Nowadays urban centers are the powerhouse of economic growth and centre of all innovation and empowerment; they contribute over 80 per cent of the global gross domestic product (GDP), play a critical role in people's everyday life and are the key to attain the sustainable development goals (SDGs). However, the speed and scale of urbanization brings challenges, including meeting accelerated demands for affordable housing, sustainable and inclusive transport systems and other infrastructure, basic services and jobs, particularly for the nearly 1 billion urban poor who live in informal settlements to be near opportunities. Global climate change and its current and potential consequences for life, property and prosperity are now accepted as the major challenge for human society in the next 100 years. By 2030, without significant investment to improve the resilience of cities around the world, climate change may push up to 77 million urban residents into poverty (UN, 2017). So, developing a sustainable city along with its basic infrastructure is of utmost important to ensure future sustainability. Building cities that “work”—are inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable—requires intensive policy coordination and investment choices. Therefore, city-level actions will be a central part of sustainable development initiatives, where the world needs inclusive and sustainable urbanization as a milestone in the path towards socio-economic growth, as documented by SDG Goal 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities.
Transport is the life of a city and choices on public transit options are fundamental decisions about a city's future growth and development. It is a key infrastructure sector that acts as a stimulus to economic growth and development, and an important element of strategies for poverty reduction, regional integration and national development including the environmental objective of limiting GHG emissions. As transport is one of the major contributors to global warming through burning fossil fuels, this sector could be one of the prime sectors where policies aiming to reduce GHG emissions will be most important. Sustainable transport that emphasizes the use of public transport, bicycles and walking, and discourages the use of individual motorized vehicles like cars and motorcycles is essential to achieve many of the proposed SDGs and the 2030 agenda for sustainable development and it is, therefore, mainstreamed across several SDGs and targets, especially those related to food security, health, energy, infrastructure, cities, and human settlements (UN, 2017).
Environmental hazards are one of the unfortunate by-products of 21st-century urbanization and industrialization. World Bank report has analyzed on environmental crises in Bangladesh— the report titled “Enhancing Opportunities for Clean and Resilient Growth in Urban Bangladesh” clarifying the integration of boosting economic growth and attention to the environmental security. The data shows that deaths caused by pollution in 2015 in Bangladesh stand at 28% —the highest in South Asia. In the same year, there were around 234,000 deaths due to environmental pollution and related health risks, including 80,000 in urban areas. This is more than ten times the number of deaths resulting from road accidents in 2015.
The soiled outside air that the average Dhaka dweller has become so accustomed to breathing is just one of the daily manifestations of the city's worsening environmental conditions.
This is a major reason behind Dhaka slipping down in the Economist Intelligence Unit's livability index. It went from being the fourth least livable city in 2017 to being the second worst this year—now ranked only one notch above war-torn Damascus. As people from all over the country throng to the capital, our urban centre seems to have reached its saturation point in terms of provision of basic infrastructure and services.
According to World Bank, Lack of basic hygiene and sanitation and clean drinking water, for instance, are some of the most pressing issues in Dhaka's slums. A study conducted early last year came up with this startling finding: water samples collected by slum dwellers from the last delivery point had 99 percent faecal contamination. Estimates already show that the national urban population rate is expected to increase from 28% of the country's entire population today to 40 percent by 2025. This means that almost half of Bangladesh's population will be living in cities only seven years from now. We are already witnessing the horrific consequences of decades and decades of encroachment upon wetlands, destruction of rivers and filling up of low-lying areas in the capital—the worsening water logging situation every year after only minutes of rain being one of them.
In 21st century, it is the most significant demographic transformation in our century because it restructures national economies and reshapes the lives of billions of people. Today, about 55% of the population globally lives in urban areas and about 1.5 million people are being added to the global urban population every week. Each year, urban areas are growing by an average of more than 75 million people—greater than the population of the world's 85 smallest countries combined. This trend is expected to continue—by 2045, the number of people living in cities will increase by 1.5 times to 6 billion, adding 2 billion more urban residents. It is forecasted that the world's population will reach 8.6 billion in 2030 and 9.8 billion in 2050 from the 7.0 billion of 2010 living more than two-thirds of the population will be living in cities in 2050 compared to about half of the population in 2010 (UN, 2017 and WEC, 2011). It is projected that the entire built-up urban area in developing countries will triple between 2000 and 2030 from 200,000 sq km to 600,000 sq km. The additional 400,000 sq km of newly urban built-up area that will be constructed within only 30 years equal the total built-up urban area throughout the world as of 2000. The number of megacities is also projected to increase to between 60 to 100 in 2050 from 22 in 2010, and these will be mostly in developing countries of Asia, Africa, and Latin America (WEC, 2011). These cities will face high levels of social, economic and environmental challenges due to increased road traffic congestion for augmented demand of transport, alongside both economic progress and enhanced living standards.
It is important of proper planning and maintenance of urban open spaces such as, parks and green belts around large cities where areas in the outskirts of the city are reserved for vegetation. Planning of the transport system, where an appropriate strategy of road pricing may be introduced for specific areas within the urban area to deal with traffic congestion. Ensure the better management of existing road networks and effective traffic management.
We have to address green cities and countrywide image building, urban governance, resource efficiency and coordination among agencies, policy coalitions and change makers for disaster preparedness; conservation of common resources for sustainable and climate resilient urbanization in Bangladesh.
The writers are environment researchers