Topic: To what extent can the problems of urbanization be met by policies of sustainable development?
Subtitle: How does Ho Chi Minh City solve its urban problem?
Abstract
Along with the emergence of urbanisation, more and more metropolitans have encountered a lot of urban problems, such as pollution and water management. It is clear that the UN and governments have paid attention to these problems and tried to use sustainable development policies to solve them. Since Vietnam adopted the reform programme, a lot of foreign investments had been poured into in Ho Chi Minh City and more and more people moved into this city. However, lack of infrastructures and environmental consciousness resulted in water supply problem. Moreover, poor families did not have plenty money to buy houses, so they built the house by themselves and lived in precarious areas. Residents’ lives were threatened; therefore, precarious settlements were another critical urban problem. To solve the water supply problem, the government should establish more infrastructures and consider natural factors. In addition, the government had implemented community development projects to improve the poorest family lives. In fact, the government had to consider all concepts to solve the water supply problem and solve uneven wealth distribution to give poorest families better standard of living.
Introduction
At the present time, it is interesting that there are more and more people trying to move to urban areas which then expand extremely quickly. It can be seen that this migration trend has taken place all over the world and the level of world urbanisation and the number and size of big cities has reached the highest level ever (Cohen, 2006). Following this trend, academics have coined a new word – urbanisation, which is widely defined as a trend that people migrate from rural areas to urban areas.
It is an undeniable fact that people move to cities for a lot of factors, such as getting high salaries, better life conditions, and more opportunities. In addition, local governments welcome people moving to urban areas, since these additional labours can stimulate economic growth and local competitiveness. However, along with urbanisation development, not only have advantages, but also disadvantages been brought to cities simultaneously. For instance, urbanisation might result in more serious pollution, traffic congestion, increased crime rates, energy deficiency, soaring housing price, and fierce competition in job hunting. All of these result in the decline of city competitiveness.
Encountering these serious problems, the UN and governments have paid attention to this issue. They try to solve this problem and commence implementing a variety of programmes, schemes and policies. These agendas are becoming the most urgent ones to be implemented in many countries, especially Asian countries. Currently, most Asian countries are developing countries or undeveloped countries and suffer from serious urbanisation problems. In the recent twenty years, the UN and Asian governments have adopted sustainable development policies which are deemed as solution of urbanisation problems. Most governments have dedicated to using sustainability programmes or policies to reduce urbanisation problem and retain the original and potential benefits of urbanisation trend.
At the present time, there is still no specific definition of sustainable development. People with different backgrounds interpret this term in various ways (Van Pelt, 1994). On the other hand, sustainable development “has become widely used to stress the need for the simultaneous achievement of development and environment goals (Pugh, 1996, P 23).” Also, sustainable development is called eco-logical sustainability which can be divided into five parts: economic sustainability, community sustainability, cultural sustainability and social sustainability. As a matter of fact, sustainable development is a long-termed programme which can improve environment, reduce the volume of resource used, and reduce waste (Mega, 1996a).
Since the liberalisation process was implemented in Vietnam, Vietnam’s two main cities, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, went through urbanisation very fast. More and more people flowed to these cities and some urban problems were resulted in. Therefore, this essay will first describe Vietnam urbanisation and urban problems. Then it will focus on Ho Chi Minh City’s water management problem and solve this problem. After that, it will describe Ho Chi Minh City’s precarious settlements and solutions. Finally, it will examine Ho Chi Minh City’s sustainable development policy.
Main body
Vietnam has experienced fast growth in economy and urbanisation since late 1980s when the Soviet Union collapsed. The GDP grew at almost 9% annually between 1992 and 1995 and the growth was concentrated in the industrial and service sectors. The 1989 census shows that there have been nearly 13 million people, 19.8% of the population, gathered in urban areas. Among them, more than 3 million people, almost 25%, lived in Ho Chi Minh City, the capital of Vietnam. In addition, the official data suggests that the urban population grew by 1.4 million between 1989 and 1994. However, the urbanisation and economic growth is very uneven in Vietnam. Most of investment and migration are occurred in two major cities – Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi. Actually, Vietnam “has one of the lowest levels of urbanisation in the world and one of the more highly concentrated (Drakakia-Smith and Dixon, 1997, p.24).”
