Urban Infrastructure UpgradingVocabulary and Expressionsdaunting slum up

Urban Infrastructure Upgrading
   The infrastructure needs that go along with urbanization can be enormous in terms of investments in housing, water and sanitation, transportation, electricity, and telecommunications. Many cities have not been able to keep up, and face daunting challenges for the future projected increases in urbanization. Providing universal coverage for water and sanitation services alone in the cities of developing countries is estimated to cost nearly 5 percent of those countries’ GDP.
   The problems of accessing infrastructure and services are particularly acute for the urban poor. While access rates for basic services such as water, sanitation and electricity are typically higher in urban areas than rural, these numbers mask what is happening for the urban poor where access can be extremely low, unaffordable, and of inadequate quality. Governments, utilities, and service providers are often reluctant to operate in slums because of the informality and illegality of such settlements. This gap is then filled by informal service providers offering more expensive services. Ultimately, the urban poor end up paying substantially more than the non-poor for their services.
   Among the programs aimed at the urban poor, overall, slum upgrading is probably the most common. Slum upgrading programs typically focus on the provision of infrastructure (water and sanitation, waste management, electricity, roads). Some of the more recent World Bank programs which combine investments in basic infrastructure with social programs show much promise for addressing the complex, multidimensional nature of urban poverty. For example a program in Jamaica combines micro-finance, land tenure regularization, crime and violence prevention programs with physical upgrading to improve access to water, sewage, solid waste, electricity, roads, drainage and related community infrastructure. In Brazil, investments in social infrastructure for day care, youth training, and health care are combined with physical upgrading of slums.
   The current financial crisis provides an important opportunity for investing in the provision of basic infrastructure and services in slums as countries design fiscal stimulus packages. With the emerging negative impacts of the crisis on the urban poor, upgrading activities can generate employment particularly for this vulnerable group, while creating lasting assets which are much in need.