ABSTRACT
Rural settlements are essential components in the development of Third World countries. Through rural settlements and small urban centers, rural people are linked to wider regional and national markets. Social and economic services should be available in rural settlements and small urban centers which act as crossroads in the transport and communication networks. The economic crisis has had and will continue to have enormous repercussions in all aspects of urban life in the Third World. In most nations, local governments have enormous legal and institutional responsibilities in the planning, maintenance and rehabilitation of urban areas. Some, perhaps in a desperate attempt to show they are doing something, even try to forcibly send some city inhabitants to rural areas or other regions. So the differences in the city for the rich and the city for the poor, the legal and the illegal city, are not new.
