REASONS FOR URBAN RENEWAL

INTRODUCTION

Urban renewal is a process of re-ordering the physical structures of dilapidated parts of urban settlement. It is also a conscious attempt to alter urban environment by a deliberate and large scale adjustment of an existing city area in order to meet up with the current and future needs of urban life. It can also be regarded as a means of replacing the various degrees of
obsolescent, decayed congested buildings which are the characteristics of slum areas with relative convenience and greater efficiency, all with the general framework of an overall plan
for the city development. The need for urban renewal is to adjust and provide needed social
facilities and physical structures such as residential, public buildings and other social amenities to make life conducive for the inhabitants.

 OBJECTIVES

The objectives of this unit are:

1. Highlight the reasons for urban renewal.
2. Justify the need for making life conducive for inhabitants. 

Reasons for urban renewal

The reasons for urban renewal include the following:

1. The nature of traditional cities: There are cases of Nigerian traditional cities such as Lagos, Ibadan, Benin, Kano, Enugu, Abeokuta, Ile-Ife, and Osogbo which are very notorious. Their pattern gave way to rapid development of slums, which can be summarized into physical and socio-economical characteristics. Core areas of the cities in the country are characterized by lack of planning, overcrowding, sub-standard and obsolescent building structures, accessibility problems, notorious rural landscape and unhealthy environment. The areas are also dominated by mixture of semi-dilapidated compound buildings and obsolescent one-storey buildings. Slums do not occur by chance or accidentally, but through socio-economic antecedence. That is the reason why their residential areas, which are usually located in the city centre, demonstrate the image of an unkempt village, shanty town, unhealthy and squalid environment. Also, characterizing the city core areas are poor sanitation, environmental neglect and lack of adherence to basic hygienic codes.Socio-economic activities of the people in the city may result into two types of slum according to Charles Abraham. These are slums of hope and slums of despair. Slums of hope are places in the cities occupied by people who have socio-cultural and socio-economic attachments to the place. The occupants are indigenes with strong family, historical and emotional ties: for example, burial places, shrines, and local markets that they easily identified with, and believe that protecting them is an allegiance they owe. Therefore, any attempt to relocate them will be rebuffed, as it will be interpreted as an attempt to send them to exile. Their hope solely remains in slums. Nothing can attract them to move out of their dirty environment. On the other hand, slums of despair are the type of city core areas occupied by people who usually are criminals of varying types and are involved in all forms of vices and evils. The slums of despair are hide out where all sorts of crimes thrive and are also breeding grounds for criminals. They are unsafe and children born in them are already jinxed. In particular, it is the kingdom of hopeless people who strive in abject poverty. 
2. Demographic factors: Population growths of city core areas are very dynamic and not predictable. The demographic increase is caused by two factors. First is natural increase and second is from high rate of rural-urban migration. The rate at which the population is growing far exceeds the rate at which physical infrastructure, social services and facilities, employment opportunities and housing are provided. Also, very large proportion of the population is under-aged, which has resulted in high dependent ratio. The presence of large number of dependent today in urban centres contributes immensely to the vicious circle of poverty, which keeps per capita income too low for any meaningful investments such as self-help housing provision. Similarly, extended family, which dominates some Nigerian cities, creates great burden on the working groups, thereby reducing attention on housing provision and maintenance.
3. Economic factors: The present economic problem in the country is a universal phenomenon, which dominates African sub-regions. Every man deserves good housing; abject poverty has become a major obstacle in achieving this desire. This resulted in poor housing development and poor environmental condition which is the consequence of demographic dynamism discussed earlier. 
4. Inadequate urban planning: Despite the high rate of urbanization and population growth of many Nigerian cities, housing and planning are not receiving adequate attention. Public participation is very low and rudimentary, resulting from inadequate awareness on urban planning, and low level of education among the inhabitants. Based on the problem of political instability, no meaningful planning scheme could be carried out by the government. The legal instrument of planning in the country are not amended frequently to accommodate environmental and development changes. The planning authorities are not adequately equipped to carry out their functions. Due to the nature of slums environment, it is characterized by such problems affecting physical-aesthetic, economic, infrastructure, social, housing and administrative. 

SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE 1

Mention the reasons for urban renewal.

The need for making life conducive for inhabitants.

The steady deterioration in the quality of urban environment occasioned by increasing urbanization was identified to be having adverse effect on the urban poor. Through social surveys, it was discovered that the location of lower income that is urban poor is the slum, where 40-50 percent are living below the poverty line. Kundu (1993) observed that approximately 34% of the urban poor in India are not covered by piped water supply and are obliged to obtain water from sources that are mostly private and at a cost higher than that of the piped supply. Nigeria has more than this percentage. For instance, Lagos has up to 55% of its urbanized area without piped water supply.

The city core areas have poor sanitation, environmental neglect and lack of adherence to basic hygienic codes. The state of the slums affects the health, socio-economic development of the area and the future of the children raised in the area. The productivity of the working class living in the slums is also affected. In addition, the slum development affects the real estate assets of the country directly and indirectly. The adjoining areas property values may be affected.

The projects of slum improvements were designed to provide environmental improvements, community development and community health initiatives that are lacking as linked interventions in the slum areas. The projects should be modeled in the same basic package of assistance covering:

1. Infrastructure improvement: roads, drains, water, sanitation, street lighting and community halls 
2. Health improvement: promotional and preventive via maternal child health clinics, health awareness and health volunteers
3. Educational development: preschool, non-formal education, legal literacy and adult literacy; 
4. Community development: institutional building, gender awareness raising, vocational training, and economic support. 

SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE 2

Justify the need for the government to ensure conducive living environment for the inhabitants in every community.

CONCLUSION

It can be concluded that this unit exposed you to the need for improving the slums by providing the necessary infrastructure and other basic facilities for better quality of lives.

 SUMMARY

The reasons for urban renewal were discussed in this unit and the justification for it was also addressed. The reasons provide the bases for government intervention in order to meet the needs and the well-being of all in the society.