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One billion Africans will live in a
city by 2040, according to World Bank estimates, facing unchecked pollution and
high costs of living
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Anarchic
architecture, unchecked pollution and high costs of living are the lot of
African city dwellers, experts warn, as living standards fail to keep pace with
rapid urban growth on the continent.
AFP report continues:
The Bamako Forum, a pan-African think
tank, recently considered the phenomenon of African urbanization against the
backdrop of a city living the results of rural flight clashing with poor urban
planning.
At 1.8 million inhabitants Bamako is
far from Africa's largest city. But its 5.5% growth rate is the fastest
on the continent, outstripping that of established African megalopolises like
Cairo, Kinshasa or Lagos.
One billion Africans will live in a
city by 2040, according to World Bank estimates, compared with almost half a
billion today.
"Such growth has never been seen
globally, and probably never will be again," said Somik Vinay Lall, the
bank's top urbanization expert, speaking at the forum.
Visitors to Bamako's dusty streets
don't have long before they chance upon what residents have nicknamed
Lafiabougou Hill, a pile of stinking rubbish that at one point loomed 20 metres
(66 feet) tall in the city centre.
Lacking fuel to transport the trash to
depots on the city's edges, Lafiabougou Hill has become a pungent reminder of
the municipality's inability to provide basic services to its rapidly expanding
population.
"We have protested, burnt tyres,
blocked off roads, because this affects the health of the people living in this
area," said Djiri Nimaga, head of a local youth group that held protests
last year aimed at rousing action from the authorities in the ACI 2000
commercial district.
Until now Lafiabougou has not killed
anyone directly, but at least 113 people were killed in a giant landslide at
Ethiopia's largest rubbish dump last weekend, including several children.
- Vicious circle -
The Western perception of poor
countries having low costs of living, true across much of Asia, does not hold
true for Africa, where some of the world's most expensive cities are populated
by some of the planet's poorest people.
As a result, manufacturing and
services, driven by consumer spending, are all too often absent.
"23% of land in
Ho Chi Minh City is taken up by industrial and commercial activity, compared
with 5.9% in Nairobi and 1.1% in Addis Ababa," Lall emphasized.
A World Bank report entitled
"Africa's Cities: Opening Doors to the World", released in February,
said deep-rooted problems with the way land was bought and sold, a lack of
investment in infrastructure and an absence of regulation constrained African
cities.
"Closed to regional and global
markets, trapped into producing only locally traded goods and services, and
limited in their economic growth," is how the report characterized cities
such as Bamako.
-
Thriving on disorder -
Ousmane Sow, who works for Bamako's
city council, is building up an "urbanization agency" of the kind
encouraged by international development bodies, but says little will
fundamentally change until basic rules are respected.
"Say a neighbour has the permit
for a one-storey structure, he will build a four-storey one. Buildings fall
down all the time," Sow said.
"You can't do architecture on the
fly, you are putting people's lives at risk. Behind all of this is the issue of
impunity, the true evil of this country," he added.
Among the chaos, some are making
fortunes.
In Abidjan, Ivory Coast's largest city,
a single square metre (3.5 square feet) of land can fetch one million FCFA
(US$1,625), encouraging ever more landlords to bend the rules.
The small minority of those private or
public investors controlling the market "love urban disorder because it's
all about gambling on property," said Jean-Pierre Elong Mbassi,
secretary-general of the CGLU African Local Government Association.
"They aren't interested in whether
the city actually works as long as they can get such a high rate of return,
which happens specifically because the city doesn't function," he added.
Back at Lafiabougou Hill, trucks are
waiting to load rubbish dragged to the site by donkey carts.
"As soon as they stop taking it away, the trash just piles up again. It takes too long," Nimaga said.
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