Policy measures of governments toward addressing urban housing provisions seem to neglect the urban poor, especially in Nigeria. Presently, the world population estimated at 50% urban is aggravated by rural-urban migration. This is true of Enugu city in Nigeria, where urban housing challenges affect the poor residents. Enugu is one of the major Christian populaces in Nigeria where the Catholic Church is conspicuously a fulcrum for socioeconomic attractions. This makes it imperative for the Catholic Church to be involved in addressing pro-poor housing challenges. This study therefore examined urban public housing provision in Enugu metropolis with a view to determine pro-poor housing policy delivery involving the Catholic Church. Mixed research method was adopted. Interviews and observations were conducted randomly within the identified 23 informal/slum or squatter settlements adjourning the 18 formal neighborhoods of Enugu metropolis while the social inclusion theory formed the basis of the study. Findings showed that the identified 118 Catholic parishes also canonically engage in socioeconomic development of the neighborhoods as the available public housing provisions in Enugu were skewed away from the urban majority who are low-income earners. This indicates poor government attention to the housing needs of low-income households who resort to informal/squatter settlements. This article therefore recommends Catholic Church-Government collaboration toward inclusive, holistic, and proactive pro-poor housing delivery in Enugu. Effective utilization of housing cooperative societies, as well as a single-digit interest loan package for housing finance, was also recommended for the Government-Church collaboration to achieve inclusive social housing delivery in the city.
The Government Stay-at-Home policy regarding the COVID-19 pandemic has seemingly aggravated the plight of the homeless, especially in Nigeria that has about 108 million homeless people who require special attention. Observations show that most of them situate randomly across urban centers in Nigeria and have no access to pronounced shelter, healthcare facilities, hygiene materials, and defined source of income. In response to the global COVID-19 pandemic currently ravaging many countries, most governments adopted the Stay-at-Home policy among some other policy measures that were recommended by the World Health Organization toward containing the spread of the virus. Given the COVID-19 Stay-at-Home policy of Nigerian Government, this study looked into the plight of the homeless-poor with a view to evolve an inclusive pro-poor housing strategy for the country. Findings show that the homeless poor have negative perceptions of the Stay-at-Home policy, which they see as being rather inimical to their survival. The study highlights lack of space and shelter as major reasons for their aversion to social distancing. Their reasons have serious implications for compliance to the COVID-19 Stay-at-Home policy as well as the spread curve of the virus. The study therefore recommends a review of the COVID-19 Regulation toward incorporating “Pro-Poor Housing Provisions” measures strictly for the homeless poor in the country. Strong collaboration between government and established institutions, such as Government-Church/Mosque strategy, is also recommended.
Globally, urbanization is now like a tidal wave sweeping the entire world and its impact is felt more in developing countries like Nigeria, where urban growth is marked by a dramatic shift with emphasis from rural to urban centers. Rural-urban migration which is one of the effects of urbanization has had grievous implications for urban housing delivery in Nigerian cities. Thus, the steady increase in her population over the years and its effect on the housing sector have become a problem of serious concern. Therefore, this research investigates the impact of urbanization and migration from rural areas on housing delivery in the city of Enugu in order to develop sustainable measures that will address the issue. It utilized a qualitative research method of direct observation and review of literature in which primary and secondary data were collected. The research results highlight some of the effects of Urbanization in the study area to include; gross housing shortage, increase housing rent and high land value in the city resulting to the emergence and expansion of many squatter settlements at the periphery of the city, incidence of haphazard situation of developments, change in land uses, violation of planning guidelines, suboptimal amenities and inadequate infrastructure as well as slum conditions. The study also identified 14 peri-urban squatter settlements with an estimated total population of 62,733 people; an indication of about 5.5% unaccounted spill over population with over 11,082 households in the city. Furthermore, it was observed that the current public housing provision in the city of Enugu over the period 1999-2020 is skewed away from low-income earners, who constitute a significant portion of the city's population. Conclusions and recommendations in the report include a call for strategic and comprehensive government intervention in the housing sector, as well as a demand for local building materials and a better use of union housing cooperatives with single digit interest loan for housing finance to ensure adequate provision of affordable housing to the growing population in the city.
Due to the increasing environmental hazards of climate change phenomenon, it has become a major concern of most environmentalist. Currently the world struggles to manage waste which are generated from human activity and it affects the global climate either positively or negatively. Therefore, particular attention should be paid to sustainable waste management strategy so as to ameliorate the issue. To this end, the 3-R concept of waste management (reduction, reuse and recycle) have been variously pursued by municipalities towards a sustainable waste management system. This study focused on the waste-to-wealth activities across the urban neighborhoods in the colonial city of Enugu and adopted a qualitative survey research design. Using stratified and simple random sampling technique, a survey was conducted in eight selected neighbourhood and orally interviewed waste pickers within the study area. It discusses solid waste disposal method in Enugu metropolis with a view to facilitating sustainable practices for enhanced environmental condition and wealth creation. The paramount theme is on the socio-economic networking of the waste-to-wealth activities in the area and the derivable benefits towards addressing the effects of global climate change phenomenon in the city. Its research results highlight the ineffective waste management system within the metropolis and showed that huge financial gains could be harvested from waste product. Also it revealed that waste picking is done on informal scale across all neighbourhoods in the study area. It concludes and recommends measures towards enhancing waste-to-wealth as a strategy for addressing the global climate change in the city.
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