This document discusses environmental issues related to urban poverty. It covers five dimensions of urban poverty: income, health, education, security, and empowerment. It also examines how pollution, lack of sanitation and natural disasters affect the health of urban poor populations. The document provides frameworks for understanding the relationship between urban poverty and environmental problems. It explores strategies for governments, private sectors and other actors to improve environmental conditions and reduce the impacts of environmental hazards on vulnerable urban communities.

1. Environmental issues in the
context of Urban Poverty
Mahtab Alam
Ali Abbas Rizvi
International Institute For population Sciences,
Mumbai 400088
M.Sc(Biostatistics & Demography)
2018-20

2. INTRODUCTION

3. Understanding Urban Poverty
Frameworks for urban
poverty can be set out
into five dimensions:
• income/consumption
• health
• education
• Security
• empowerment

4. Cumulative Impacts of Urban Poverty

5. poverty and vulnerability can be related to three distinctive
characteristics of urban life:
commoditization
environmental
hazard
social
fragmentation

6. Schematic Representation of Dimensions of Poverty

7. The environment issues involve:
• Understanding the extent to which the
poor depend on natural resources for their
livelihoods and where and how those
natural resources are being degraded
• Examining the livelihood strategies poor
people use to cope with shocks and crises
• Looking at what sorts of institutions
mediate entitlements to various assets and
common property resources

8. The environment issues involve:
•Analyzing how pollution and other
environmental factors (dirty drinking
water, dirty air, lack of sanitation)
affect the health of the poor
•Estimating the ways in which the
poor are vulnerable to natural
shocks or disasters (droughts,
floods, earthquakes, etc.)

9. Is urban poverty a cause or consequence of environmental
problems?
 Urban poor groups use few non-renewable
resources.
 Urban poor groups generally have low levels of
use for renewable resources
 Urban poor groups generate much lower levels
of waste per person than middle- or upper-
income groups.
 Low-income urban dwellers have, on average,
very low levels of greenhouse gas emissions per
person.

10. Framework of Action

11. HUMAN ACTIVITIES IMPACTS/CAUSES STRATEGIES
RAPID URBAN GROWTH
Rapid uncontrolled growth of
urban areas, particularly low
income.
INSUFFICIENT LAND AND
HOUSING SUPPLY.
Poorly functioning urban land
and housing market
Lack of affordable housing for
poor.
PROPERTY RIGHTS
Introduce affordable standards
and target subsidies to the poor
.
RAPID DEMAND FOR
SERVICES
Rapid increase of demand for
services as:
water supply ,sanitation,
drainage and transport both
in quantity and quality
ENVIRONMENTAL
INFRASTRUCTURE AND
SERVICES
Domination of supply by
government monopoly
DEMAND MANAGEMENT
Move toward decentralization,
privatization, participation
UNCONTROLLED
INDUSTRIAL EFFLUENT
POLLUTED WATER AND
ENVIRONMENT•
Uncontrolled municipal and
industrial discharges
CHARGES/ PLANNING
Introduce water pricing and
effluent charges

12. INCREASED
TRANSPORTATION AND
ENERGY USE
AIR POLLUTION•
Increased motorization and
transport congestion
PRICING STRATEGIES/
PLANNING
Integrate transport and land use
planning
Promote clean technologies, fuel
substitution, vehicle maintenance
INCREASE OF SOLID AND
HAZARDOUS WASTE
POLLUTION OF LAND AND
AIR
Poor municipal management
Lack of disposal facilities
REGULATIONS
Introduce regulations, licensing
and charges
Privatize disposal operations
OVERUSE OF WATER GROUND WATER DEPLETION RIGHTS/CHARGES•
Introduce extraction charges

13. SQUATTER DEVELOPMENT
ON FRINGES OF URBAN
AREAS
LAND AND ECOSYSTEM
DEGRADATION
Low income settlements
“pushed” onto fragile lands by
lack of access to affordable
serviced lands
MONITOR AND ENFORCE•
Develop sustainable uses of
sensitive areas
ENCROACHMENT AND
DEVELOPMENT OF HISTORIC
AREAS
Loss of cultural property
Lack of regulations, enforcement,
maintenance
INCENTIVES
Use redevelopment planning,
zoning, and building codes
LACK OF CONSIDERATION
FOR ENVIRONMENTAL
HAZARDS IN DEVELOPMENT
Natural and man-made hazards
HIGH-RISK AREAS WITH
SEVERE AFFECTS FROM
DISASTERS•
Poorly functioning land markets
Low-income settlements
alongside hazardous activities
ENABLEMENT
Formulate urban disaster
preparedness plans and
strengthen response capacity

14. What can governments do? Good governance
for good environments – I
 Many urban environmental problems arise because of the weakness of
urban authorities to control pollution, to meet their responsibilities for
infrastructure and service provision or to provide the framework for
NGO, community and private sector provision.
 However, a number of urban centres have developed innovative Local
Agenda 21s that demonstrate new ways of tackling environmental
problems, including working across sectors and linking community action
and support.
 Each city has its own mix of environmental problems, in part linked to its
own unique local environmental context, in part linked to the factors that
shaped its development, and in part linked to its existing demographic,
economic, social and cultural base.

15. .
 Integrating concerns for environment and development.
 Local Agenda 21s should provide a means through which citizen
concerns and priorities for environmental quality become more
influential in government :
 both in the use of government resources and in government regulation
and control of private sector development.
 Ensuring co-ordination and cooperation between different government
agencies.

16. What can the public-private sector do to improve
environmental services?
 How can public-private partnerships work for the poor? What is the
potential role of private enterprises in improving living environments in
poor neighbourhoods?
 Despite the focus on the private sector, good governance is again found to
be central Private-public partnerships in environmental service provision
are also being promoted internationally, often by donors whose mandate is
to reduce poverty.
 Private sector involvement has been increasing rapidly, even in low-
countries. Several reasons are given:
 • To restructure a failing public utility
• To attract capital investment
• To improve technical and managerial efficiency

17.  However, there is recognition that unregulated private companies are prone
to:
• Engage in monopolistic behaviour.
• Ignore public benefits consumers are unwilling to pay for
• Ignore quality deficiencies consumers cannot perceive
• Ignore the environmental costs of their own activities that they do not have to
pay for
 While providing better living environments for the poor has not been one of
the principal objectives of most public-private partnerships.
 There is much potential to improve service delivery. However, this requires
special measures, and there may be difficulties with:
• Insecure tenure
• Physical obstacles
• Lack of household funds for down-payments
• Low levels of trust and poor communication
• Conflicts between formal and informal systems
• Collective service use and special needs

18. What can the private sector do for ecological sustainability?
What is the potential role of private enterprises in reducing the
environmental impacts of urban industry?
A first and often critical step is for the major polluters to take preventive
measures – typically at the demand of the government.
A second and more important step in the long run is for industry to adopt
‘cleaner production :
improve efficiency by reducing material intensity and waste and generally
reduce ecological loads.
In summary:
“From pollution reduction to cleaner production”

19.  Several issues arise: the private sector is seen as both environmental
villain as well as environmental saviour.
 The key is to get the best from the private sector and encourage them to
move towards sustainable industrial production.
 Nevertheless, ecological efficiency and economic efficiency are not
identical goals, and in most cases some groups will lose out when more
ecologically efficient production processes are introduced.
 In many cases ecological efficiency (or, for that matter, economic
efficiency correctly defined) is not economically competitive in existing
markets, and requires tighter regulation and stronger economic
incentives, as well as a willingness on the part of both private enterprises
and the government to take environmental costs seriously.