Slums and Informal Settlements: Causes, Problems and Solutions – Rural and Urban Settlement in Rwanda (Senior 4 Geography) | Ganzaa

Rural and Urban Settlement in Rwanda

Lessons

Senior 4 · Geography

Rural and Urban Settlement in Rwanda

5 lessons

Lesson 5 of 5

Slums and Informal Settlements: Causes, Problems and Solutions

25 min

Half of Nyarugenge's households

Figure 6 shows where Rwanda's spontaneous or squatter housing is concentrated. This is the census category for houses built without a plan or permit, usually tightly packed and poorly served.

Figure 6. Share of households in spontaneous or squatter housing, 2022. Drawn by Ganzaa from NISR, RPHC5 Table 63.

In Nyarugenge, the oldest part of the capital, more than half of all households live in this kind of housing. Why do such settlements grow in a city that plans so carefully? And what can be done about them?

Definition

Slum: an urban area of poor-quality, overcrowded housing that lacks one or more basic services (safe water, sanitation, durable housing, enough space, secure tenure). Informal (unplanned) settlement: housing built without approved plans or permits, often on land not meant for building; it may be poor or reasonably built.

Upgrading (in situ): improving an informal settlement where it stands by adding roads, drains, water, lighting and services. Relocation: moving residents to new housing elsewhere, used for high-risk sites.

Worked example 1: how many households?

Data (NISR, 2023). The City of Kigali had 488,868 private households, 40.1% of them in spontaneous or squatter housing; Nyarugenge had 103,985, 53.2% of them in such housing.

0.401 \times 488\,868 = 196\,036 \qquad 0.532 \times 103\,985 = 55\,320

About 196,000 households in Kigali, 55,000 of them in Nyarugenge alone, lived in spontaneous or squatter housing in 2022.

Characteristics

Houses packed closely on steep hillsides or valley edges, with narrow footpaths instead of roads ("landlocked" neighbourhoods).
Few drains: rainwater runs through the paths and floods lower houses.
Shared water points and pit latrines; uncollected waste.
Small, crowded rooms; mixed building materials (sun-dried bricks, iron sheets).
Informal land subdivision and insecure tenure.
Close to jobs in the city centre and its markets: the reason people stay.

Causes

Cause	How it produces informal settlements
Rapid rural–urban migration	Newcomers (354,970 recent in-migrants to Kigali in 2017–2022) need cheap housing near jobs at once
Low incomes and costly planned housing	Most households cannot afford a serviced plot or a formal flat
Shortage of serviced, affordable land	Planned plots are released more slowly than the city grows
Relief	Kigali's hills and valleys leave much land steep or wet; it was cheap and unplanned, so the poor built there
Informal land markets	Owners subdivide and sell small plots without permits
History	Neighbourhoods grew before modern plans and building rules existed

Problems

Natural hazards: floods and landslides on steep, built-over slopes and in wetlands; AFD notes that the settlements are "subject to high natural risks induced by climate change" (MINECOFIN, 2023).
Health: poor sanitation and water spread diarrhoeal diseases; crowding spreads respiratory infections.
Fire and emergencies: fire engines and ambulances cannot reach houses without roads.
Insecure tenure: people fear eviction and invest little in their homes.
Poverty traps: poor services make it harder to study and work; crime can be a problem.
For the city: blocked drainage, pollution of wetlands and rivers, and costly emergency responses.

Solutions in Rwanda

Upgrading in place. In March 2023 MINECOFIN and the Agence Française de Développement signed a €40 million loan, with a €10 million EU grant, to upgrade three Kigali neighbourhoods (Kagugu, Rwezamenyo and Nyakabanda): basic infrastructure and services for about 60,000 people, citizen co-design, and trial affordable rental housing (MINECOFIN, 2023). RUDP-II includes upgrading of unplanned settlements with access roads, footpaths and street lights (LODA).
Relocation from high-risk zones to planned sites such as Karama Integrated Model Village (240 households) (MININFRA).
Strategies and targets: a National Urban Informal Settlements Upgrading Strategy, a city-wide upgrading strategy for Kigali, and an Urbanisation Sector Strategic Plan 2018–2024 aiming to cut the share of the urban population in unplanned settlements by about 10% (MINECOFIN, 2023).
Affordable and green housing projects, and land-use plans that release serviced plots.
Wetland protection: rehabilitation of Gikondo and Nyabugogo wetlands (LODA), so that building does not spread into flood zones.

