Asia countries facing slum challenge

Asian countries must strive to provide decent housing for more than half a billion urban slum dwellers left behind by the region's robust but uneven economic growth, an international aid group said.

With 1.15 billion more people expected to move from rural areas to cities in the next 30 years, the situation is set to worsen if not addressed early, US-based Habitat for Humanity said in a report released at the weekend.

This will have a severe economic, social and political impact, as most of the migrants are poor people seeking a better life in the city.

"The Asia Pacific region is in the midst of a dramatic rural-urban transition that is shaping the demand for low-income housing," the report said.

"Whether and how this demand will be met over the next 30 years will have [a] profound bearing on the further economic, social and political direction of the region," it said.

Asia, led by China's sizzling 10.7 GDP expansion last year, has been a favorite region for foreign investment because of strong economic growth.

However, the region is home to 60 percent of the world's slum areas where an estimated 554 million people live -- roughly equivalent to the combined population of the 10-member ASEAN bloc.

Most of these slum dwellers live in houses made of temporary materials and have little or no access to safe water, sanitation or other basic amenities, Habitat said.

Slums are overcrowded and often located next to garbage dumps, railroad tracks and flood-prone areas. There is little access to health care and education and residents are vulnerable to disease.

"As China, India and the rest of the Asian tigers rush to the front of the global economic development race, we can scarcely afford to leave so many families behind, languishing in poverty," said Habitat's Asia Pacific vice president Steve Weir.

Habitat for Humanity is a non-profit, ecumenical Christian housing group dedicated to bringing decent housing to the world's poor.

It has built more than 200,000 houses worldwide and its most famous volunteer is former US president Jimmy Carter.

The report noted that "one of the most disturbing trends present throughout the region is the rise of wealth and income inequality."

A stark illustration of this disparity could be seen in the resurgent Singapore property market, where luxury condominium units costing more than US$1 million are snapped up within hours by foreign and local buyers.

On the other hand, millions of urban dwellers in cities such as Manila and Jakarta live in makeshift cardboard or plywood homes -- or under bridges.

"Wealth inequality affects shelter conditions directly in that those with wealth effectively drive up urban land prices," the Habitat report said.

"In rural areas, land holdings concentrated in a few hands is a chief contributor to landlessness and poverty, and probably one of the reasons for the current region-wide rural exodus," it said.

While economic growth has reduced the overall number of poor people, "rapid urbanization and rising urban land prices have increased the number of slum dwellers," the report added.

The report concluded that "rising inequality across the region has also tempered economic and development gains for the poor and, in some cases, has negatively affected low-income urban residents."