Urban population explosion - fast track to trouble

Most people living in cities- across the world- may have been facing the problems of sprawling slums, massive traffic jams, chronic unemployment, regular failure of electrical and water services, strained education, less recreational facilities and skyrocketing fuel and food costs, still tens of thousands of people move to the world's burgeoning cities- each day of the year- in search of a better life.

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In the middle of the past century, just thirty percent of the world's population lived in cities, but today, when the planet's population has now doubled, as many people live in cities as populated the entire planet in 1950.

In the years to come, over half of all people will migrate to the cities. Almost all population growth in the next half century will be in cities in poor countries while the world's rural population will possibly remain flat.

The United Nations Population Fund report- 'The State of World Population 2007: Unleashing the Potential of Urban Growth'- has detailed some eye-opening facts that will (perhaps) compel most of the people to mull over their plans of settling down in a city, more than once.

• By 2008, more than half of the world's current 6.7billion population will live in cities.

• By 2030, the urban population will have risen to 5 billion, 60 per cent of the world's population.

• Between 2000 and 2030, Asia's urban population will increase from 1.3 billion to 2.64 billion. Africa's population will rise from 294 million to 742 million, Latin America and the Caribbean from 394 million to 609million.

• Mega-cities do not have a monopoly on population growth. More than half of the urban world lives in cities with a population of less than 500,000. The bulk of the urban population growth will be in smaller cities and towns, not the megacities that dominate the public imagination.

Factors responsible for rapid urban population growth

Though, there are numerous factors responsible for rapid growth of urban population, but unchecked migration - owing roots from rural poverty and the search for better social and employment opportunities - or possibly the flight from political persecution and violence, are reasons at the fore front.

Other than this, the increasingly international nature of world production and trade has influenced urban trends across the world. Many cities have grown speedily because of their increased role in the newly formed global system. The nations with the most rapid increases in their levels of urbanization are generally those with the most rapid economic growth, whereas the nations with the highest per capita incomes are generally those with the highest proportion of their population in urban areas.

Consequences of growing Urban Population

The uncontrolled development of the world's major cities has led to a series of problems: air pollution, water pollution, waste disposal, housing shortages and loss of farmland. The explosion in impoverished urban living is likely to have various appalling consequences

• While this report does not discuss in detail the resulting watercrunch, however, one can imagine the ramifications in many parts of the world as growing urban areas exert influence on available water supplies.

• The 20th century will probably be the last in which younger people outnumbered older ones. While the share of children aged 0 to 4 years is projected to decline to 6.6 percent of the 2050 global population, that of people aged 60 years and older will more than double to 21.4 percent. This means that there will be 3.2 people aged 60 years or older for every child 4 years old or younger.

• Explosive urban growth is accelerating global warming, and despite their best intentions most of the nations find it difficult to facilitate real change.

• If rapid urban population growth is not checked, water scarcity will increase through degradation of water resources (desertification, quality, etc.) and increased demand.

• The rapid consumption of land in the fastest-growing large US metropolitan areas could threaten the survival of nearly one out of every three imperiled species. Open space is being lost so quickly that essential wildlife habitat will be mostly gone within the next two decades, unless development patterns are altered.

• If this uncontrolled migration- from rural to urban places- wouldn't be checked soon, it will explode the cities and could become a hotbed of political unrest and armed conflict.

In a fix or we'll take up the challenge

However, it is impossible (almost) to check the urban population growth or rather call it an explosion. According to George Martine, writer of the report, this surge in urban populations, fueled more by natural increase, or births, than the migration of people from the countryside, is unstoppable.

No doubt, it seems unstoppable for the moment but as the urbanisation is inevitable and important for the development of an economy, it is equally important to understand that one thing should not be stopped because of another, since we need to address problems of all ranks of society.

The pattern of urban population explosion is unique and not only is it hard to understand whether to let an inclusive urban dwell that caters to all segments of society or whether we let down the challenge and move away to ignore those who are in search of equal livelihood opportunities.