The fast economic growth, rapid urbanisation, and huge amount of in-migration break down local registration systems, which had an important role to play in providing basic needs and employments. They were unable to provide effective assistance to migrants and this led to some serious problems. The problems included traffic congestion, various pollutions, water supply, inadequate drainage, and power and communications. Besides, since the local registration systems were break down, it is estimated that the official figure listed above were seriously under estimated. Therefore, the problems would be more serious than what published by official organizations (Drakakia-Smith and Dixon, 1997). Here I will focus on water supply and precarious settlements problems in Ho Chi Minh City.
Water Management
Stable clean water supply was a big problem for people who lived in Ho Chi Minh City. The city is full of canals and rivers. These canals and rivers were the living areas of most poor families, traffic routes of waterway transport, and various market areas. However, people were used to throw wastes directly to rivers and canals. As the number of people moving to Ho Chi Minh City increased, the needs of clean water also increased, but the water pollution became more serious. In addition, new-built factories also threw industrial wastes to these waterways. This made the access of clean water more limited (Bolay, Cartoux, Cunha, Du, and Bassand, 1997).
To deal with this serious problem, the authority had to implement water management. This could be divided into two different aspects. The first aspect was water usage. The water usage in Ho Chi Minh City was subjected to several natural constraints: the effects of the tides and raining seasons. Both of them might cause floods and make it difficult to manage water distribution and storage. The ever highest level of population made it even harder to access to clean water in low price.
The other aspect was the emission of waste water. The increased number of residents and factories caused the amount of dirty water increase as well. However, some topographical and social challenges made it difficult to solve this problem. Firstly, most urban areas were located at a very low altitude and beside the canals or rivers and the volume of rainfall were so high and so concentrated in certain period. In addition, most people and factories took canals and rivers as sewages and just threw their wastes into these waterways. Besides, the sewer system was built in fragmentary manner. It was not well connected at the level of entire city territory.
To solve this problem, local government should build more infrastructures, such as new sewers, repairs of existing water networks, and the tear down of houses built on piles. In addition, new disposition system for both industrial and household wastes should be built and the canals and rivers should also be cleaned.
Indeed, the establishment of new and better infrastructures was urgent, but this policy should be carried out in overall concepts. In fact, there were two areas in Ho Chi Minh City so concentrated that the water problem was so serious. Because of more and more in-migrants, people were forced to raise the ground level in order to avoid the systematic floods. This made the way of canals and rivers more and more shallow and narrow. If the government did not think of water management in overall concept, the establishment of new infrastructures would result in new forms of floods (Bolay, Cartoux, Cunha, Du, and Bassand, 1997).
Precarious Settlement
Since the reform programme called Doi Moi, which was a renewal policy, a lot of foreign investments had been poured into in Ho Chi Ming City. There were a lot of people moving to Ho Chi Ming City. Therefore, precarious settlements were a big problem for people who lived in Ho Chi Ming City.
Due to the modernization of Ho Chi Ming City, the municipal government lacked of comprehensive design to balance the local historical culture and the city development. Therefore, it can be seen that living conditions had become a seriously problem. On the other hand, there are around four-fifths of people who lived in urban area lived in the Ho Chi Ming City, the inner-city area (Bolay, Cartoux, Cunha, Du, and Bassand, 1997). The above mentioned two phenomena could be found that both technical networks and housing quality were very poor. Also, more and more people lived in the precarious habitat in urban areas, in where many canals crossed and floods were easily to happen. In fact, poor families in particular always encountered this problem, because the majority of them lived in areas near canals or rivers.
Poor families did not have plenty of money to buy houses. They just built the house by themselves and lived in the small space. They usually used materials, such as woods, sheet metal, palm leaf, bamboo and recycled building, to build their houses. However, these materials were easily to have a bad influence on people’ health, because they always utilised the inferior quality materials. Furthermore, their residences were lack of infrastructures and technical services, such as sewer system and drainage system, so waste water directly flowed into the streams and rivers which then contaminated the environment (Wust, Bolay and Du, 2002). It can be seen that they lived in lives which have highly potential hygiene crisis; therefore, these inhabitants were easily to get cholera and dysentery.
The majority of the poorest families did not get any legal documents to authorise the use of land right. In fact, they just built their houses and lived here. However, the municipal government did not adopt the positive attitude to solve this problem. Conversely, it began to restrict investment in public infrastructures and development in their live place. It resulted in poor standards of living of these families.
