Slum Upgrading

Slum upgrading consists of physical, social, economic, organizational and environmental improvements to slums undertaken cooperatively and locally among citizens, community groups, businesses and local authorities. The main objective of slum upgrading is to alleviate the poor living standards of slum dwellers. Many slums lack basic local authority services such as provision of safe drinking water, sanitation, wastewater and solid waste management. Slum upgrading is used mainly for projects inspired by or engaged by the World Bank and similar agencies. It is considered by the proponents a necessary and important component of urban development in the developing countries. However, many people do not believe that slum upgrading is successful. They point to the difficulties in providing the necessary resources either in a way that is beneficial to the slum-dwellers or in a way that has long-term effectiveness. Alternatives to slum upgrading include the construction of alternative tenements for people living in slums (rather than fixing the infrastructure itself) or the forced removal of slum dwellers from the land.