2.2 THE INNER CITY ENVIRONMENT
2.2.3 Exponential Population Growth and the Creation of the Dual City
29 | P a g e like the modern baroque carriage which separated the then power elite from the powerless people.
Figure 2.8: Image of highways, which portray the entrance to modern day New York City, showing how it is designed for vehicles to enter, without consideration of life. (http://blogs.reuters.com)
CONCEPTUALIZING A NURTURING INNER CITY ENVIRONMENT INFORMED BY THE N EEDS OF STREET LIVING:
Towards a multipurpose dream centre for the pavement dwellers of the Durban CBD.
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30 | P a g e An understanding of the history of the western city offers insight into the current rapid economic growth, population explosion and the rapid urbanization in the world. Preston & Williamson articulate the parallel process between western urbanization of yesteryear and the Third World urbanization of today as follows: “The rise of urbanization in the aggregated Third World is broadly comparable to the same process in the West over a century ago. What is unusual is the absolute increments of the Developing World urban populations, which clearly exceed any historical precedent. By the best accounts, urban population increase in developing countries is roughly double that experienced in the West at comparable levels of development.” (Preston &
Williamson in Kasadra & Crenshaw,1994: 68).
This rapid urbanization takes place as yet another population layer within the structure of existing developing cities. This growth includes the large rural to city migration which continues in the world today: “People don’t leave their farms for work in the city but rather there is no work on the farms so they have no choice but to go in search of work in the city” (Dessai, 1995:
157). The UN projects that in the forty years between 2010 and 2050 the current urban population which is over fifty percentage of the world's population (3.5 billion people) will have grown to seventy-five percent of the total population (UN Projection Report: 2012). This growth places the cities' built environment under increasing pressures. Hardoy & Satterthwatte (1989) argue that the developing world accounts for two thirds of the world's new urbanites.These mushrooming developing world cities tend to be organized and planned for the formal dwellers;
and thus the planning overlooks the urban slum dwellers who account for thirty three percent of the world's urban population. This dispossessed group is left to create their own informal strategies for survival.
The growing gap between the haves and have-nots in a polarized city is between the poles of:
economic opportunity and economic misery, office workers and informal street traders, quality education and shoddy education, comprehensive health care and trusting in the elements, fashion oriented world and survival mode, formal housing and pavement dwellers, cars and unaffordable
31 | P a g e public transport, adequate water and sanitation and the need to search for water and a toilet space behind a vacant lot, the day time bustle and the night time desolation (DeFazio, 2002:1).
This polarization is referred to in the literature as the dual city: the dual city separates those who have access to their constitutional rights as citizens from those who are busy surviving.
Pertinent example of the Dual city: Dhaka
Dhaka is selected as an example of a dual city because of its extreme polarity between the haves and have-nots. The attraction of job seekers to the promise of a better life in the city exacerbates the existing social divisions in the city. Notwithstanding this growing duality the city remains attractive when compared to the traditional subsistence of rural life. The example of Dhaka as a dual city outlines the real challenges facing pavement dwellers who find themselves in the urban category of the poorest of the poor.
Figure 2.9: Dhaka characterized by disparities in wealth and status with a trend towards increasing social inequality, slum dwellers on the one side of the river and large buildings on the other (http://bp.blogspot.com)
Dhaka is the largest urban area of Bangladesh with an estimated 20% (26 million people) of the country's 130 million people (UN-HABITAT, 2005:13). Over the last three decades the Bangladesh urban population has shown a 6% growth rate in contrast to the combined national growth rate of 1.5% (Perry et al cited in Uddin et al, 2007: 386).
CONCEPTUALIZING A NURTURING INNER CITY ENVIRONMENT INFORMED BY THE N EEDS OF STREET LIVING:
Towards a multipurpose dream centre for the pavement dwellers of the Durban CBD.
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32 | P a g e The reasons for Dhaka's rapid population is the attraction to the city for work, shopping, business opportunities, basic services, the big city lights and the expectation that their needs can be met.
Furthermore, Dhaka is the prime economic centre of Bangladesh and its own economic development, through the private sector and government intervention programmes, has been a catalyst for increased rural to urban migration. Because of the increased number of people battling poverty in Dhaka, its socio-economic issues have become the focus of policy in Bangladesh (Islam et al. 1997: 265).
Research has shown that Dhaka's pavement dwellers, who are estimated to be 14,999 (BBS:
1999: 191), are excluded from state support and are among the most deprived people in urban areas in terms of access to housing, education, employment, sanitation and health (NIPORT 1994, Thwin & Jahan 1996, Alamgir et al. 2000, Ray et al. 2001, NIPORT 2004).
Figure 2.10: Image of the dual city Dhaka inhabitants struggling to make a living. (http://bp.blogspot.com)
The formal property and housing markets in the cities in Bangladesh are small and because of this the informal sector has played a major role in the supply of housing needs for the urban low income population. (Ghafur, 2002: 7). The extreme poverty of Dhaka's pavement dwellers may be assessed in terms of their inability to afford the rentals of a shack or shelter in this informal housing sector. The pavement dweller is thus faced with a life without shelter and without regular employment. Their lack of skills compounds a state of poverty and further hinders their ability to improve their circumstances. The pavement dweller is the poorest of the poor and has
33 | P a g e fewer income earning opportunities, which are lower-paid when they are available, than those available to squatters and slum-dwellers (Ghafur, 2002: 7).