Mexico City Slums Essay

Introduction
The classical definition of a slum is “characterized by overcrowding, poor or informal housing, inadequate access to safe water and sanitation, and insecurity of tenure.” (Davis 2007:23) There is has been a rapid growth of urban cities over the last couple of years and people are migrating out of rural areas and into these cities sometimes bring poverty along with them creating urban slums. There are many slums on earth and most of them are located in the Third World countries although there are a select few in the United States as well. Slums can cause many issues in society for the people living in them and the people living around them as well. In this paper some of the biggest problems within slums will be further discussed
Many large Third World cities have a district of slums covered in pollution and are located next to some kind of pipelines or chemical plants. In October of 1984 “a Pemex liquefied natural gas plant exploded like an atomic bomb in Mexico City’s San Juanico district killing as many as 2000 poor residents.” (Davis 2007: 130) This brings create danger to those living in these areas. Not only can these environmental disasters kill thousands of people it also destroys the homes these slum dwellers have leaving them with nowhere else to go. Mexico City is also affected by pollution. Although its air quality is not as bad as Mumbai’s a study showed that “foul air is most deadly is the sprawling megacities of Mexico, Sao Paulo, Delhi, and Beijing.” (Davis 2007: 133) It’s utterly disgusting to live in such areas where you can sick just from the air you breathe. The poor are just powerless in facing sanitation because they simply do not have the money to improve any of these conditions. Another horrible example in Mexico City is “Mexico City residents inhale shit: fecal dust blowing off Lake Texcoco during the hot dry seasons causes typhoid and hepatitis.” (Davis 2007: 143-144) People are literally breathing in shit while the richer people are kicking them out of there area so they can be more comfortable with all of their space. It’s so sad and disgusting that people have to live this
Although they are prevalent here in the United States the slums are nowhere near as bad as those located in the Third World countries. In estimates from a 2003 UN-HABITAT case study the United States has an urban slum population of only 5.8% which is very low compared to many of the other countries listed. Some people are in such poor conditions the only thing they can do is live on the streets and this is what is going on in LA. “Los Angles is the First World capital of homelessness with an estimated number of 100,000 homeless people living camping out on downtown streets or living in parks and freeway landscaping.” (Davis 2007: