Whilst researching, we found many problems that occur in the Kibera slum.
We are basing our project around ‘The Built Environment’ which basically means infrastructure built in the Kibera Slum.We found the problems before finding a solution as this way we can find the biggest problem to solve and find out what we can or can’t do.We went on many websites and articles which informed us of the same things. Therefore we are basing our proposal around what we think we can solve.One of the biggest problems we found was the housing crisis. The people there live in mud or corrugated metal shacks.
The heat there is high there all year round (including flooding season), so the heat will be absorbed in the metal sheets and radiated into the shack, fundamentally acting as an oven. This should not happen and it is crazy that the shacks there are primarily built out of metal. This is a problem as it creates an unbearable living condition even for people who are used to living in a high temperature climate.Another problem we found is the unemployment rate. Having a high unemployment rate (at 50%) has many issues at it creates problems, such as drug, alcohol and gang. People are forced to commit crimes to pay for food, water and drugs. This also links to rapes and prostitution, 50% of women (aged 16 to 25) get pregnant. Most of these pregnancies are unwanted which lead to unsafe abortions or children being left at birth.
There are no government clinics or hospitals in Kibera, so the only providers of healthcare are charities. They do a great job however there is still a big issue of HIV/AIDS, typhoid and cholera, therefore many people die from this and diseases are spread easily among the compact slum. Sewage is another big problem.
Unlike our developed country, there is no such thing as sewage. Therefore people are forced to use a hole in the ground or wait until night, defecate in a bag and throw it away. This results in stagnation and pooling problems that breed bacteria and a really bad odour combining with the humidity.
Water is an obvious problem, a high percentage (compared to other countries) of africans do not have access to water. The people in Kibera, until recently, had to collect water from a dirty dam until the council and ‘the World Bank’ installed water pipes where residents can buy water. For some people, the price is high so they still collect rainwater from roof tops. However this is very unsanitary as people have to throw away stool which could hit rooftops and pollute the water.The safety in Africa is extremely minimal. There is no locks on shacks or police that care and due to the lack of jobs and uneducated knowledge of humanities, men seem to rape women and even girls from a young age. In 2010 a reported 8.
2% of females from ages 9 and up said that had been sexually abused, nevertheless this is just the reported rapes, according to a esimated source it could be up to 40%. Safety is such a huge problem in the slum of Kibera. In addition to this, young males are recruited by gangs.
There is no room for social sports in the slums and there is no electricity for any recreational activities which we are custom to. Thus, people get bored, and when they are bored they turn to gangs, drugs and/or crime. This is a growing problem in Kibera as there is no room for activities and the population continues to grow.
