Huge slum problems seen

Press, 20 August 1986, Page 25

Huge slum problems seen

NZPA-Reuter Geneva Most major Third World cities could be swamped by rural migrants and expanding slums by the year 2000 unless Governments tackle the problem immediately, the International Labour Organisation (1.L.0.) said. By the turn of the century just over 2.1 billion people would be crowded into ' these dwellings, mostly squatter settlements with no modern facilities or basic amenities, compared with about 972 million in 1980, an 1.L.0. study predicted. It said 70 major Third World cities had sizeable squatter communities. In 16 of these cities, between 21 and 30 per cent of the

population lived in slums. In 12 others the proportion was higher than 61 per cent. The study did not name the cities. An estimated SUSII6 billion ($229 billion) would be needed to provide these slum households with basic amenities by the year 2000 but even with limited resources developing countries could clean up their urban eyesores by getting the slum dwellers to build better homes for themselves, the 1.L.0. said. This would give work to unemployed, help to improve labour skills, reduce costs, and ease social unrest and economic misery.