Islamabad: Large-scale migration from rural areas to bigger cities for better access to basic services and employment opportunities without proper urban planning has caused rapid urbanization while adversely affecting standard of living in mega cities of the country.
In developed countries, cities are the engines of economic growth, innovations, and entrepreneurship. But in Pakistan, the huge flow of migration due to multiple factors have turned the cities into hotbeds of discontent caused by the overpopulation.
The massive urbanization has also made it a challenge for the policymakers to make planning for thickly populated urban centres. Therefore, if not all, the majority of urban areas are being faced with air and noise pollution, water, sanitation, and transport issues due to lack of proper sewerage and waste disposal mechanism.
The urbanization challenge seeks serious attention from policymakers to strike balance between industrial growth and the basic needs of the residents. Similarly, the agriculture sector which dominated the country’s economy for decades should also be focused on sustainable growth and food security.
But over the years, the unplanned urbanization without sound public policies has posed a number of challenges by creating urban slums and environmental degradation. Therefore, urbanization seeks well-conceived policies for ensuring the provision of basic amenities of life to the growing population.
As per the available data of the United Nations Development Program, Pakistan has a 36.4 per cent population in the urban areas the highest urbanization rate in South Asia. It is also estimated that after 2025, more than half of the population in Pakistan would be living in cities.
However, this challenge could be addressed with indigenous solutions of sustainable policies, effective implementation and evaluation by ensuring transparency, social justice, participation, efficiency and accountability.
When contacted, the official spokesperson for Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), Attiq-ur-Rehman told this agency that last census was conducted in March 2017 and the provisional results were also published.
However, he said, the detailed final results of the census would be published after the approval by the Council of Common Interests (CCI). “The final report of Pakistan Demographic Survey that has captured the detailed statistics of births, deaths, migration within the country and from abroad would be published till July 2021,” he added.
Sophia Siddique, an Islamabad-based journalist while talking to the agency said the cities have been expanded with massive population growth in almost all directions without appropriate planning.
She said, The government has to come up with a policy to facilitate people of the rural areas to curb the high ratio of urbanization. People often come to cities to get some employment but after some time they became settled permanently, she added.
Khalid Aziz, a Rawalpindi-based construction contractor said, The coronavirus has de-accelerated the trend of urbanization up to some extent due to work-from-home on the internet and mobile phone. He said more than 27 percent of people in the United States have started working online in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
Sooner digitization and technological transformation has to reduce rush on busy roads and pollution of fuel consumption in thickly populated cities, he added. Hussain Nabi Siddique, a government employee termed that the city life as mechanical, adding that once anyone adapts the urban lifestyle and get settled, it became hard to quit.
He said, “No doubt, employment opportunities attract people to urban centres but in reality, the essence of life was in the rural areas, social life, natural beauty of rustic landscape and well-connected family life.” “Despite living in the city for years, people had to stay connected with their relatives back in their rural areas,” he added.