Examples of Problems of ELDCs and how they are attempted to be solved

15/3/03

Every city had to start somewhere. No matter how much it has boomed, it still once faced the serious problems of urban growth. Even the most prosperous cities today such as Paris and New York had to go through a dreaded period of troubles at some stage, just like many have to encounter at present. These affluent cities in are nowadays labeled to be in EMDCs (Economically More Developed Countries), while the not-so-fortunate cities are categorized in the ELDCs (Economically Less Developed Countries). Cities in ELDCs stumble upon several dilemmas such as overpopulation, gridlock, not enough land to expand, air pollution, etc. Every city, though, tries its’ best to solve their problems. The point is that this doesn’t always work. The following thesis will discuss a number of cities in ELDCs that face problems like these, and how they are attempted towards resolution. These cities will be: Bangkok, Cairo, and Jakarta.

The concept “looks can be deceiving” is instantly sprung into action when discussing the economy of the city of Bangkok in Thailand. When perceived by an outsider, Bangkok is a completely developed city with a great deal to offer. However, it is fully mistaken by its bright lights and magnificent architecture, because for certain inhabitants, Bangkok is a hard life out in the city. It is known as a primate city, which is a metropolis that involves very much rural to urban migration. In fact, Bangkok is one of the most dominant primate cities in the world. The increase in population and modernization brought various problems that Bangkok is forced to deal with at this age. These issues have deteriorated the quality of living to the citizens of Bangkok, which has now become the main concern for the government. The more people that migrate to Bangkok, the worse the situation becomes. The populace is growing so quickly, no one even has time to adjust.

Bangkok itself was not planned with much care. This is one of its negativities that lead to a track of other difficulties. The core of Bangkok is situated near a river, as it was originally sited for defense purposes. This results in natural flooding disrupting the city. However, the flood peril in Bangkok is not only a natural incidence but is also an outcome from the urbanization and the exploitation of natural resources. An example is the groundwater use in the expanding suburbs which provokes land disintegration. As a result of the city having no sewage system except community treatment plants, the sewage and water pollution in Bangkok is become more and more serious. Even though six more institutions are being built at present, the procedure and continuation are still in crucial consideration as it will cost a large amount of the city's funds. In addition to this matter, there is no actual developed CBD yet, which once again points out the lack of planning. Hotels, Cinemas, Shopping areas and Office blocks are in clusters together in groups, but still they do not form a CBD as they are distant from other clusters and are separated by ‘shop houses’. This issue cannot be solved however, unless a time machine is invented.

The dreaded issue that Bangkok is world famous for is its traffic problem (shown to the left). It has in fact, been nicknamed Gridlock City. Being the fastest-growing area in Thailand in terms of human population as well as vehicle population, Bangkok just has not been able to manage the huge demand that has been forced on its existing road systems. What made things worse, is that Bangkok has no underground system, and until recently, only a couple of railways. It is said that 600 extra cars pass by each day. In 1972, police records showed that there were about 243,000 cars in Bangkok (not including motorcycles), and the average speed accomplished on the main road was 23 km/hour. It got worse, though, when in the year 1990, the record rose 1 million cars on the street and, despite the construction of new primary roads, the average speed became under 10 km/hour. To help this dire condition, motorcycle taxis were introduced as a way of beating the traffic. The only dilemma involving this, however, was that they were more dangerous and provoked more accidents. The traffic of Bangkok has affected everyday life greatly. For example, to make school on time, young students are waken up at 4:30am. The ‘day-span’ is very short. Although Bangkok has not resolved this problem yet, it is definitely taking some measures. Policemen have been trained to deliver babies, since women would not be able to get to the hospital in time, Doctors drive up and down the roads on motorcycle taxis in case of emergencies, and businessmen customize their vehicles to maximum luxury including lavatory facilities, microwaves, fridges, fax machines, telephones and even internet. Since the communication level between deal-making is so poor, businessmen do it all in their automobiles. Other solutions the Bangkok administrations are working on is an extra 60m of railway, a very large highway, and a sky train (shown above), which undoubtedly has been completed. Even though they are acting upon the challenges, eventually they will be in the same position again as population will increase more and more.

