The state of Pernambuco and 4 other states in the northeastern region of Brazil have been devastated by heavy rains since the beginning of this week. Some municipalities of the Metropolitan Region of Recife, as well as some municipalities of the Zona da Mata were extremely affected, mainly the populations living in poverty, victims of the environmental racism that divides the territory leaving the most dangerous areas for black and non-white populations.
Severe weather, rain and flooding are at the forefront of the minds of many South Africans, especially those in KwaZulu-Natal. Early last week (11-12 April 2022), the province’s coast received heavy rain, with some areas recording over 300mm in 24 hours. This is about a third of the annual rainfall in KwaZulu-Natal.
As KwaZulu-Natal continues to count the cost of the floods that have ravaged the province, poor residents who have lost their homes are in desperate need of humanitarian assistance, said the shack dwellers’ movement Abahlali baseMjondolo.
“The number of people who have lost their lives has yet to be confirmed, but our members witnessed people, including at least two babies, being taken by the water and many people are missing,” said the organisation, which is active in KwaZulu-Natal’s informal settlements.
Urban displacements greatly diminish the living conditions of already desperate populations living on the brink of poverty.
On 15 November, Minoo Kyaa, a community activist from Mukuru kwa Njenga, South Nairobi, tweeted,
We keep asking each other “we unaenda wapi?” [Where are you going?] and even tho it isn’t funny we laugh about it and stare at each other in disbelief.
On the night of 8 April 2017, the people of Otodo Gbame went to bed thinking they were safe. The previous year, the Governor of Lagos had promised to destroy this crowded waterfront community, but a November 2016 court ruling had forced the state government to suspend its plans.
In 2020, as Covid-19 spread rapidly across the cities where SDI is active, federations recognised the need for both urgent responses to the acute humanitarian crises facing their communities and longer-term strategies to engage with government and other stakeholders to address the prolonged effects of this global crisis.
In Bangladesh, one in every seven people will be displaced due to climate change by the end of 2050, according to recent estimation. Sea level rise may cause the displacement of up to 18 million people of Bangladesh. Natural disasters are another reason for displacement where 700,000 people on average migrate every year according to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre. In 2009, cyclone Aila displaced millions of people and many agricultural lands submerged with saline water.
As it was widely reported in the newspapers of August 12, 2021, the government in partnership with NMB Bank, has launched a five-year Plot Loan scheme to enable land owners in informal settlements to survey and get title to their land. This was in part a result of the realisation that land owners were finding it difficult to foot the cost of surveying, registering and obtaining title deeds. Hand in hand with the loan, the cost of surveying has been reduced from Sh150,000 to Sh130,000. The project is being piloted in Mbarali District before rolling out to other areas,
MORE than 75 per cent of Tanzanians live in urban areas in unplanned settlements, the situation contributed by the government slow pace in urban planning drive.
The remarks were made here yesterday by Shinyanga Regional Commissioner Dr Philemon Sengati at the opening of a task meeting that among others, reviewed the implementation of the Strategic Plan for 2020/21, and discussed challenges on solutions to land conflicts as well completing the implementation of National Land Formalization Plan on settlements for 2013- 2023.
