Surge of the slum populations

Shacks in an informal settlement in Nairobi, Kenya. UN-Habitat says more than a billion people globally reside in overcrowded urban slums, and the figure is projected to reach three billion people by 2050. — AFP

BEATRICE Oriyo laughed out loud when asked if there was a playground where her three children could play near her home in Kibera, Nairobi’s biggest informal settlement.”There’s nothing like that here,” the 34-year-old Oriyo said by phone from the one-roomed corrugated iron home she rents for 6,000 Kenyan Shillings (RM200) a month.

“We don’t even have our own toilet – we have to pay each time to use the public toilets. We bathe in the same room that is our kitchen, living room and bedroom. The idea of a playground here is like a joke,” she said.