Have you ever heard about this term “informal settlers“?
Informal settlers are urban dwellers inhabiting government and privately-owned lands with no legal tenure on the land they occupy as their dwelling place and with poor or no access to basic services, principally water and sanitation. Some informal setters do pay rent and may be residing on lots with the consent, explicit or implicit, of the owner.
Informal settlers is the new name for squatters or slum dwellers which is a representation of the irony of life in the city. Despite the luxury enjoyed by few minorities, majority of the people live below the poverty line which lead them to become informal settlers. Not all squatters though are living below the povery line. I have known several people who are better off financially than I am but opt to live in the slum.
Informal settlers are also a good source of votes for politicians thus the problem of informal dwellers will not be in anyway be solved. Any which way you call them, informal dwellers, slum dwellers or squatters, this is a problem that the government should be focusing particularly in the local government level.
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