Urbanization in the Third World and Its Effect on the Environment and the Poor

Running head : Urbanization in Third World Countries

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Urbanization in Third World Countries

Introduction

The third world countries include many countries in Africa , Asia and Latin America , which have rapidly urbanized in the last half-decade as result of rapid industrialization . This industrial revolution has been fueled by their interaction with the developed nations from which they get capital , technology , expertise and machinery (K Parthasarathi

From 1950 the proportion of people living in urban areas has more than doubled to around 1 .3

billion , which is about 36 percent of the world population . Around a half of these people living in such towns and cities came from rural areas and settled in slums and squatter settlement that are highly overpopulated . This rapid rural -urban migration has caused the shanties and slum areas to grow faster than other zones of the town and even faster than the rate of growth of employment infrastructure and essential services (Chrisna du

. and Kaixun S

The rapid urbanization in third world countries has been associated to a number of costs to the environment and the poor people living in the slums and shanties . Studies in several large cities in the Third World large have shown that malnutrition and mortality of children below the age of five years are some of the problems encountered by people in such areas (UNDP

To understand the situation of rapid urbanization in the third world countries it is important that we look at its effects on the environment and the poor in details

Negative effects of urbanization to environment

The fumes from vehicles and trains as well as numerous industries that are located in the large cities of developing counties have caused devastating effect on the environment . Some of the gases such as carbon monoxide and sulphur dioxide that the factories and vehicle produce have resulted to increase of respiratory diseases in people living in towns (Rees , W 1992

Some of these gases from the industries have led to degradation of the ozone layer of the atmosphere resulting to more radioactive rays finding their way to the surface of the earth . The wearing away of the ozone layer of the atmosphere has contributed to global warming desertification and increase in skin diseases (Rees , W 1992

Noise is also a major cause of concern for people living near industries or busy highways in cities of Third World countries . Exposure of people living in noisy environment causes complications such as , hearing malfunction , and hypertension , disturbed sleeping patterns as well as poor school performance . Scientists have also associated noise to birth defects and low immunity prevalent in such areas (Bartone , Carl . 1991

The dumping of wastes such as household rubbish , solid wastes and sludge affects capacity of soil to support life . The land bing large industries have become unproductive as a result of wastes that have been dumped in such areas . These chemicals destroy small living organism that are important contents of the soil . These wastes further increase the...