Shanty town

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"Shantytown" and "Hutment" redirect here. For the created gold-mining town in New Zealand, see Shantytown, New Zealand.
See also: Slum
Shanty town in Soweto, South Africa, 2005




A shanty town in Jakarta, Indonesia




Shanty towns sometimes have an active informal economy, such as garbage sorting, pottery making, textiles and leather works. This allows the poor to earn a livelihood. The above shanty town image is from Ezbet Al Nakhl, in Cairo Egypt, where garbage is sorted manually. Residential area is visible at the top of the image.

Since construction is informal and unguided by urban planning, there is typically no formal street grids, numbered or named streets; they lack some or all basic public services such as sewage network, electricity, safe running water, rain water drainage, garbage removal, access to public transport, insect and disease control services. Even if these resources are present, they are likely to be disorganized, unreliable and poorly maintained. Shanty towns also tend to lack basic services present in more formally organized settlements, including policing, mail delivery, medical services and fire fighting. Fires are a particular danger for shanty towns not only for the lack of fire fighting stations and the difficulty fire trucks have traversing the absence of formal street grids,[6] but also because of the high density of buildings and flammability of materials used in construction[7] A sweeping fire on the hills of Shek Kip Mei, Hong Kong, in late 1953 left 53,000 squatter dwellers homeless, prompting the colonial government to institute a resettlement estate system.

Shanty towns have high rates of crime, suicide, drug use and disease. However, Swiss journalist Georg Gerster has noted (with specific reference to the invasões of Brasilia) that "squatter settlements [as opposed to slums], despite their unattractive building materials, may also be places of hope, scenes of a counter-culture, with an encouraging potential for change and a strong upward impetus". [8] Stewart Brand has also written, more recently, that "squatter cities are Green. They have maximum density—­a million people per square mile in Mumbai—­and minimum energy and mate­rial use. People get around by foot, bicycle, rickshaw, or the universal shared taxi ... Not everything is efficient in the slums, though. In the Brazilian favelas where electricity is stolen and therefore free, Jan Chipchase from Nokia found that people leave their lights on all day. In most slums recycling is literally a way of life." (2010)[9]



Developing countries[edit]

Shanty towns are present in a number of countries. The largest shanty town in Asia is Orangi in Karachi, Pakistan [10]

While shanty towns are less common in Europe, the growing influx of illegal immigrants have fueled shantytowns in cities commonly used as a point of entry into the EU, including Athens and Patras in Greece.[11] In francophone countries, shanty towns are referred to as bidonvilles (French for "can town" - can being a reference to tin metal); such countries include Tunisia and Haiti.

Other countries with shanty towns include South Africa (where they are often called Townships) or imijondolo, Kenya (including the Kibera and Mathare slums), the Philippines (often called squatter areas), Venezuela (where they are known as barrios), Brazil (favelas), Argentina (villas miseria), West Indies such as Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago (where they are known as Shanty town), and Peru (where they are known as "young towns"). In Russia, shanty towns - called truščóba (трущобы) - are present in smaller cities as well in Chelobityevo outside Moscow.[12][13] There is also a major shanty town population in countries such as Bangladesh,[14] and the People's Republic of China.[15][16][17]

Developed countries[edit]






Shanty town along the Martin Pena Canal in Puerto Rico, United States (1970s).[1]

Regional names[edit]

Dharavi shanty town in Mumbai, India.

Specific places[edit]


People and organizations[edit]

A shanty town in Manila, Philippines.

Related concepts[edit]

A riverside shanty town near Dhaka, Bangladesh.

In popular culture[edit]

See also[edit]


  4. ^ Oxford English Dictionary Online
  11. ^ Squires, Nick; Anast, Paul (September 7, 2009). "Greek immigration crisis spawns shanty towns and squats". The Daily Telegraph (London). 
  13. ^ Moscow's Muslim Slums Now Breeding Grounds for Despair Moscow Times (2010)
  14. ^ Health and Social Conditions in the Dhaka Slums.
  15. ^ Demolitions limit slum villages to city outskirts.
  16. ^ "Slums" sting Chinese cities, hamper building of harmonious society.
  17. ^ Jane Kelly, Review: Planet of Slums, By Mike Davis, Verso, 2006, £15.99. Socialist Outlook: SO/10 - Summer 2006.
  18. ^ Fotheringham, Alasdair (November 27, 2011). "In Spain's heart, a slum to shame Europe". The Independent (London). 
  19. ^ a b c "Some 'Young Towns' in Lima Not So Young Anymore", Council on Hemispheric Affairs, August 16, 2011.
  21. ^ Informality: Re-Viewing Latin American Cities, Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanitie.
  22. ^ Bill Gates' foundation puts money on solar-powered toilet - AlertNet
  23. ^ Youth Bring Low-Cost Solar Panels to Kenyan Slum | Worldwatch Institute
  24. ^ "IT for schools,Schools,Education,Technology,UK news,Online learning e-learning (Education)". The Guardian (London). May 8, 2001. 
  26. ^ "SA’s post-apartheid failure in squatter camps". MoneyWeb. Retrieved 18 September 2013. 

External links[edit]

Media related to Shanty towns at Wikimedia Commons