildings like if you want to introduce a road, some buildings will have to go. But it must not be massive eviction of people like it was done in Maroko.
“This is where the issue of social participation comes in; you must involve the people you want to upgrade. What are their priorities, what exactly do they want? Not some planners sitting somewhere and thinking that this is what they want.
“Generally all over the world, things are changing; there is more community engagement, I don’t think anybody will do upgrading now without asking the people. So, I think there should be more community engagement.”
Ajayi added that non-governmental organisations should also be involved in the process and allowed to invest in some of the projects.
Source: Punch
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