Pedraza 1
Ashley Nicole Pedraza
November 8, 2011.
Class: World Geography 3 A-B
Ms. Jaeger
Slums
Slums are all over the world and will keep growing unless we give a helping hand and stop this madness. A slum is a densely populated urban area which is characterized by a generally low standard of living. Slums may also be known as shantytowns, barrios, ghettos, or favelas, although some of these terms have specific cultural meanings. Slums are a world epidemic because they are extremely over-crowded, leading to poor health care and high crime rates. Slums are very populated because that is the only place poor people can afford to live.
Slums are so populated that the government doesn’t even know the accuracy of how many people live in slums. The largest slum is in Africa, “it’s true population isn’t even known” (Eaves 2006). That is how big and crowded that slum is, to a point where the population can not even be determined. Kibera is known to be Africa’s biggest slum. The population my never be correctly measured because of all the people living there. The people who live in slums have very low health care.
People who are living in slums their health care system is very poor. Due to this, it shortness their life span dramatically. The water that people drink located in slums, “not only harms their bodies but contaminates the food they eat” (Fink 2006). Dirty water, low food supply, and many diseases are only just a few reasons why people who inhabit the slums die and have short life spans. The people who inhabit slums are not capable of getting the resources needed to treat their illnesses. Since slums have low health care and a big population this spikes up the crime rating.
Pedraza 2
Slums have crime everywhere, it is happening all the time since there is no proper justice system. In slums they have what you call “slum lords” (Blythe 2008). In slums they have crime families. Basically what they do is “squatters or slum lords put up shacks on land to develop illegal settlements” (Blythe 2008). All of these criminal acts lead to a boost of the criminal violence in slums. So much criminal acts are done in slums that it is hard for the police to keep up; unless they are in slum lords’ pay roll and let things slide. High population density, high crime ratings, and low health care systems lead to unsafe and deathly slum conditions.
Slums are a big issue due to the unsafe living conditions the people of slums face. Slums are a world epidemic because they are extremely over-crowed, leading to poor health care and high crime rates. Low health care and high population measures and criminal activities are why slums are filthy and an unsafe environment for the general public. Slums are just getting worse and worse and soon the world will have a bigger problem than wars and terrorism. Slums are all ready bad as it is, where do you think they would be days, months and years from now. This is something that everyone should be asking themselves.
Pedraza 3
Work Cited
Urbanization, From online database ABC-CLIO,
Year: 2011, “World Geography: Understanding A Changing World”
Sheri Fink, “Public Radio International: The World,” December 18, 2006,
Cities of the Poor I: Life in the slums (Kenya),
Niles Blythe, “Mumbai’s slum life poses world problem,” Business correspondent,
BBC News, Mumbai, India, Tuesday, February 26th , 2008,
Elisabeth Eves, “Two Billion Slum Dwellers,” November 6th, 2006,
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