Slums of Africa

One of the topics we discussed in class for the past two weeks was about two slums in Africa. One of them has a positive story and the other one is more negative. It is crazy to think that the human population keeps growing to the point that we are running out of resources and areas where people could live. These slums are packed with people who are poor and cannot afford to live in the more rural areas, so urbanization started as the population gets bigger. 

Mathare is the oldest urban slum in Africa and the world its population is about half a million. The biggest problem they face in Mathare is the sanitation. There is waste everywhere because they don't have a system where to dispose of the trash properly. Also, they hardly have restrooms so human waste is in the streets and in water sources. The restrooms have a poor drainage system and sewage pipes often leak, contributing to the pollution in the area. Since there is waste everywhere around the slum, there is a higher chance of getting many diseases and sicknesses. There isn’t a good way to clean up the waste so the people don’t do anything, making the problem worse. The second problem these people face is obtaining clean water, which is limited in their areas. I didn’t consider the fact that finding water can disrupt a child’s education because the children have to find or carry clean water to their families. There are very few clean water stations in the slum and it is on the outskirts so people have to walk a great distance to get the water. Learning about this type of slum is eye-opening because you would think there would be groups of people who would try to help make their living situations better because it is such a huge area of people, but there doesn’t seem to be. I wonder how much money it would take to build some houses to help the people, and how long it would take to clean the area of all the waste. Also, I wonder if life in Mathare has improved since the time the video was made 2 years ago.

There is a slum in Kenya that has a happier story than Mathare and that is Kibera. Kibera is the largest slum in Africa and the world, and its population is over 1 million people. We watched a video in class that seemed like a sort of advertisement. The video showed the people in Kibera who are building their economy with different markets and businesses. They mentioned that many famous people have lived in that slum and are living a successful life, giving hope to those who too live in the slum. It is surprising that they talk about how happy their life is, but the Mathare slum looked very similar to Kibera. I wonder how the biggest slum in Africa is able to be successful and what Mathare could learn from Kibera’s example of urban living.

Since I live in an urban area it is interesting to learn about different urban areas in the world. However, it’s also sad knowing that people live in worst situations than I would have imagined. I wonder what I could do to help these people who live in the worst slums, and if there are any people now who are helping them.