RAPID URBANISATION
Throughout history, cities are called the main attraction of culture, innovation, and learning. Therefore, most of the urban countries in the world tend to be the richest and are having the highest human development. Rapid urbanization on the other note has the potential to improve the well-being of the societies. But there are certain problems related to the rapid urbanization that needs to be addressed. Therefore, this essay will be talking about the various problems that a country face due to rapid urbanization and also will be recommending various kinds of the solution by which the problems of urbanization would be solved.
Urbanization is said to be the shift or migration of the people from the rural to the urban society which tends to the increase of the population. There are various causes of urbanization such as economic, political, technological, and psycho-sociological. The ones living in rural areas tend to move to urban or developed areas because of the economic factors. In developed countries, there is a huge difference in income between rural and urban people. In order to get a hike in income, people tend to move to urban areas. Besides that people also immigrate to live life more comfortably and also to get a better education for the children (Bui et al. 2018). Urbanization is said to be generally linked closely with the modernization, industrialization, and sociological process of rationalization. During the time of the industrial revolution, the process of urbanization began. People used to move from their villages to towns or cities in order to get jobs in manufacturing hubs or factories or industries as result agriculture became less common. Urbanization is said to be the outcome or the result of economic, social, and political development which tends to the growth of the larger cities and changes the transformation to the metropolitan pattern (Cobbinah et al. 2016).
There are various factors that tend to the urbanization are categorized into three categories:
- Economic opportunities – Most of the people think that the standard of living is more in urban areas than that of the rural areas. People believe that there are more job opportunities in the urban than that in rural. The income will also be higher (Hasan and Nair, 2017).
- Utilities and proper infrastructure – Most of the countries all over the world are focusing on the development of their cities as a center of business and government. Therefore, all those cities will be equipped with better roads, transportation, water, and other facilities. Apart from that, the internet coverage is better than that is a rural area. These factors are believed to be one of the eye-catching factors to pull people for immigration.
- More availability of public facilities – Adding to the utilities and the infrastructure the urban area offers better public facilities than the rural areas such as health, education, recreational services, police station, public transport, and many more. On the whole, all the migrants meet their needs if they migrate to the urban community. Apart from that, there are restaurants, movie theatres, shopping malls, theme parks are also the reason for attracting more people to live in the cities (Oranje et al. 2020).
There are various kinds of problems that people face due to rapid urbanization. Such as:
- Problems in employment – Since a greater number of people are settling from the rural to the urban areas the population is increasing and on the basis of that, the vacancies are also decreasing in the companies. Fewer people are getting jobs which result in unemployment.
- Housing problems – Since people are being attracted to moving to the cities therefore the in the cities the scarcity of houses is happening. Since the population is increasing more in cities, deforestation is done in order to make space for the new houses which in return affects the natural habitat also. Due to fewer houses, the building is most costly and people are facing problems in affording those (Szabo, 2016).
- Development of slums – Since the cost of living in the urban area is higher and since the population is increasing due to the migration of people to the cities therefore unlawful residents are being settled by the name of slums and squatters.
- Since the increase of the population the water and the sanitization problem are occurring in the cities which also results in poor health and the spread of diseases.
- Traffics are being congested as more people means more number of vehicles.
- Crimes are also increasing since there is more unemployment, overcrowding of people, poverty which are leading to many kinds of social problems such as crime, drug abuse, and violence (Yu et al. 2020).
The various solution of the rapid urbanization are:
- Building cities that are more environmentally friendly and are more sustainable in nature. The government must take initiative in building more safe and sound cities in order to reside for the people. People must not reside in polluted or in an unsafe area. The government must take initiatives in sustainable industries, environmental campaigns, recycling, renewable energy, water recycling, pollution management, green public transportation, and reclamation (Abd-Elmabod et al. 2019).
- Provision of essential services – The government must take initiatives within the urban areas to access adequate and various kinds of essential services such as education, sanitation, clean water, electricity, health, and food. The main objective here is to implement employment opportunities among people so that they can earn for their cost of living.
- Population control – Family planning helps to reduce the high rate of population growth therefore the government must provide various campaigns to reduce this risk. Besides family planning, the health clinic must make an objective of controlling diseases and population growth.
Conclusion
As the cities are growing the government needs to cater to the demands that are rapidly growing according to the increase of the population due to the rapid urbanization. Here in this essay various kinds of reasons, problems, factors, and solutions for the rise of the rapid urbanization in the urban parts of the countries are discussed. The various types of government initiatives that need to be taken in order to face this kind of issue are also discussed.
Reference list
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Szabo, S., 2016. Urbanisation and food insecurity risks: Assessing the role of human development. Oxford Development Studies, 44(1), pp.28-48.
Yu, L., Lyu, Y., Chen, C. and Choguill, C.L., 2020. Environmental deterioration in rapid urbanisation: evidence from assessment of ecosystem service value in Wujiang, Suzhou. Environment, Development and Sustainability, pp.1-19.