UN: Slum dwellers estimated at more than 827 million in 2010

NEW YORK: The number of slum dwellers has increased by 55 million in the last 10 years to a total of 827.6 million this year, according to UN-Habitat's annual report.

In an article by Qatar news agency on Thursday March 19, the UN-Habitat was cited as stating in its annual report that programmes to reduce slum populations and close the gap in living conditions between rich and poor are "neither good nor adequate."

"The progress made on the slum target has not been enough to counter the growth of informal settlements in the developed world," it said. UN-Habitat is an agency specialized in working out policies with governments to improve living conditions in developing countries.

The world population stood now at more than 6.7 billion, with 3.49 billion people living in urban areas. The increase of 55 million of slum dwellers in the last 10 years was an absolute number, Qatar News agency reported, citing
UN-Habitat as saying. The UN programmes and governments' efforts to close slums and improve
living conditions have resulted in moving people out of slums. But there were new slum dwellers between 2000-10.

The report said the estimated 227 million people who moved out of slum conditions included those who lived in slums that have been upgraded. It is reported that China and India, the world's two most populous nations,
contributed a great deal in reducing slum dwellers. The report said China's achievements have been "spectacular" because it improved conditions for 65.3 million of its inhabitants, reducing the number of slum dwellers from 37.3 per cent in 2000 to 28.2 per cent in 2010. China has a total population of 1.3 billion. India, with more than 1 billion
people, lifted 59.7 million people out of slums, reducing the number from 41.5 per cent of the total population to 28.1 per cent.

Other Asian countries that significantly reduced slum dwellers were Indonesia and Vietnam.
African nations that did well were Morocco and Egypt. In Latin America, Argentina, Colombia and Brazil accounted for 79 per cent of the region's improvements in the lives of slum dwellers. Other countries that achieved some reductions were Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua and Peru. Brazil, Latin America's most populous country, improved living conditions for 10.4 million people from 2000-10.- Bernama