Topic: To what extent can the problems of urbanisation be met by a policy of sustainable development?
Sub-title: How the sustainable policies in Hong Kong can iron out the urban problem successfully?
Introduction
More than half of the population of the world are living in urban areas now (Ooi, 2009). There is no surprise that it is the trend in the future of the world. From this point of view, urbanisation is used to describe the growth of the urban cities. Kam Wing Chan (2009) pointed out that urbanisation is caused by the growth of population in the city. The migrants moving from rural areas to urban area and the sprawling of the urban area are the two main patterns of the urbanisation. At the very beginning, urbanisation can boost the economic growth thus leading to a higher living standard of the whole community. Government welcomed the urbanisation or even encourages and develops more urban areas. However, the reality is that urbanisation brought the economic growth to the community together with a bunch of urban problems. The main underlying cause of the problem is the huge population in a tiny place. In this essay, Hong Kong is being used as a case in order to illustrate the urban problems in most of the cities in the World. Additionally, Asia is the home of the fastest growing urban population in the World. Therefore, the main cities in Asia such as Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo and Shanghai are suffering from the urban problems. Those problems are now the obstacles for the economic growth because of the poor transportation system and housing environment and heavy pollution in terms of air, water and solid wastes. With the aim to eliminate the negative effects of the urbanisation and continue the city development, sustainable development policy is the ultimate method. According to WCED report, “sustainable development refers to establish the fundamental needs of the current population without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”(WCED 1987, P.8). Based on this principle, the sustainable development policy makes some improvements on environmental and economic and quality of life for the people living (David L. Blumenthal, 2007). Definitely, it is not an easy task for the government to balance every aspect, therefore, there is a need to evaluate the policy regularly. In the case of Hong Kong, sustainable development policy had been carried out for a long time with the aim to iron out the two main urban problems, which are housing and transport problem. Indeed, to a fair extent the policy can meet the urban problem in Hong Kong. At the end of the essay, there is a comparison with Singapore in order to evaluate the sustainable development policy in Hong Kong and comes up with some recommendations.
Housing problem in Hong Kong
To begin with the housing problem in Hong Kong, incredible population density should be highlighted. The land area of Hong Kong is about 1,100 square kilometres while the total population is around 7 million. The average population density is 6,181 persons per square kilometre (AFCD, 2005) compared with 4,483 persons pre square kilometre in London and 6,814 persons pre square kilometre in Singapore. Because of the geographic factor, Hong Kong has an uneven distribution of population over the territory. Therefore, the housing problems started from the old urban areas that located at north and south of the Victoria Harbour (figure 1). The two sides of Victoria Harbour are the heart of the development of Hong Kong historically; therefore, the land use is mixed and complex. Mixed and unplanned land use plus the unbelievable high population
Figure 1: The overview of the Victoria Harbour
Source: http://www.hongkonghousing.com/
density make the housing problem in Hong Kong unique and difficult to solve. The main housing problem features are small living space, insufficient open areas, shortage of housing supply and public services. The pictures below (figures 2, 3, 4, 5) show how bad the living condition is in Hong Kong. Obviously, it is totally against the principle of sustainable development, which is linked with the concept of quality of life (Moore and Scott, 2005). Based on this concept, housing is not only providing a shelter but also quality living condition to the inhabitant.
Figure 2: The living condition in Hong Kong
Source:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/theweekinpictures/2690758/The-week-in-pictures-6-September-2008.html
Figure 3: The buildings are close to each other
Source: http://www.flatrock.org.nz/topics/money_politics_law/hong_kong_protest.htm
Figure 4: The old public house in Sham Shui Po
Source: http://www.flatrock.org.nz/topics/money_politics_law/hong_kong_protest.htm
Figure 5: The Unplanned Old Town
Source: http://www.flatrock.org.nz/topics/money_politics_law/hong_kong_protest.htm
Housing Policy in Hong Kong
With the aim to iron out the severe problem, Hong Kong really takes sustainable development policy in consideration. According to The Fact Sheet of Hong Kong, the first step is to solve the shortage of land and provide the affordable house for the low to middle class citizens. The second step is to improve the living environment and create a liveable condition for the future (The Fact, 2009). The mission of those policies is in the line with the idea of “sustainable housing should cater for the housing needs of not only this generation but also those to come” (Rebecca, 2000). It is easy to understand that Hong Kong government is trying to build up the future for the next generation and also those are coming.
