Provision of residential housing and environmental development in Calabar: Policy contradictions

Abstract

The increasing proportion of the built-up area of cities now in squalid conditions and the share size of human population residing in them particularly in the developing countries, give cause for alarm. The gloomy externalities of urban progress in the form of poor and inadequate housing, filth and decaying infrastructure and the progressive brutalization of man in such an environment are now casting doubts on the real essence of cities. Overwhelmed by the enormity of city problems, most governments in the developing countries continue to grope for solution, sometimes formulating selfcontradicting, self-defeating policies. The paper examined two contrasting residential districts in Calabar Municipality, namely, the Mbukpa Residential District and the Cross River Housing Estate. The former is a poor residential district where most houses are qualitatively inferior. The latter is a planned residential district where houses have high qualitative rating. However, the living conditions in Mbukpa District are outcomes of a gradual process of environmental degradation.