To overcome these problems and increase the standard of living of inhabitants living in Ho Chi Minh City, the government started carrying on community development projects. These projects examined the standard of living from residents’ points of views and started dealing with problems they believe the most urgent. This method was aiming at two goals. Firstly, the government wanted to resolve the most urgent problems to increase the quality of life directly. In addition, by assessing the situation from people’s opinions, people could be involved in the project and also take necessary actions (bottom-up approach) (Wust, Bolay and Du, 2002).
The projects were very realistic and had been proved to be effective. However, this method also had its down side. In fact, this method needed to balance the opinion of people who in charge of urban development and the population in more sensitive way. In addition, the government also need to teach the public about related issues (Wust, Bolay and Du, 2002).
The projects was first took place in two of the areas in Ho Chi Minh City, in where the situation was most serious. These areas were all situated in lowland by two canals. In addition, most people here were from poor families and had no sense of environmental protection issues.
The government followed some guidelines to carry on sustainable development here. Firstly, a participatory self-help model was used. This was the model that local people had been familiar with through loan rotation. This model helped people save money to built toilets and other facilities to improve their lives. Secondly, the governments hired some people to show residents how they could improve their stand of living in practice. This measure effectively educated people how to do the practical things by themselves. Finally, the government started with the projects in small-scale, instead of general areas. They divided these two areas into several small groups and focus on each group at one time (Wust, Bolay and Du, 2002).
Challenges
The ‘bottom-up’ approach is being carried on by the Vietnamese government has been approved to be successful. Compared to the past ‘top-down’ method, this approach make the government understand the opinions of residents, especially the ones from poor families. The government had tried to build new houses for these families to solve settlement problems, but people from poor families think these houses were so expensive that they could not afford. However, the ‘bottom-up’ approach totally changed the situation, since it finally took poor families’ opinions into accounts.
However, this policy still had its limits. For example, one of the most important guideline was the cooperation from local people. Of course, it was effective that local residents could start thinking about their living condition and making improvements. Yet, the approach often resulted in the fights between the professionals and residents, since people from poor families lacked of education, especially about environmental problems and sustainable developments. In this case, people might refuse to cooperate with the government anymore (Wust, Bolay and Du, 2002).
In addition, lack of financial resources made these poor families is unable to improve their lives. It is true that the economy in Vietnam has been progressed, but the distribution of wealth is very uneven. Poor families cannot afford clean water, better settlements, and public infrastructures. The Vietnamese government should not only try to carry sustainable developments to improve residents’ quality of living, but also think about how to solve this wealth distribution problem. In fact, this is the fundamental problem of all urban crises.
Conclusion
It was clear that Ho Chi Minh City encountered two big urban problems, water supply and precarious settlements, which constrained the development of Ho Chi Minh City. The municipal government coped with water supply problem by two separate aspects: water usage and the emission of waste water. Indeed, the local government established new and better infrastructures to solve water supply problem. This sustainability policy was useful, but the most important thing was that the government had to increased people’s environmental consciousness and considered in all concepts, otherwise all efforts would be in vain.
Furthermore, in terms of precarious settlement, the local government had implemented community development projects to improve the standard of living of poor families. It can be seen that this policy could be considered successful to solve this problem, even though it still faced some challenges. In fact, to solve this problem totally, the government must also consider the fundamental problem, uneven wealth distribution. Then, the abovementioned problems would be solved easier than before in Ho Chi Minh City.
Bibliography
Bolay, J. Cartoux, S. Cunia, A. Du, T. and Bassand, M. (1997) ‘Sustainable Development and Urban Growth: Precarious Habitat and Water Management in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam’, Habitat International, Volume21, Issue 2 , Pages185-197, 1997
Cohen, B. (2006) ‘Urbanization in developing countries: Current trends, future projections, and key challenges for sustainability’, Technology in Society , Volume28 Pages63-80, 2006
Drakakis-Smith, D. and Dixon, C. (1997) ‘Sustainable Urbanisation in Vietnam’, Elsevier Science Ltd, Volume28, No.1, Pages21-38, 1997
Mega, V. (1996a) ‘Our city, our future: Towards sustainable development in European cities’, Environment and Urbanization, 8 (1), p.p. 133-154
Pugh, C. (1996), ‘Sustainability the Environment and Urbanization’, P23, Earthscan Publications Limited
Van Pelt, M. Kuyvenhoven, A. and Nijkamp, P. (1995) ‘Defining and measuring sustainability’, Institutional Journal of Pollution 5 (2/3), p.p.204-223
Wust, S. Bolay, J. and Du, T. (2002) ‘Metropolisation and the ecological crisis: precarious settlements in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam’, Environment and Urbanisation, Volume 14, No 2, Pages211-224, 2002
Friday, 6 August 2010
Monday, 2 August 2010
kelvin's essay
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
Nero's First draft
Title:
To what extent can the problems of urbanisation be met by a policy of sustainable development?
