Problems and challenges of precarious urban housing in DR Congo

The explosion of unplanned urbanization in African cities is now forcing urban planners to review their planning methods. The development of informal and insecure housing poses serious problems of access to essential urban services. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, urbanization is therefore a largely autonomous phenomenon. The expansion of cities has thus taken place in a context of deficient public action and sometimes in the absence of the state. As a result, precarious neighborhoods have sprung up in an anarchic fashion, becoming increasingly diffuse and leading to the development of spontaneous housing. The spread of these shantytowns around planned urban areas raises the thorny issue of access to drinking water and the emergence of water-borne diseases and other problems that reinforce poverty and insecurity.