JUST over 60 per cent of Jamaica's urban population live in slums, a proportion that the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ) and various stakeholders say has serious implications for the country's attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

In a national report on the country's progress towards the achievement of internationally agreed development goals, including the MDGs, attention was drawn to the progress already made, while areas in which it was lagging or behind, were also pointed out.

"[There is] significant slippage in the proportion of the urban population living in unacceptable living conditions or slums... the implications [of which] can negatively impact all the MDGs," said the report, which will be presented to the United Nations Economic and Social annual ministerial review in Geneva in July.

According to the report, which covered the years from 1990 to 2007, a 2005 estimate indicated that 60.2 per cent of urban dwellers lived in slums. This compares to the 2001 estimate of 35.7 per cent and an estimated 29.2 per cent in 1990.

Goal number seven of the MDGs, to which Jamaica is among the 189 signatories, is to ensure environmental sustainability. The targets are to reduce the proportion of the urban population living
in slums, increase the proportion of the population using an improved drinking water source and increase the proportion of the population using an improved sanitation facility.

While the former showed negligible improvement of point two percentage points (91.7 per cent in 2007 compared with 91.5 per cent in 2000), the latter declined by one percentage point (98.9 per cent in 2007 as against 99.8 per cent in 2000).

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