-What are the problems of urbanisation inChina
To what extent can the problems of urbanisation be met by a policy of sustainable development?
-What are the problems of urbanisation in
Introduction
“Urbanization is a historic transformation process by which the means of production and people’s lifestyles evolve from the country to the city. While this process is often characterized as farmers’ migration to cities and the continuing development of cities” (Wen, undated). It not only includes movement from rural area to urban area but also include the changes of migrants’ attitudes, habits, behavior and life style. In the present age, urbanization is playing a significant role in the development of society and economy. It can reflect the level of social development and civilization of a country as well (Zhao & Liu 2010). Urbanisation was caused by industrialisation and technological development in developed countries, such as in Europe and North America . The huge economic and social changes were happened gradually. From 19th to early 20th centuries, industrialisation and technology developed very fast in these countries or regions. A vast number of opportunities were created for workers who were from rural areas (Wang & Hu 1999). The process of urbanisation comes out rapidly all over the world. In the meantime, urbanisation has caused many problems, such as crimes, environmental pollution, overcrowded housing, high unemployment and traffic jam. Governments attempt to solve these problems. A serial of policies were introduced. Many policies solved these problems effectively, but some of them could affect our future lives. For instance, aim to solve the problem of overcrowded housing, some governments decided to destroy some traditional architecture or cut plenty of trees to build tall buildings. It could solve this problem at this moment, but in the long run it will cause many other serious problems. Therefore, the concept of ‘sustainable development’ was tabled. Sustainable development is “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (wordIQ.com, undated). Sustainable development not only consider present but also consider the effects of the future. Increasing people suggest that sustainable development should be adopted to solve the problems of urbanisation. Personally, I agree with this opinion. Sustainable development can improve our living condition and environment.
This essay will talk about the different problems which caused by urbanisation in China, it will focus on crimes, unemployment and overcrowded housing, I will analyse these three problems and give some existing policies of solving these problems and possible solutions, then will discuss whether they can effectively solve those problems and use some evidences to illustrate that sustainable development could be successful. Furthermore, some limitation will be given at the end of this essay.
Negative effects of urbanisation
Source: National Bureau of Statistics of China, China Statistical yearbook, various issues
The Chinese population growth rate in urban area is particularly high. It includes both natural increase and increasing farmer moving into cities. The increasing population needs more housing, facilities and space to live(Wang & Hu 1999). Over-crowded housing becomes a serious problem in many big cities, such as
Firstly, due to the huge amount of farmers migrating into big cities, lots of them cannot find any rooms to live. More and more homeless people appear. Secondly, many migrants have to live in one small room with the other people. Poor living condition caused many health issues and infectious disease.
After looking at over-crowded housing, we should now focus on another urbanisation problem – unemployment. Urbanisation of a city should provide more jobs to its residents, but in China China
In addition, urbanisation also could affect social stability. Chinese authority has emphasized many times that social stability is the most important task. Unfortunately, uncontrolled urbanisation makes lots of rural people moving into cities almost in same period, and it caused many potential social issues. Many people could not find any jobs. They cannot gain enough money to guarantee their basic lives, therefore, some of them decided to be criminals, such as thieves ,robbers or the others, who could get some money through using illegal methods(Wen, undated).
Considering the reasons of those three problems, we can understand that too many unemployed people in large cities is the main problem. If the governments want to solve these problems, they should first find a way to create more jobs to meet those unemployed people.
.Policy of sustainable development
.
