ABSTRACT

This chapter examines urban poverty and its associated characteristics as plausible explanations for the role of the urban poor in environmental degradation of Nigerian cities and addresses examples from Enugu, Nigeria. The uneven development of the urban economy implies a diversity of means by which people struggle, culturally and socially, to survive and to better their position. How the poor degrade the environment can be best appreciated by examining some attitudes, habits, conditions, activities and occupations associated with the poor resulting from the bazaar economy in which they operate and its derived culture of poverty. They include: their psychological orientation; the housing environment; energy consumption habits; incompatible land uses; and street trading, hawking and begging. Every state capital in Nigeria has witnessed tremendous influx of rural migrants in search of the good life. One policy implication is the need to reduce the perceived disparity between the city and the rural area.