In result of the horrendous traffic, the numerous cars, and the many factories, the air pollution in Bangkok is desperately heavy. 13% of outpatients of the hospital have problems with their lungs. Because of all the contamination in Bangkok, some individuals are forced to wear special masks to help them avoid breathing in all the poisonous fumes in the atmosphere (shown below). Another act that is being taken is by the mayor, who is heading several campaigns to reduce the dangerous air pollution.

As the rural to urban migration degree is high, many people are too poor to buy ...

This is a preview of the whole essay

As the rural to urban migration degree is high, many people are too poor to buy proper residence and way of life. This brings the concept of Shanty towns to the urban area of Bangkok. Citizens who cannot afford certain accommodations of life build their homes on unwanted land using material such as metal plastic, wood and so on. This is called squatting. Squatting occurs in most if not all developing cities. The problem with this scheme is that people living in these homes get so comfortable that even if they do raise enough money, wouldn’t want to move. In fact, alliances of slums even sometimes update themselves into pleasant community areas. All in all, the people of Bangkok do not think the city is growing well economically as generally, the rich is only considered. It is said, that the rich are getting richer, while the poor are getting poorer. At the moment Bangkok is not focusing on this problem, so it has not taken any measures to improve this yet.

Cairo, the capital of Egypt, is one of the largest, most urbanized cities in Africa. In fact, it is not only the most supreme in Africa, but also in the Middle East. Despite its desert location, Cairo has grown rapidly to reach more than 12 million inhabitants in 1994. This would make it a megacity along with several other cities including Bangkok. It has undergone many of the political, economic, and social conditions of Egypt, which has influenced its growth and its path of urban development. These difficulties of the past has resulted to a wise and experienced Cairo that is at present not only the country’s capital, but also its centre of economy, social activity, service, and administration. The city's size and rapid increase have resulted in crucial tribulations in most aspects of the life of its population.

Much of Cairo’s urbanization is a consequence of rural to urban migration. To define more clearly, in Egypt, excessive rates of natural increase partially explain for rapid urban growth rates. Within the urban portion of Egypt, large centers such as Cairo have undergone more of a population increase than both medium and small-sized centers put together. While the population of Egypt has only increased 5 times its populace in the 20th century, the amount of inhabitants in Cairo itself have increased by almost 16 times. When studied, it is clear that the major demographic change of Cairo’s populace occurred in the 19th century when death rates began to deteriorate while birth rates stayed constant. The overpopulation of Cairo has resulted to a series of other problems such as a lack of water and sewage systems, unemployment, gridlock, etc., making the situation quite similar to Bangkoks’ but not as severe. As a solution to his problem, new dormitory towns are built (e.g. El Obour), and new satellite towns are built (e.g. Sadat City). These are all linked with other existing cities, and are purposed to shift the limelight away from Cairo.

Different to other cities in ELDCs, Cairo has hardly any squatter settlements. Instead, most residences are built by bricks and permanent. Several rural-urban migrates live within the regions of ‘Old Cairo’, some finding cramped apartments, while others settle ‘camping’ in vacant spaces in roof-top slums upon various buildings. Numerous other newcomers to the city inhabit Cairo’s ‘City of the Dead’, which is an enormous Muslim burial ground. There, they find shelter, mostly within the tombs themselves! Although the tombs are dry and clean, they do not have electricity, sewerage and running water. The district has now developed into having its own market and workshop industries. To resolve the lack of housing in Cairo, the authorities have attempted to enact an ‘aid-funded’ proposal to repair and enlarge the previous sewage system, to construct plentiful skyscraping apartment blocks, chiefly around the edge of Cairo. In addition to this, Cairo can look forward to an expansion of electricity service.

The air pollution in Cairo is a matter of serious concern, as clouds of black smoke appear each year. It is not exactly confirmed as to what these clouds of smoke are caused by, but researchers hypothesize that they are results of certain industries such as pottery and metal. Cairo has a very poor dispersion factor, which is how fast the pollutants in the air are dispersed because of the weather conditions like the wind, rain, air, temperature etc. In Cairo, this is due to the lack of rain, tall buildings and narrow streets. Breathing in the pollutants in the air can cause respiratory diseases and cancer. The air in Cairo is thick, gray and there is a haze of the city. The sky is not blue but gray, which is very similar to Mexico City and Bangkok. Measures that have been taken to solve this hazardous issue have not only been attempted by Cairo itself, but also by other countries. The United States has given Egypt $54 million to help clean up the air by switching vehicles to using natural gas. The acts being taken by Egypt to solve its city’s problems are mainly campaign proposals and other measures similar to Bangkok’s.