Having introduced some urbanisation problems, we should now focus on some successful policies of sustainable development. Aim to solve those urbanisation problems, the Chinese government carries out a series of strategies to face these unprecedented challenges. First of all, after the economic reform, Chinese government revised its strategies. The authority has implemented a small town development policy to develop rural areas instead of engaging enormous workforce move into big cities. The authority encouraged rural farmers to do some non-farm activities, such as animal husbandry, fishery and handicrafts. In the mean time, the government encouraged farmers to transfer their jobs in local industry, construction, transportation and the other service(Wang & Hu 1999). In 1984, the Chinese government adopted new policy to liberalise rural trade. Farmers are allowed to engage selected goods between town and countries and to adopt household registration in small town to engage in commerce. They could be responsible for their own goods supplies (Wang & Hu 1999). In 1987, China China land of China China China ’s Ministry of Construction, more than 50,000 small towns occurred in China Shanghai
.
Given two existing sustainable development police, let us look at another two possible solutions. Firstly, the west of China is an important investment area in China China Chongqing are higher than the average rate of China China China
After showing these existing policies of sustainable development and possible solutions, we can understand that in China , the key methods of solving those urbanisation problems, such as over-crowded housing, unemployment and crimes are jobs creation and encourage surplus workforce to develop those less developed area, such as rural area, small towns and western China China China China is not as pleasant as the east of China
.Conclusion
.To summarise, in China China China land of China
Reference:
.
Gale Fred & Dai Hongguo(2002) Small Town Development in China
.
Wang Gabe T & Hu xiaobo (1999) Small town development and rural urbanization in China
.
Wen Guoming (undated) Cautions on China
.
WordIQ.com (undated) Sustainable development [online] Available from: http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Sustainable_development
.
Zhao Bing & Liu jinpeng (2010) Research on Pushing Effect of Urbanization on China Western Investment. International Journal of Economics and Finance Vol.2 No.1 pp.182-185 [online] Available from: http://ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/ijef/article/viewFile/4961/4120
.
Saturday, 31 July 2010
1st Draft - Ahmed
To what extent can the problems of urbanization be met by a policy of sustainable development?
Sub-title
How can urban agriculture resolve problems such as: urban poverty, food security and the need for environmental conservation in Lagos, Nigeria?
Introduction
This essay discusses how some problems caused by urbanization can be alleviated by developing urban agriculture. In order to examine this issue properly this essay will begin by providing definitions of the terms ‘urbanization’ and ‘sustainable development’. Sustainable development has been defined as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (WCED 1987, p.43). There are two concepts that constitute the idea of sustainable development. The first is the idea that limitations must exist upon technology and social organization in order to ensure that natural resources can meet present and future needs. The second concept integral to the idea of sustainable development is that of needs, especially the basic needs of the world’s poor (Ibid.). Urbanization refers to process that leads to the development of towns and cities (Giddens 2000, p.571). Over the last century urbanization has increasingly become a global process which has had significant ramifications on the developing world. Almost all growth prior to 1900 occurred in the West. There was some urban expansion in cities in the developing world over the following fifty years, but the majority of urbanization in these areas occurred in the last half-century (Ibid. p.572). Urban populations are growing at a faster rate than the world’s overall population. The United Nations (UN) has estimated that 63 per cent of the world’s population will live in urbanized areas by 2025 (Ibid. p.273). The rise of rapid urbanization leads to a variety of problems which are perpetuated as population increases. I have chosen to focus on the following problems caused by urbanization: urban poverty, food security and the need for environmental conservation. These issues will be examined in relation to the experiences of Lagos, Nigeria.
Rapid urbanization, which is often left unchecked, is common in major cities in the developing world, Lagos being no exception. This accelerated development has led to unplanned expansion, ill-ventilation and an essentially ‘unhealthy’ city (Adedej & Ademiluyi 2009, p.44). The Nigerian metropolis Lagos has become the economic centre for the country and has been classified as the sixth largest megacity in the world. However, the Lagos was also ranked last in terms of urban living standards among the 28 megacities ranked in 1991 (Ibid.). Despite being the Nigeria’s most populous state, Lagos is also its smallest in size (3577 km²). Lagos has been choked by hasty housing development resulting in ‘limited land’ (Abegunde et al 2009, p.1065). Furthermore, the megacity hosts many polluting industries and possesses the highest number of automobiles of any state in Nigeria (Ibid).
The unregulated urbanization that has occurred in Lagos had led to a multitude of problems. One of the key problems that requires urgent attention is that of urban poverty. A great deal of residents live in inadequate accommodation on land with short-term leases. Many others have similar housing on land that is not leased (i.e. squatting). The uncertain nature of tenancy in the city is a major obstacle to the development of areas occupied by the urban poor. The high levels of unemployment present in Lagos means that many residents live in poverty and struggle to support their families and satisfy their basic needs. In order to tackle poverty more job creation initiatives are required in order to provide greater employment and reduce the size of the poverty trap.
