www.ijird.com August, 2019 Vol 8 Issue 8 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF INNOVATIVE RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT DOI No. : 10.24940/ ijird/ 2019/ v8/ i8/ AUG19052 Page 82 Copping with the Menance of Environmental Deterioration in Urban Slum Areas within Jos Metropolis, Nigeria 1. Introduction Slums the places where poor people struggle to make aliving and bring up their families, and the places where about one third of the world’s urban population live. (The challenge of slums: global report on human settlements, 2003) The importance of maintaining a healthy and sustainable environment cannot be overemphasized.The UN- HABITAT (2012), defines slum as any specific place, whether a whole city or a neighborhood, more than half of all households lack improved water, improved sanitation, sufficient living area, durable housing, secure tenure or combinations of two. Recently as maintained by Cities Alliance Action Plan (1999), slums are neglected parts of cities where housing and living conditions are appallingly poor. The case study conducted in Chengdu; China defined slums as “shanties in low-lying areas”. Slums are home to the poorest of urban populations in Africa. The houses inhabited by slum dwellers are mostly decrepit, overcrowded, in neighborhoods that are prone to flooding &beset with poor sanitation & shortage of portage water (Emma-Ochu, et al., 2016).They are areas which little government attention in terms of provision or maintenance of public facilities and infrastructure is being felt. These are high- density squalid central city tenements to spontaneous squatter settlement without legal recognition which sprawl at the edge of cities. Currently, about 1 billion people live in slums, with most slum dwellers located in less developed countries, which accounts for about 30% of their urban population. The number of slum dwellers is projected to increase to 2 billion by 2030 and to 3 billion by 2050 if current trends persist (UN-Habitat, 2010; United Nations, 2015a), as cited by Mahabir,et al.,(2016).Available data reveal that the population of Nigeria has been increasing at an alarming rate. Our towns and cities are growing rapidly. The current urbanization rate of Nigeria is 5.5 percent per annum and the urban population was put at 50 percent in 2012 (Pepple, 2012a) as cited by Mallo, et al., (2015).The slum situation in Nigeria is already frightening for the reason that the proportion of people affected by slum conditions is such a significant element in sub-Sahara Africa. In 2012, the estimated population of 47 sub-Sahara African countries was 910.4million and of this, 167million were Nigerians. Of the 167million people in Nigeria, 61.1 percent were said to reside in slums (World Bank, 2013; FRN-National Population Commission, 2013; Pepple, 2012a) as cited by Mallo, et al., (2015). ISSN 2278 – 0211 (Online) Emmamoge Orewere Lecturer, Department of Horticulture and Landscape Technology, Feder al College of For est r y, Jos, Plat eau St at e, Nigeria Michael Olabode Ogunrayewa Senior Lecturer, Department of Architecture, University of Jos, Nigeria Dr. Ayodele Owonubi Lecturer, Department of Horticulture and Landscape Technology, Feder al College of For est r y, Jos, Niger ia Abstract : The Sustainable Development Goals adopted by the United Nation of ending poverty and hunger (goal one), provision of clean water and sanitation (goal six) and sustainable cities and community’s development (goal eleven) targeted for year 2030 and Nigeria’s Vision 20:2020 (NV 20:2020) Economic Transformation Blueprint cannot be overemphasized. Slums the places where poor people struggle to make aliving and bring up their families, and the places where about one third of the world’s urban population live. Slums are neglected parts of cities where housing and living conditions are appallingly poor. The study examined urban slum growth and how they contribute to environmental deterioration within the city. Slums are characterized by existence of poor environmental control with stagnant waste water in generally dirty and unclean living environments, overcrowding, loss of green areas, environmental pollution, dilapidated structures, land degradation, flooding amongst other. The study area is Anguwan Rogo located in Jos North Local Government Area of Plateau State, Nigeria. Data for this paper is gathered through physical site survey, case study and the review of related literature. The paper submits by way of conclusion that rehabilitation; planning and implementation should be inclusive of the input of urban designers working closely with slum dwellers, governments and other relevant stakeholders to ensure that prevalence of slums is reduced to the barest minimum and sustainable development is ensured. Keywords: Copping, environmental deterioration, Jos metropolis, urban slums, plateau state