If you love country music, and listen carefully, you will often hear the singers praising the beauty of the countryside, where love flourishes in all its manifestations. “Country Roads, Take Me Home” by John Denver invokes a gentle drive to one’s roots in the village.
Despite this allure of the countryside or the village, the stark reality is that more and more people are migrating to the cities around the world. Cities such as Mumbai, Mexico City, Jakarta, Manila and Tokyo are already bursting at its seams. Cities and their suburbs are projected to house 70 percent of the world’s population by 2050, facing unprecedented challenges in the context of Climate Change.
By 2030, an estimated 60 percent of people will live in urban areas, with up to 60 percent of urban dwellers under 18. Despite progress towards Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), cities, particularly in the Global South, continue to grapple with poverty, inequality, and environmental degradation, necessitating urgent action.
Experts emphasize the importance of involving youth in urban decision-making to harness their creativity and drive sustainable development. World Cities Day 2024, themed “Youth climate changemakers: Catalysing local action for urban sustainability,” and slated to be marked on October 31, aims to showcase the crucial role of Local Governments and young people in addressing urban climate challenges. The event will highlight youth-proposed innovative ideas and explore ways to transform these into concrete actions.
Youth voices
According to the UN, International initiatives such as the Pact for the Future and the Declaration on Future Generations seek to prioritise youth voices in shaping sustainable urban environments in the Global South and elsewhere. The Summit of the Future, held recently at the UN Headquarters in New York, was an opportunity to integrate youth perspectives into global policy and ensure that the multilateral system responds to younger generations’ needs.
Proposed actions include establishing Youth Councils, integrating youth representatives into Local Governments, and maintaining an ongoing dialogue between young people and policymakers. These efforts aim to create cities that are not only sustainable and resilient but also reflective of all inhabitants’ diverse voices and needs, both present and future. In Sri Lanka, the upcoming Local Government elections will give an opportunity for more youth to participate in the governance process in their villages and cities.
Cities are expanding at a rapid pace as faster transport options become available. It is not unusual for some cities to expand 50 Km or even 100 Km from their epicenter, essentially swallowing up suburbs and even villages. Sometimes, a city gets so cramped and congested that a whole new city has to be built from scratch. This is the case with Jakarta in Indonesia, where the Government is building a new capital city called Nusantara, almost 1,800 Km away. The long-time capital Jakarta is afflicted by too many problems: pollution, overpopulation, dire traffic congestion, and worst of all, severe flooding. The city is also literally sinking, due to excessive levels of groundwater being pumped to alleviate water shortages.
Still, some cities can get it mostly right. Singapore, literally next door to Indonesia, is a good example of a city that is well managed. Just over 50 years ago, when Singapore obtained Independence, it was barely more than an Asian backwater and founder Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew had gone on record saying he wanted Singapore to be like Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) in terms of development.
But in those intervening 50 years, Singapore has become a global economic powerhouse, while Sri Lanka witnessed a couple of insurgencies and a devastating war that hampered its economic prospects and growth. Now that the war is no more and the economic crisis has abated, Sri Lanka could potentially become another Singapore, given its strategic location, investment opportunities, skilled workforce and adequate infrastructure facilities.
It is, therefore, no surprise that the Government has looked to Singapore for inspiration and expertise to rebuild Colombo and the suburbs. The World Cities Day is an ideal day to reflect on the future of Colombo, our biggest city which is poised for great changes. But the development of Colombo and our other main cities such as Kandy, Galle and Kurunegala should have a range of inputs and insights from experts in many fields.
Biggest problem
The biggest problem facing Colombo is traffic congestion, which has literally choked life in the city. Even at current low rates of vehicle registration in the Western Province (due mainly to the ban on vehicle imports), we will be crawling along at around 3 km/h on Colombo’s congested roads in five or six years. Since it is virtually impossible to discourage private vehicle ownership in the absence of a good public transport system, reducing traffic congestion via a world-class public transport system should be a priority for City planners.
Again, we do not have to look much further than Singapore for inspiration. It now has a world-class public transport system with a Metro Rapid Transit train system, a very good bus network and a fleet of proper car-based taxis and rideshare services that are all coordinated. In fact, The Land Transport Authority (LTA) of Singapore expects the number of daily public-transport trips (bus and train) to hit 10 million by 2025, as it is already around eight million.
In this context, the unilateral cancellation of the Japan-funded Light Rail Transit (LRT) line from Malabe to Colombo was one of the biggest blunders made in recent times. If it went ahead as planned, we would have been using it by now. In fact, Bangladesh, which planned a LRT around the same time, has already built it.
Singapore does have various restrictions on car ownership due to extremely limited space (which may not necessarily apply to Sri Lanka which is around 100 times bigger), but there are other measures such as encouraging carpooling and even a congestion charge for private passenger vehicles entering the Central Business District (CBD) of Colombo. London is the best example for a city having a congestion charge. According to the latest reports, congestion has been reduced by around 30 percent in London while public transport ridership has increased. This measure also reduces pollution drastically – and electric vehicles are exempt from congestion charges in many countries as they do not pollute the air.
The advent of rideshares services in Sri Lanka is good omen because it encourages lone drivers to take a few other passengers along for a fee. Moreover, if the three wheelers in at least the Colombo City limits are taken out of circulation, the traffic flow will be much better and in the alternative, we should have a proper taxi service. Police officers should not be allowed to turn off traffic signals and direct traffic at any time (unless in an emergency), as this simply increases congestion.
Human settlements
The other biggest problem is human settlements. Colombo still does have a large number of slums despite the efforts of all successive Governments to build more housing complexes. Many slum dwellers also do not like to move into high-rise settlements, as they are used to the slum life with its dark undertones.
Singapore’s success story in terms of housing is remarkable with nearly 90 percent home ownership, according to the Singapore Housing Development Board (HDB). Sri Lanka should aspire to reach this goal.
Flash floods are another issue faced by most cities in Sri Lanka and more long-term measures should be in place to tackle floods. There should also be a bigger focus on energy generation for the Western Province, which consumes much of the country’s power output at present.
Renewable energy is the wave of the future and the authorities should encourage more such projects, including solar net metering systems for households.
This is important in the context of more electric cars coming in. The whole benefit of having an electric car will be negated if all electric car owners plug into the national grid to charge their cars. They should be encouraged to go for solar chargers, with appropriate incentives.
Transport, habitats and energy – all these are ultimately for the benefit of the city dwellers, who should rightly be at the heart of any urban renewal effort.
It is thus essential to seek the maximum public and youth participation in our city renewal projects. Some of today’s children and youth will live to see the dawn of 2100 and hopefully, humankind will have overcome the challenge of Climate Change by then, through a collective effort and also address the other issues facing cities everywhere.