Another key issue facing the population of Lagos is food security. The ‘land ownership system makes it rather cumbersome for poor urban farmers to access land’ (Adedeji & Ademiluyi 2009, p.47). The lack of access to land makes it difficult for the urban poor to maintain any level of self-sufficiency. This makes it hard for the urban poor to grow their own food. This is one of the reasons why ‘the world’s poorest urban households spend between 50 to 90% of their income on food (Kerry 2004, cited in Adedeji & Ademiluyi 2009, p.47). Poor urban households become dependent on food that is transported into the city, which is then sold at higher prices due to transport costs. Population growth in Lagos ‘not only directly increases the demand for food, but also indirectly reduces its supply through building development, environmental degradation and the marginalization of food production’ (Adedeji & Ademiluyi 2009, p.45). As we can see from above, food security is a serious issue facing Lagos.
As mentioned above, it has been claimed that megacities that have experienced rapid urbanization can be regarded as ‘unhealthy’. The expanding population and under regulated polluting industries found in Lagos, have had negative effects upon “city ecology” (Ibid. p.47). The large number of automobiles and the severe lack of vegetation contributes to the reduction of air quality, which in turn has adverse effects on the health of Lagos resident’s. Rapid and unplanned urbanization has created an unnatural CO² balance in the city and has severely affected biodiversity (Ibid.).
In summary, we have identified three problems caused by urbanization which are adversely affecting the quality of life in the city of Lagos. The issues are: urban poverty, a lack of food security and the need for environmental conservation. In what way can these issues be met by a policy of sustainable development? It has been argued that all three of these problems can be addressed by implementing and promoting the use urban agriculture amongst the urban poor of Lagos.
Urban agriculture has been defined by Smit et al (1966) as:
“an industry located within (intra-urban) or on the fringe (peri-urban) of a town, a city or a metropolis, which grows or raises, processes and distributes a diversity of food and non-food products, using largely human and material resources, products and services found in and around the urban area” (Ibid. p.44).
The crops yielded or the products produced by this method are usually supplied to the surrounding urban area. Urban agriculture can be seen as beneficial in a variety of areas. Firstly, it can help improve issues surrounding food security. The promotion of urban agriculture increases the amount of fresh food available in the city. Moreover, research has shown improvements in nutrition once urban families have begun to farm (IFPRI 2002, p.281 cited in Adedeji & Ademiluyi 2009, p.47). This exemplifies the positive effects on health that urban agriculture can bring. Furthermore, the development of urban agriculture allows cities to become less reliant on food imports. This then reduces overall cost as transportation fees are not incurred.
Secondly, urban agriculture can give greater financial empowerment to the urban poor and thus can be seen as a mechanism to help combat the high levels of urban poverty present in Lagos. It has been argued that urban agriculture can provide ideal employment opportunities to the urban poor as it provides jobs ‘in a sector with low barriers to entry’ (Adedeji & Ademiluyi 2009, p.47). Horticultural production can be exercised in many areas of Lagos. Although it provides more employment in peri-urban areas, waste land found in inner city areas can also be utilised, as well as previously unused sites such as rooftops. Produce and products derived from urban agriculture can generate ‘reasonable income and returns’ (Ibid.) helping to reduce poverty. Moreover, the success of urban agricultural sites can help attract further investment into such areas of Lagos. It has been argued that ‘plants generally enhance the economic and social values of the community’ (Abegunde et al 2009, p.1065), which brings clear advantages to urban areas. The state of the local economy can be improved by changing the economic value of the land through urban agriculture. In turn this may attract the investment of businesses such as restaurants. This solution can also help create other indirect economic advantages for the local economy. For example, by making use of organic waste (e.g. solid waste and waste water) waste management costs can be reduced (Adedeji & Ademiluyi 2009, p.47).
