Government needs to work in rural and urban areas of the country to control the migratory burden towards major cities
MANDI BAHAUDDIN: Urban Sprawl is defined as the expansion of urban settlements due to massive rural-to-urban migration. In short, it is an unplanned and incremental urban growth, often an unsustainable one. Pakistan’s mega cities like Karachi and Lahore are extremely in nocuous conditions. As per the statistics, four decades ago, Karachi’s population was nine million which now has reached almost 15 million. That’s an awfully worrying situation for the entire country where massive migration from rural to urban areas is resulting in resource strain in cities.
Urban planning in developed countries is taught as a subject in universities. Pakistan also has institutions which have degree programmes for this field but they fall short on fulfilling the needs of the sector. The government’s urban planning departments too have only generated failed policies and plans over the past years, the result of which can be seen in the form of disastrous urban infrastructure of major cities across the country. The PTI government has promised to build five million new houses which isn’t an easy task to accomplish within the next five years; more importantly it must take notice of this alarming social issue which will take its worst form in the next few years. The government needs to work both in rural and urban areas of the country to control the migratory burden towards major cities.
Dubair Ranjha
Published in The Express Tribune, February 10th, 2019.
Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.
