MOSHI, Tanzania, March 1 (UPI) -- The making of a plan and sticking to it is the key to eradicating slums worldwide, the United Nations said Wednesday.
"We must incorporate the culture of planning in our towns and cities," said Anna Tibaijuka, executive director of UN-HABITAT, during a keynote speech at a one-day seminar on the Urbanization Crisis in Tanzania in Moshi, a town near Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania.
Many urban centers have taken passive attitudes when it comes to planning but Tibaijuka insists slum-free urbanization can be a reality but only if the master plans are managed well.
As many countries, particularly in Africa, face an urbanization crisis, the U.N. Human Settlements agency is shifting its goal from slum upgrading to slum prevention, said Tibaijuka during her address to 50 Tanzanian experts from government and non-governmental agencies.
There are an estimated 1 billion poor people in the world, of whom more than 750 million live in urban areas without adequate shelter and basic services like water, roads and waste management, said the U.N. agency.
An effective solution to rid the world of slums would be for urban centers to create a detailed master plan so civic authorities could monitor construction and other activities. This, coupled with good management to implement the plan, would tackle the slum problem, said Tibaijuka, who also stressed the need to focus on what causes the slum problem.
If managed well, urbanization would work by creating jobs and providing a decent place to live for the poor who live in slums which proliferate in the outskirts of many towns and cities in many parts of Africa.
While Africa is predominantly rural, the continent has the world's fastest rate of urbanization, said the U.N. agency.