Thirdly, urban agriculture can also be seen as beneficial in the realms of environmental conservation. Energy and resources can be saved simply through reducing the distance that food has to travel from production to consumption site. By increasing the amount of food grown in urban areas dependency on imported food will be reduced (Ibid.). Furthermore, the poor air quality that plagues densely urbanized areas such as Lagos can also be addressed through the promotion of urban agriculture. This is possible due to the fact that ‘carbon related gasses generated in cities are utilised during plants photosynthesis’ (Abegunde et al 2009, p.1065). The oxygen released and the carbon captured during photosynthesis helps purify the CO² heavy air that causes health problems. Planting on waste land can also help prevent erosion and flooding. If sloping waste land is utilised it can be advantageous in regard to disaster mitigation (Adedeji & Ademiluyi 2009, p.47).
Despite the clear benefits of implementing and promoting urban agriculture there are also risks that need to be taken into consideration (Ibid.). One of the major problems that needs to be overcome is access to land. Urban farming has not been fully embraced by the correct officials and relevant intuitions. Because of this urban agriculturalists often face uncertainty over the lease of land. The fear of eviction prevents real investment in urban spaces and often only quick-yielding crops are planted in order to mitigate against this (Ibid.) ‘Land redistribution is contentious and politically complex’ (Ibid. p.48). Furthermore, the use of waste matter and water can also be dangerous if not undertaken properly. Liquid waste, such as pig slurry and flush waters must be properly processed before use on farms. When these practises are managed correctly the risk is significantly reduced (Flynch 1999 cited in Adedeji & Ademiluyi 2009, p.48). The ‘major danger in utilizing waste waters is food contamination by pathogenic micro-organisms and outbreaks of water-borne diseases’ (Adedeji & Ademiluyi 2009, p.47). However, overall it has been argued that such dangers only occur when ‘poorly treated waste water is used for irrigation’ (Ibid.).[break this paragraph up]
Conclusion:
In summary, we have seen how rapid and unchecked urbanization in Lagos had led to many problems that need to be overcome. In this essay I have chosen to identify three issues that can be potentially overcome by implementing a policy of sustainable development. The problems are as follows: urban poverty, food security and the need for environmental conservation. The sustainable development policy examined has been urban agriculture. As we have seen, urban agriculture can help combat all three of these problems in different ways. The development of urban agriculture provides an opportunity to provide financial empowerment to the urban poor. By farming on waste land poorer sections of Lagos society are able to join a sector with low barriers and begin to generate their own income. In turn, we have seen how the development of green spaces can also attract further investment in these areas. Furthermore, I have outlined how by simply making use of waste land and resources the food security of Lagos can be greatly improved. A rise in urban agriculture will cause a growth in the amount of food available in Lagos. This also has health benefits. Lastly, I have attempted to show how the implementation of urban agriculture can help bring about cleaner air in Lagos, which is positive for all sections of Lagos society. The growth of green spaces can also help gentrify the city as a whole. The limitations touched upon show that urban agriculture as a solution is not simple. Uncertainty over how land-less households are able to acquire land is a definite problem. The re-use of waste resources also has to be done in rte correct fashion otherwise health risks can emerge. Waste resources must be properly processed to avoid the spread of disease. I would recommend that future research should concentrate on strengthening g the links between urban farmers and local government officials. There is a clear need to overcome the uncertainty surrounding the legality of urban land use and entrench the ideas into local government, as the benefits are not only enjoyed by the households that farm, but buy all sections of Lagos society. In conclusion, I argue that urban agriculture has a clearly positive part to play in overcoming issues of urbanization in Lagos. However, the correct infrastructure to support such schemes is required in order to ensure that risky farming methods are carried out properly. Moreover, clear regulation is required so that land can be fairly allocated to the households that want to support themselves through urban agriculture. When viewed in a holistic fashion, urban agriculture can provide great opportunity to confront issues that have arisen from urbanization.
Bibliography :
Abegunde et al (2009). ‘Commercial horticulture practise in Nigeria: Its socio-spatial effects in Lagos city’ African Journal of Agricultural Research. Vol. 4 (10), pp. 1064-1074, October
Adedeji, Oludare H. & Ademiluyi, I.A. (2009). ‘Urban agriculture and urban land use planning: Need for a synthesis in metropolitan Lagos, Nigeria’ Journal of Geography and Regional Planning, Vol 2 (3), pp. 43-50, March
Antai, D. & Moradi, T. (2010). ‘Urban Area Disadvantage and Under-5 Mortality in Nigeria: The effect of Rapid Urbanization’ Environmental Health Perspectives, Vol. 118 (6) pp. 887-883
Giddens, A (2001). Sociology, Oxford: Polity Press.
World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) (1987). Our common future. Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 43.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)