Jakarta, like Cairo and Bangkok, is the capital, largest city, and primary economic center of its country, Indonesia. As a megalopolis, Jakarta is populated by different people with from a variety of different races and tribes with different ‘socio-cultural’ backgrounds. It grows and develops constantly, size wise, population increase, and in terms of economic growth and progress as well. Jakarta, however, has serious problems to do with the development and welfare of its city. Much if this is due to lack of planning, but there are other causes for the disorders as well.

Jakarta has to face a problem that many other developing countries encounter as well: Population increase. Jakarta's population has exploded from 2.7 million in 1960 to 11.5 million in 1995. Part of the reason for this large growth rate is natural increase, which are the citizens already in the city having offspring. The other half of the cause is general migration, people moving from other parts of the world to Jakarta. This population growth problem makes things worse for the general public of Jakarta. It in general strains the capacity of the local government to provide for the basic needs of the people. Citizens are forced to live in self-made houses (very much like Bangkok). This results in a short supply of transportation and health services. The population growth of Jakarta has yet to be fully resolved, but it has definitely been helped with the authorities of Indonesia trying to cut down rural to urban migration.

While air pollution is also a growing concern, Jakarta's utmost ecological challenge may be running its water resources. When the Dutch designed the original water supply, they only capacitated it for less than 1 million. Jakarta now has to discover a way of providing clean water for over 20 million, which is a tremendously difficult task. At the moment, only 35% of Jakarta's houses are given piped water; the rest buy water from vendors, take water from channels, or draw groundwater from private wells. Because of the over-extraction of groundwater, Jakarta is facing heavy land subsidence, which results to the same situation as Bangkok. In addition to this demanding dilemma Jakarta's water quality is suffering from both domestic and industrial pollution. About 80% of Jakarta's water pollution comes from domestic wastewater. The hygiene structure consists of a series of open ditches which lead to the river or sea. Toilets are directly drained into these ditches, and the wastewater can find its way into the city’s drinking water supply. It has now become a daily practice for households to boil their water before drinking it. To improve the sanitation of Jakarta, authorities have attempted to enact environmental campaigns and proposals. Also, the Indonesian government had accomplished a waste disposal master plan for Jakarta that included a phased construction of a standard sewer system. This, however, did not go according to plan, as the preparation of the system provoked many other complications and confusions with employees and so on. As this took too much time, land use within the project area changed quickly. This made the anticipated technological solutions unsuitable.

One of the primary challenges for Jakarta will be to manage urban intrusion onto rural land. Since 1955, the municipal province has enlarged more than threefold. Like most megacities, Jakarta’s urban fringe is growing much more rapidly that the city itself-- in some areas at nearly 18 percent per year. The expansion that Jakarta undergoes is much more diverse than the suburbanization that occurs with the US. Even though some districts are "richer" enclaves, most of the expansion is due to population pressures. This is when the land in the city is costly and unavailable, so the rural-urban migrates must settle at the outskirts of the city. It becomes a cycle, and the borders of Jakarta grow wider and wider. Unintentional, this development is happening at the expense of major agricultural land and ecologically responsive areas. The businesses and houses usually huddle among the main roads, while vast tracks between the roads stay unoccupied and empty. If this routine persists, Jakarta will suffer from higher infrastructure (road) cost and excessive energy utilization in the future. The land use problem of Jakarta has not been focused on at the moment, as Jakarta still has many other more important tribulations it is attempting to solve, such as water pollution.

After investigating the cities above, it is very easy to see that ELDCs face a great deal of problems. By just analyzing two countries, I can already see that many of the problems developing countries have are similar. Dilemmas such as population increase, traffic congestion and poor housing ruin the future for these cities. Every largely developed city in the world was once a developing city though, and these problems, being a part of city growth, are known as growing pains. Some cities, however, bring it on themselves, due to great lack of planning. Planning for a new town is not particularly easy, and not something that can be rushed into. There are numerous things to consider, and when many of them are left out, one ends up with a city like Jakarta. Even if cities do actually encounter some of these problems, strategies of resolution must be started upon immediately. This continues until one fine day, when they will be proudly be labeled an ‘EMDC’.

Bibliography: