One of the most pressing problems in megacities is that of housing provision for the urban poor. In majority of the cases, these people do not have access to clean water, sanitation facilities, health care and waste disposal.
Based on the issues of the fictitious illegal housing settlement called Ibare in Lagos, Nigeria, the theme of the workshop was to develop strategies for megacities in their bid to have an urban development scheme that is acceptable to the various stakeholders involved.
The stakeholder teams in this workshop were:
1. Federal government officials
2. City planners
3. NGO/Community leaders
4. Social scientists/academics
5. UN habitat team
I was member of the social scientists / academics team and we were strongly pushing for the following points to be taken into account in the process of devising an urban development program:
1.The importance of involving the community (participatory approach). This can be
launched by arranging forums with the aid of NGOs who shall act like a bridge
between the community and the government officials.
2.The utilization of good quality building materials that is environmentally
friendly.
3.Housing schemes shall be compliant with the proper building standards.
4.Available land for residential purpose shall be properly administered by the .
government
Finally, a question for the government guys......
how far does it work to try to relocate a certain group of people to make way for developing the land? :)
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