Problems of Urbanisation

Abstract

The problems which the medical worker in towns will face are rather different from the problems of rural areas. Most towns in tropical Africa are of comparatively recent origin and in a majority of them there has been an explosive growth of population. Such rapid increases in numbers, with the consequent strain on health and social facilities, the dislocation of family life and adjustments called upon by various members of the family to suit new modes of life, have created some of the major problems of our age. If the growth of cities is not planned, ever increasing numbers from rural areas migrate to towns in search of work. Until suitable employment is found such families ‘squat’ in overcrowded conditions scrounging from friends and relatives. Such ‘septic fringes’ of the cities are often sources of epidemics of various kinds affecting the city population. Reflux from the city to the village will also carry such urban infections to the rural areas.