HSC Urban Places - Megacities - 2

Question 1

Housing: MAIN TOPIC 1

Answer 1

• 60% of the city lives in squatter settlements (community self-government)
• Ciudades Perdidas: densely populated inner city slums
• Colonias Populares: self-built structures that occupy about 50% of Mexico City’s surface area
• Over 500,000 households in Mexico City are in overcrowded conditions
• Over 1 million houses are built with walls of recycled material
• Over 7 million houses are built with walls and roofs made of sheet metal or adobe.

Extra:
The rapid growth of megacity populations results in significant challenges in accommodating people. homelessness, squatting and slum areas are all common places. Slums often form in the least desirable places.

​Megacities are well known for containing slums, and areas of makeshift or substandard housing. Slums create a significant range of problems for megacities as their chaotic and close-knit nature makes it very difficult to improve infrastructure within a slum area. The absence of services also makes slums very unhealthy places while their building materials make them quite hazardous.

Question 2

Water and Power Supplies: MAIN TOPIC 2

Answer 2

• Difficult to supply regular and equitable clean and affordable water to all people in the city and surrounding areas
• Many people are living with an amount of water that doesn’t meet their basic needs
• Water shortages are common in parts of Mexico, but have worsened amid heat extremes blamed on climate change.
• As of April 2021, majority of Mexico is dangerously dry, and dams throughout the Mexican territory have reached exceptionally low levels.
• Despite heavy flooding and rainfall, the city is facing a water shortage. In fact, millions of people don’t have enough water to drink for nearly half the year.

Extra:
Many cities rely on groundwater extraction which is unsustainable. Megacities also have options for significant gains from wastewater treatment and loss reduction from leaking infrastructure.

Question 3

Traffic Infrastructure:

Answer 3

Busy road systems

Extra:
With over 10 million residents, traffic in megacities can be dire. The dropping rates of extreme poverty in the world also make the ownership of a vehicle more common for the world’s population and consequently make traffic worse.

Question 4

Employment:

Answer 4

• 15% of the city’s people are unemployed
• High levels of unemployment keep wages low and working conditions poor

Extra:
Megacities have rapidly growing populations and job creation cannot match this pace of growth. However, informal economic activity is frequently a large part of the economy. This leaves cities without revenue to provide adequate services and informal economic conditions make wages and conditions difficult to regulate.
However, informal economic activity is not necessarily black market activity.

Question 5

Air Pollution: MAIN TOPIC 3

Answer 5

• 24,000 tonnes of pollutants are emitted each year
• 400,000 cars are added to the road each year
• The geography of the city exaggerates the problem
• More than 10,000 deaths a year are attributed to pollution
• The city only enjoys 31 days a year when the air is safe to breathe

Extra:
Air pollution is considered one of the greatest threats to health in megacities.