However, the outlook of more people living in (or moving to) cities seems to be that pollution in these areas will rise, crime will increase, overcrowding will become evident and disease and other health related issues will develop.
These problems put enormous pressure on governments but they often seem powerless to help because financial resources are unavailable.
GOVERNMENTS, WHAT SHOULD THEY DO?
In most cities, the majority of people living there are poor. Governments should concentrate on helping this particular group of people. This can be done by having governments improve their services. A good approach would be to help those less fortunate people with cheaper land and building materials. Also, they should consider more obvious factors like sanitation and availability of drinking water
Governments should try to provide assistance with doctors, hospitals, schooling for uneducated children and public transportation.
DHRAVI
Dhravi is the largest slum in Asia. It is unfortunately the best example of the consequences of overcrowding in cities and urbanisation.
It has a population of over one million people even though the area of the city is just 150 hectares. Because of the staggering amount of inhavitants, one would not expect a very high standard of living. In fact, the city is literally built and is situated on land which was previously a rubbish dump and is surrounded by mangrove swamps.
However, even though Dhravi is a complete slum, people continue to flock to the city in order to make a better life for themselves and their family (if any).
This city is nearly completely deprived of all resources which we often take for granted every day. Water comes through once a day and it is not known if it is completely clean as there is no way of checking. Unbelievably, there is only one toilet to accommodate for every 6000 people. Inhabitants of this city die every day from disease and the unsanitary environment. The standard of this city is the outcome of a developing or underdeveloped city increasingly becoming overcrowded.
AIR POLLUTION - a result of overcrowded cities
Rising population figures in all world cities have had dramatic consequences on the amount of pollution released into the air. Air pollution is a common problem in the larger cities of the world. Transport, industry and home heating are the main sources of air pollution. Many cities already have more air pollution than they can handle and the health risks that this has are many and unavoidable. Smog does not affect cities today as badly as it did, say 50 years ago but it still does an enormous and inexcusable amount of damage as well as causing a lot of deaths.
MEXICO CITY
Mexico city is a city which is amazingly overcrowded, and with more people migrating to the area all of the time. In forty years, Mexico City’s population had soared from 344 000 to 1.7 million. Then in the next forty years the population grew to 14 million. In comparison, Australia has a population of around 18 million for the entire country, let alone one single city. However, their government is doing things to try to slow down the growth of the area. For example, they are now attempting to control the amount of people who want to migrate there.
Crowded cities face harsh consequences due to the strain on resources from the large population in those areas. Not enough resources means that the city will be forced to live with such as clean water, to prevention of disease, to poor housing conditions and even homelessness. Already, around 10 million people are dying a year as a result of the lack of resources.
IS THERE A SOLUTION?
The growth of cities and the urbanisation is irreversible because of a global change in economics to technological, industrial and service-based economies. But, there are several strategies which can be applied to help to control and plan out cities futures. Firstly, a strong government is needed to help address the problems and situation of the concerned city. They need to recognise that plans which have worked in one city may not work in their own as every city has its own requirements. Cities secondary to the major ones (often capital cities) should be encouraged to be developed in order to control population growth. Building on the economic advantages of these secondary cities will help to attract migrants. Governments will need to give more attention to providing satisfactory housing for poor people. These are just a few strategies which can help to improve a city.
Conclusion:
The problems that our governments face today are many, and some may never be able to be corrected. The damage that has been done to a lot of the developing cities of the world is major. But if governments continue to change the way they run their cities and continue to aim to control and plan out how they run their cities, then they will be able to improve the low standards that many places currently have. Hopefully, with new strategies they will be able to provide more resources and lessen the damage, so that these cities will be better and stronger for the future.
