CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background
The establishment of Abuja as a new Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in the 1970s resulted in the emergence of slums co-existing with well planned residential and administrative areas. United Nations Human Settlement Programme (UN-HABITAT) defines a slum household as a group of individuals living under the same roof in an area who lack one or more of the following: durable housing of a permanent nature that protects against extreme climate conditions; sufficient living space, which means not more than three people sharing the same room; easy access to safe water in sufficient amounts at an affordable price; access to adequate sanitation in the form of a private or public toilet shared by a reasonable number of people and security of tenants that prevents forced evictions.1 Nearly 327 million people were projected to live in slums in Commonwealth countries and almost one in every sixth citizens. In a quarter of Commonwealth countries (11 African, 2 Asian and 1 Pacific), more than two out of three urban dwellers live in slums.2 It is projected that by 2030, close to 1.7 billion of the expected 3.93 billion urban dwellers in low-income and middle income countries will be living in slums.2 The situation is not different in Nigeria, where a recent report by United Nations documented that about 96.6 million (69%) of Nigerians live in slums.3
Low skilled artisan workers needed for the construction work in FCT reside in urban slums that are bereft of basic infrastructure. These slums are as a result of inadequate town planning, budgetary allocation and legislation to cater for urban poor and are therefore bereft of infrastructural provisions. Poor sanitation, non-existent organized waste disposal and vector control are some factors enabling the spread of infectious diseases including parasitic infestations. Anaemia is a common complication of infestation by these parasites; which is as
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.