An Analysis Of Inner City Decay A Study Of Some Selected Slums In Jos Metropolis Plateau State Nigeria.

Abstract Slum is a squatter settlement that is formed as a result of infiltration of people particularly into urban areas. The study aimed at identifying slum characteristics and how they contribute to environmental deterioration within the study area systematic sampling technique was adopted to select households for the study. In analyzing the problems of the selected slums in Jos a total of 347 well structured questionnaires were distributed to selected households in the study area after the survey instrument was protested effectively in a pilot survey which involved 50 questionnaires were administered and were recovered for the analysis. The results revealed that most of the household size in the selected slums is between 5 to 9 persons the number of persons per room falls between 6-7 persons per room this indicate that the average occupancy ratio in the selected slums is quite high most of the buildings in the selected slums were built between 11 to 15 years ago similarly the predominant dwelling type in the selected slums are compounds with shared facilities. The toilets are in very bad conditions the bathrooms are in fairly good conditions. Most of the dwellings were built with cement blocks and roofed with corrugated iron roofing sheets as indicated by the data collected. The walls of most of the dwelling in the selected slums are in bad condition while the roofs and painting of most dwelling. It was observed that major source of water supply in the selected slums is hand dug well and the other sources of water supply include streams tap rainwater and buying from water vendors. The study therefore recommends among other things the transformation and new development alternatives in the planning.