Floods,
earthquake, suicide attacks and ongoing war on terror have strong implications
on the landscape of the country, especially the urban sprawl. The existing
mismanaged urban sprawl has resulted in acute shortage of services and increase
in urban population resulting in the creation of slums without basic amenities.
A recent report on Asia reveals that more than 50 percent of the city
population lives in slums and informal settlements.
The
urbanisation trend in the world will turn the globe urban soon. By 2030, an
overwhelming majority of the population will live in urban areas. This will place
enormous pressure on the cities and their management. The devolution through
the 18th amendment will empower the provinces and they will have the powers in
finding financial and political solutions to their problems. Now they have the
liberty to develop policies, regulation and standards. It is thus imperative
that the solutions for the changes wrought by the demographic change and by the
constitutional amendments must fit the challenge.
Under
the 18th amendment, 17 departments have been devolved to the provinces and very
few subjects retained by the federal government. It put enormous
responsibilities on the provinces in terms of proper planning and management of
the provincial resources. The more vibrant a provincial economy will be, the
more it will attract migrants from all over the country that will create
pressure on the urban sprawl. Amidst such situation, it is highly important to
look into the dynamics of the land or real estate market in the province.
There
is a need to adopt new models of development encompassing the involvement of
private sector into public service delivery mechanism by promoting
public-private partnership. However, there is likelihood that opportunity
offered by 18th amendment will be lost if urban issues are handled through the
rural mindset.
Implementation
of the 18th amendment clearly shows the state of affairs as conflict arises
transferring ministries. Lack of vision at the provincial level will definitely
affect effective handling of the transferred ministries due to lack of
absorptive capacity and human resource. It has a strong bearing on the
provinces and their development pattern which will also encompass the
urbanisation issues at district level.
Provinces
have not yet developed urban policy, although efforts are made at planning and
development boards to devise strategies to streamline issues at grassroot
level. The significance of urban policy has gained more importance in the post
devolution scenario. The government has to develop policy with a vision to
create urban excellence centres across the province, focusing on intermediate
cities and streamlining urban problems in large cities like Karachi.
The
current state of solid waste management, water and sanitation, urban transport
and health and education show the inability of the governments to cope with the
expected urbanization.
Solid
waste management is marred with financial, social, and economic constraints.
The existing service delivery mechanism amidst inadequate policies demand of
the provincial management to formulate the SWM policies to cope with the
growing needs of urban settlers.
Shortage
of human and technical resources indicate requirement of investments to be
pumped in to bridge these gaps. The technical machinery should be adopted while
keeping in view the local environment and suitability. It is well documented
that more than half of the waste goes uncollected in the cities. The vibrant
CSO in the country has to play an important role for “Zero Waste” through
attitudinal shift.
The
government has to rethink their policy as SWM services are not charged.
Increased urbanisation will make it difficult for the provincial managements to
develop financially sustainable services.
Water
and sanitation is no exception and marred with multiple problems leading to low
and inefficient service delivery. Health of urbanites is going to be an issue
due to lack of waste water treatment plants. Pakistan Council of Research in
Water Resources (2004) conducted water quality test in 14 districts in the
country and found high amount of arsenic in the water. They concluded that 83
percent of the samples are unfit for the human consumption.
The
technical, economic and financial constraints also vitiate the service delivery
in cities. One of the experts calculated the estimated cost of US$5 billion for
the replacement of old and retarded satiation system in Lahore. Think of
replacing the old sanitation infrastructure in ten large cities in the country,
requiring billions of dollars which seems a dream. They lack urban water
policies at provincial and city level.
A
few departments overlap their functions. Transport is the best example to quote
here as it is managed, maintained and developed by different agencies. In
Lahore city alone, there are more than ten departments looking after the
transportation affairs and, still, the Lahorites face acute problems. Police,
district government, provincial transport authorities, national highway and
many others control transport affairs in cities. Mismanagement on their part
has become a norm.
Erratic
growth pattern during the last decade has resulted in the increase of poverty,
which has now focused more on the urban poor living in slums of the cities. The
achievement of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) has become a dream for
federal and provincial governments. The new development model of the country
presented by apex planning body envisages cities as engine of economic growth
to alleviate poverty. However, the provincial government has to draft local
economic development strategies to transform the cities into growth engines.
Provincial
governments have to formulate “provincial urban commissions” with the mandate
to gauge urbanisation trends in the provinces and suggest measures to
streamline urbanisation. Secondly, the commission must also be mandated to
develop SWM, WSS, transport and urban land and housing policies and help cities
to devise strategies as well. Further devolution to the lower tiers of
governments is a prerequisite for better management of growing urbanisation.
Provincial finance commission should be announced for better resource
allocation among the cities.
The writer is a researcher at Sustainable
Development Policy Institute in Islamabad and can be reached at gulbaz@sdpi.org
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