Reclamation and public Housing Scheme
The initial step is to increase the flat land area supply meeting the demand of land use re-planning. Because of the historical geography difficulties in Hong Kong, the only way to increase the flat land that is reclamation. From 1898, the government had started the reclamation project till now. There are three main objectives of the reclamation and they are releasing the stresses of the surrounding over-crowded districts and supplying the land for the further transportation system development and meeting the future land demand. Reclamation helps to solve the basic problem in Hong Kong. According to the principles, provide a liveable environment for the inhabitants is the key issue beyond meeting the fundamental needs. Public Housing Scheme is to provide the public house for those who cannot afford the rental of private house. According to the statistic, there are 30% of the population living in the public house (HKHA report, 2007/2008). Besides, Hong Kong Housing Authority (HKHA) establishes a harmony living environment such as adequate supporting social services and better living environment with enough living spaces and recreation areas. Furthermore, HKHA also try to monitor the private property provider and stabilize the land supply and the private property market in order to help citizens can own the private house with a reasonable price. Moreover, HKHA takes consideration of the elders in Hong Kong who are not willing to live with their family or via versa
Renewal of old urban area and satellite town development
The ultimate sustainable housing policies in Hong Kong are renewal of old urban area and satellite town development. The awful living environment such as lacking facilities, old building, and high population density leads to rehabilitate and re-plan the old town areas.
1) Redevelopment will target old and dilapidated building with poor condition in the old town areas. These sites will be re-planned and rebuilt to achieve clear environmental and social benefits. For instance, increase the open space areas and provide more communities facilities. Furthermore, rebuilt the roads and transport networks and public areas are the other dimension of this program. No matter what methods are being used, they have to fulfil three criteria, which are environmental friendliness, durability and cost-benefit efficiency.
2) Rehabilitation is a comprehensive co-operation program between the building owners, the government and the property developers in order to prevent to prevent the decay of the building environment and repair and maintenance of building. Under this program, government will provide professional advice and funding to the building owners. It is a thoughtful and smart program. Because of the government loan and support, owners and the residents are more willing to stay in their own houses thus reducing the demand of new houses. On the other hand, government can monitor the program ensuring the design of the reconstruction is durable and have a better living condition. Finally, a lot of job opportunities have been created because of the massive rehabilitation program.
3) Revitalisation is an the ultimate mean, which co-ordinate with the previous two programmes. The main idea is to revive and strengthen the economic of different district. Based on the district history and features, government encourages and helps some “local” small business to develop in order to improve the district economic and preserve the heritage. Revitalisation is a holistic means that encourage and develop the local economic development whilst balance the local preservation. To be more precise, this program preserves the historical features and improves the current situation and also plans the future development.
Parallel to the old town renewal, government needs to redistribute the population. Satellite town is the way to achieve this aim. The main task of the establishment of satellite town is to solve over-crowded condition. There are nine new towns in Hong Kong to meet the increase in population (figure 6). All the new towns are well design with good infrastructure and community facilities. Another main concept of new town development is self-sufficient community. A new town should include a well-developed transportation network, own commercial and Industrial centres and variety of governmental and recreational.
Follow up policies
Apart from the reclamation, building public house, renewal old town and establishing satellite town are the ways to provide a liveable environment to the inhabitants. Being a comprehensive and thoughtful policies, those are the basic things. Hong Kong government also implement some other policies with the aim to obtain sustainability. The design of the house takes the environment issue into consideration. Enable energy saving, efficient waste management and using environment-friendly building materials are the methods used by Hong Kong government to establish a sustainable living condition. During the design, seawater was being introduced for the toilet flushing instead of the potable water; Meanwhile, encourages the constructors to use soft wood for the building materials. Efficient waste management is another designs that making the living condition to be more sustainable in the future. Therefore, a massive recycle program is being carried out in all public housing estates and satellite towns. One of the noticeable issues that the government had paid attention to the light pollution in Hong Kong, therefore, introducing low-energy light bulb and educating the citizens is the strategy to eliminate the light pollution. Environment problems occur during the construction period as well. The construction sites are the sources of noise, dust and traffic pollution (Rebecca L, 2000). Considering that, minimization of those pollutions is the key task of Hong Kong government. Additionally, government imposed the taxes on the disposal of construction waste and hazards material in order to reduce those materials. One neglectful issue is about the health and safety of the construction sites. Therefore, there are a bunch of regulations that force the operator taking care of the constructors’ working condition.
Figure 6: The population growth from 1990 to 2008
Source: Hong Kong Census and Statistics Department
The situation in Singapore
Singapore is the city similar to Hong Kong and both of them are facing the same housing problem. The total area of Singapore is around 700 square kilometres with 4.8 million population thus the density is around 6,814 persons per kilometre. The Housing and Development Board (HDB) was the largest housing provider in Singapore, which already satisfied over 85% housing needs (Lawrence C, 2004). Establish new town and develop super-high rise flat (figure 7) are the two main strategies to tackle the housing problem. Super-high rise flat is with the result in solving the housing shortage, over-crowding, dilapidation, poor sanitation and inadequate facilities. On the other hand, new town is used to deurbanise that is moving the dwellers to the residential zones and develop the self-sufficient community. The future plan of Singapore is focusing on “high density and high-rising housing” (Lawrence, 2004). Reviewing the housing policy of Singapore, which gains the most successful result. Majority of the population are being resided and having a quality living environment as well. Therefore, Singapore is going to focus on providing a way of life for the citizens in the future.