Worked example 2: which figure is right?

Data. The census found 40.1% of Kigali's households in spontaneous or squatter housing (2022). MINECOFIN's 2023 announcement quotes AFD that "60% of the population lives in informal settlements" and the minister that "about 63 percent of Kigali's settlements are considered unplanned".

Evaluation.

The figures measure different things: the census classifies each household's type of housing; the others classify areas (neighbourhoods or settlement land) as unplanned.
An unplanned area contains some well-built houses that the census would not call squatter housing, so an area-based share can be higher than a household-based one.
"Population" and "settlements" are different denominators too.

Conclusion. None is "wrong"; each answers a different question. Always state what is being counted. And the cost of upgrading, $\frac{€50\ \text{million}}{60\,000} \approx €830$ per beneficiary, is far less than rebuilding the neighbourhoods.

Warning

Do not equate "informal" with "illegal people" or "criminal". Residents of informal settlements are mostly working families who could not find affordable planned housing. Good answers explain causes and solutions with respect, and use the census term "spontaneous or squatter housing" or "unplanned settlement".

Green City Kigali: "Rwanda's pilot towards green urbanisation". A planned neighbourhood designed to offer affordable, green housing. Ask whether such projects can house the families of Figure 6.

✦

Practice

Distinguish a slum from an informal settlement.
Describe four characteristics of informal settlements in Kigali.
Explain four causes of informal settlements in Rwanda's towns.
Gasabo had 249,420 households, 41.1% in spontaneous or squatter housing. How many households is that?
Explain how informal settlements on steep slopes increase the risk of disasters.
Compare upgrading in place with relocation as solutions.
"Upgrading is a better solution than relocation for Kigali's informal settlements." Evaluate.

Show answersHide answers

A slum is overcrowded, poor-quality housing lacking basic services; an informal settlement is built without approved plans or permits. Many informal settlements are slums, but some informal houses are well built.
Any four: dense houses on steep slopes or valley edges; narrow footpaths and few roads; poor drainage; shared water and latrines; small crowded rooms; insecure tenure; nearness to jobs.
Any four: rapid migration; low incomes against costly planned housing; shortage of serviced land; steep or wet land left unplanned; informal land subdivision; history before planning rules.
$0.411 \times 249\,420 = 102\,512$ households.
Building removes vegetation and adds roofs and paths, so rain runs off fast; cuts into slopes weaken them; there are no drains, so water saturates the soil, causing floods and landslides that hit closely packed houses.
Upgrading keeps people near jobs and social networks and costs less per person, but cannot make very dangerous sites safe. Relocation removes people from danger and allows full planning, but costs more, may move people far from work, and can break communities.
Upgrading suits most settlements: cheaper (about €830 per beneficiary in the 2023 project), keeps jobs and communities, involves residents. But for high-risk zones (landslides, floods, wetlands), relocation to planned sites such as Karama is necessary. Best: upgrading by default, relocation for high-risk sites.

Quick check

Key points

Spontaneous or squatter housing: 8.9% of households nationally, 40.1% in Kigali, 53.2% in Nyarugenge (2022).
Causes: migration, low incomes, costly planned housing, shortage of serviced land, steep and wet land, informal subdivision, history.
Problems: floods and landslides, disease, fire risk, insecure tenure, pollution of wetlands.
Solutions: upgrading in place (AFD and EU project for about 60,000 people; RUDP-II), relocation from high-risk zones (Karama), strategies and targets, affordable housing, wetland protection.

1Half of Nyarugenge's households

2Characteristics

3Causes

4Problems

5Solutions in Rwanda

Half of Nyarugenge's households

Characteristics

Causes

Problems

Solutions in Rwanda