Planning for the urban future
Thursday, 31 December 2009
Enayet Rasul Bhuiyan
Indeed, modern cities round the world have their tremendous attraction for rural people. Third or fourth generation of city dwellers, tired of city life and wanting a retreat to the quiet of the countryside, may chose a sojourn to villages. But such urbanites who return to villages do so as a refreshing change or a vacation. They do not make the villages their permanent homes.
The greater number of the world's people are still concentrated in villages or rural areas. But unlike any other time in history, a massive migration of people from rural to urban areas occurred worldwide during the last century. The world now has the greatest number of its urban people compared to any time in recorded human history and there is no sign that this migration is on the ebb. Rather all reliable projections suggest that this migration will become stronger and stronger in the years ahead and eventually the greater part of mankind would be living in cities.
Europe and North America were at the forefront of urbanisation in the last century. Now less than one tenth of the people of these two continents live in rural areas. Asia, the continent with the highest population, has been afflicted by the same trend and Asian cities are expected to hold the greatest number of urban people in the world in another decade and a half from now. In 1950, only two cities, New York and London, had more than eight million inhabitants. Today, there are 22 and experts predict that there will be 33 by the year 2015, 19 of them in Asia.
Thus, urbanisation has become a very obsessive force worldwide. The rapid pace of urbanisation may be undesirable but that has nothing to do with people the world over overwhelmingly wanting to change their positions in relation to where they live and work : massively away from rural areas and into urban ones.
The switching over to a city-based existence makes powerful economic sense. The migrants can get regular work and earnings in the city. The earnings in the majority of cases prove to be substantially greater than what they got from irregular work in rural areas. Not all rural migrants to cities are doomed to a wretched slum existence. Many of them endure hard life on the pavements but build up small businesses or engage in trade and manufacturing to gradually break out of the poverty trap, something they could never do at their rural points of origin.
It takes time, but experiences the world over shows that urbanisation, on the whole, is a lifting up process as people, rising above poverty lines, are able to educate their children more, consume more calories and consume more consumer goods. In fact, urbanisation is the indicator of the advancement of a country. All economies at the primary stage are characterised by the greatest number of their people in rural areas with agriculture as the main occupation of people. The more an economy becomes mature and prosperous, the greater is seen the reduction of its dependence on agriculture which means that the greater number of its people must be having an urban existence and getting employment in manufacturing or service industries in urban areas. Thus, urbanisation with all its attendant drawbacks, is a measure of a country's move up the economic ladder.
Bangladesh is a part of the world and it can be no different from the worldwide trend. According to estimates by UN agencies, the urbanisation rate of Bangladesh is five to six per cent annually. Thus, more than 50 per cent of this country could be living in urban areas by the year 2025 and Dhaka could grow to become the world's fourth populous city by the year 2015.
Is this an outlook to be dreaded ? Certainly not, if we correctly understand the forces of history or the processes of modernisation and social change. Bangladesh should not look at urbanisation as a fearful phenomenon to be reversed or postponed. The imperative is to start taking immediate short and long term measures, to make the most of urbanization which is almost an irresistible force. Urbanisaton should not be perceived as a fearful development with growing slums, widening of the circles of urban poverty and creation of worse environmental and economic problems if the planning process can be geared to cope with rapid urbanisation in the coming years.
Urban planning and its application is still at nascent stages in Bangladesh and this is unacceptable. Rajdhani Unnayan Katripakha (RAJUK), the body that has been entrusted with the supreme responsibility of the planned growth of Dhaka city, is not found doing its work with any vision or dedication. Urban planning and its execution exist in name only in the operational activities of RAJUK. This vital body needs to adopt proper urban planning as its motto and acquire sufficient capacities to serve this end.
Indeed, modern cities round the world have their tremendous attraction for rural people. Third or fourth generation of city dwellers, tired of city life and wanting a retreat to the quiet of the countryside, may chose a sojourn to villages. But such urbanites who return to villages do so as a refreshing change or a vacation. They do not make the villages their permanent homes.
The greater number of the world's people are still concentrated in villages or rural areas. But unlike any other time in history, a massive migration of people from rural to urban areas occurred worldwide during the last century. The world now has the greatest number of its urban people compared to any time in recorded human history and there is no sign that this migration is on the ebb. Rather all reliable projections suggest that this migration will become stronger and stronger in the years ahead and eventually the greater part of mankind would be living in cities.
Europe and North America were at the forefront of urbanisation in the last century. Now less than one tenth of the people of these two continents live in rural areas. Asia, the continent with the highest population, has been afflicted by the same trend and Asian cities are expected to hold the greatest number of urban people in the world in another decade and a half from now. In 1950, only two cities, New York and London, had more than eight million inhabitants. Today, there are 22 and experts predict that there will be 33 by the year 2015, 19 of them in Asia.
Thus, urbanisation has become a very obsessive force worldwide. The rapid pace of urbanisation may be undesirable but that has nothing to do with people the world over overwhelmingly wanting to change their positions in relation to where they live and work : massively away from rural areas and into urban ones.
The switching over to a city-based existence makes powerful economic sense. The migrants can get regular work and earnings in the city. The earnings in the majority of cases prove to be substantially greater than what they got from irregular work in rural areas. Not all rural migrants to cities are doomed to a wretched slum existence. Many of them endure hard life on the pavements but build up small businesses or engage in trade and manufacturing to gradually break out of the poverty trap, something they could never do at their rural points of origin.
It takes time, but experiences the world over shows that urbanisation, on the whole, is a lifting up process as people, rising above poverty lines, are able to educate their children more, consume more calories and consume more consumer goods. In fact, urbanisation is the indicator of the advancement of a country. All economies at the primary stage are characterised by the greatest number of their people in rural areas with agriculture as the main occupation of people. The more an economy becomes mature and prosperous, the greater is seen the reduction of its dependence on agriculture which means that the greater number of its people must be having an urban existence and getting employment in manufacturing or service industries in urban areas. Thus, urbanisation with all its attendant drawbacks, is a measure of a country's move up the economic ladder.
Bangladesh is a part of the world and it can be no different from the worldwide trend. According to estimates by UN agencies, the urbanisation rate of Bangladesh is five to six per cent annually. Thus, more than 50 per cent of this country could be living in urban areas by the year 2025 and Dhaka could grow to become the world's fourth populous city by the year 2015.
Is this an outlook to be dreaded ? Certainly not, if we correctly understand the forces of history or the processes of modernisation and social change. Bangladesh should not look at urbanisation as a fearful phenomenon to be reversed or postponed. The imperative is to start taking immediate short and long term measures, to make the most of urbanization which is almost an irresistible force. Urbanisaton should not be perceived as a fearful development with growing slums, widening of the circles of urban poverty and creation of worse environmental and economic problems if the planning process can be geared to cope with rapid urbanisation in the coming years.
Urban planning and its application is still at nascent stages in Bangladesh and this is unacceptable. Rajdhani Unnayan Katripakha (RAJUK), the body that has been entrusted with the supreme responsibility of the planned growth of Dhaka city, is not found doing its work with any vision or dedication. Urban planning and its execution exist in name only in the operational activities of RAJUK. This vital body needs to adopt proper urban planning as its motto and acquire sufficient capacities to serve this end.