Report on Transforming an Urban Slum

Running head: TRANSFORMING AN URBAN SLUM
Human Geography: Transforming an Urban Slum
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author note:

1
TRANSFORMING AN URBAN SLUMTable of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Urbanization of slums in São Paulo.................................................................................................2
Priorities for Casavela......................................................................................................................3
Transformation of Casavela.............................................................................................................4
Recommendation and conclusion....................................................................................................6
References........................................................................................................................................8

2
TRANSFORMING AN URBAN SLUM
Introduction
Casavela is a slum located in the south east of São Paulo, Brazil. The name is derived
from two Portuguese words, Casa, meaning ‘household’ and Favela meaning ‘slum’. It is less
populous area with only 125 dwellings with 6 people on an average in each dwelling, total
population being 750. The area is highly underdeveloped and there are many social and
environmental problems in Casavela. The aim of the report is to provide solution to improve the
social and environmental condition of the region and effective utilization of the budget of $4
million in two years, to be provided by the US Government.
Urbanization of slums in São Paulo
Brazil has been known as the country with maximum slum area. These slums are
commonly known as favelas. Almost 6% of Brazil’s population lives in the slums. Rio has
almost 1000 and São Paulo has almost 1600 favelas (Meyer 2017). These favelas grew in
numbers as the migration from the rural and poorer areas increased. Migration has been
increasing towards to cities due to more job opportunities, better quality of life, education,
healthcare and adverse and more challenging life in rural areas. The level of migration has
increased in the past decade. However, this rapid urbanization led to the crisis of
accommodation and employment. Those migrated people cannot afford better and costly
housing, hence they move into the informal and cheaper slums or favelas. In São Paulo,
approximately 2 million people live in the favelas. These areas are characterized by very poor
infrastructure, leading to problems of plumbing, electricity, sanitation and many more
developmental issues. Due to this high level of underdevelopment, there too much health and
hygiene problems (Rotsky 2016). Casavela is no exception.