Figure 7: The super High-rise Flat in Singapore
Source: Strait Times
Comparison
The first criterion to evaluate the policy is based on the mission. Obviously, both Hong Kong and Singapore are following the mission and implement a series of plan to deal with the housing problem. It is important to follow the mission, which gives the correct direction and makes all the plans toward the target.
Secondly, sustainable development should balance different aspects at the same time. From this point of view, both governments did a lot to achieve this measurement. Housing is not only for the adult, but also the elderly; Housing is to provide a home to live with enough space and good condition; public services such as transportation network and community facilities should be well developed within the residential area; however, there is a failure example in Hong Kong. Tin Sheung Wai is one of the latest new towns with a lot of serious family problems due to insufficient community facilities and services such as social workers and family care centres. Since the problems are getting worse and the government is unable to find out any solution in a short time, the number of suicide is keep increasing. Therefore, the town is called “ pathetic city”.
Thirdly, the inborn factor makes Hong Kong facing more problem than Singapore. HDB is the housing department in Singapore and it had already satisfied over 85% of the housing need, which is a successful number. To contrast, there are 30% of population of Hong Kong are living in public houses that provided by government. The reason behind is that the private property providers are the main houses provider in Hong Kong. It is no surprises that profit oriented developers are hesitant to try out the affordable and environmental friendly houses unless the houses offer a better profit prospect. Meanwhile, Hong Kong citizens treat house as an investment tool thus leading to a very high property price. Therefore, government fails to control the private providers. In Singapore, HDB has an authority to acquire private land for public house building. The above factors make the situation more complex and difficult to deal with.
Finally, the most serious consequence is the environmental hazard in Hong Kong. Reclamation caused a huge environment problem to the Victoria Harbour. Because of the enormous reclamation, the size of the harbour is diminishing (figure 8 and 9 ) and harmful for the living environment of the Chinese White Dolphin. As mentions before, sustainable development should be balance social , economy, resource and environment ,therefore, Hong Kong’s housing policies cannot be considered as high achievement sustainable development policies although they did improve the living condition and sufficient houses to the citizens in Hong Kong.
Figure 8: The history of reclamation from 194501993 in Hong Kong
Source: http://www.harbourprotection.org/web_image/other/appendix09.jpg
Figure 9: Three Phases Reclamation
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_and_Wan_Chai_Reclamation
Conclusion
The main principle of sustainable development is to satisfy the current needs without affecting the coming generation. In order to evaluate the housing policies in Hong Kong, there is no single indicator to monitor the sustainability (Michalos, 1997). In fact, Hong Kong government is following the concept of sustainable development and implementing a set of policy to handle the housing difficulties. After the long time effort, the achievement cannot be neglect that tackles the core-housing problem successfully. Despite the achievement is obvious, the criticism is for the long-term problem. Environment hazard, family problem and high price of private house are the three main drawbacks of the housing policy. Compare with Singapore, the policy in Hong Kong meets the basic housing needs but there is a room for improvement to create a sustainable and liveable community.
References:
· Ciok Ling Ooi 2009. Challenge of sustainability for Asian urbanisation. Current opinion in Environment Sustainability 2009, 1:187-191
· David L. Blumenthal and Edward J. Martain 2007. Urban Sustainable Development, Lower Income communities, and Transorganisation. Public Administration, 30: 95-107
· Hong Kong Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department
http://www.afcd.gov.hk/eindex.html
· Hong Kong Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department
http://www.afcd.gov.hk/eindex.html
· Hong Kong fact sheet: new town and new major urban development 2009 report. Available at:
www.gov.hk/en/about/abouthk/.../towns&urban_developments.pdf
· Hong Kong housing Authority
http://www.housingauthority.gov.hk/en
· Hong Kong 2009-2010 Policy Address full report, available at :
http://www.policyaddress.gov.hk/09-10/eng/index.html
· Hong Kong Sustainable Development Department
http://www.susdev.gov.hk/html/en/council/
· Kam Wing Chan and Ying Hu 2003. Urbanization in China in the 1990s: New definition, Different Series, and Revised Trends. The China Review, vol. 3 No, 2(Fall 2003), 49-71
· Lawrence C. 2004. Public Housing Governance in Singapore: Current Issues and Challenges
· Michalos, A. (1997). Combining social, economic and environmental indicators to measure sustainable human well-being. Social indicators research, 41, 1-4
· Moore, N., & Soott, M. (Eds). (2005). Renewing urban communities: Environment, citizenship and sustainability in Ireland. Aldershot: Ashgate
· Rebecca L. H. CHIU (2000). Environmental Sustainability of Hong Kong’s Housing System and Housing process model. International planning studies, Vol, 5, No. 1, 45-64
· Report of the the World Commission on Environment and Development. Our Common Future. Chapter 2: Towards Sustainable Development. Available at: http://habitat.igc.org/open-gates/ocf-02.htm#I
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