Mega Cities is it the Solution?

The global buzz word these days sustainable and smart cities of the future. How can you retrofit a city that is facing major challenges: overcrowded and lack proper infrastructure and connection network?

I realized the disconnection between the theory and practice when I met an old friend of mine who bought a house that was built in 1960. Since he is a tech savvy his number one target was to convert the house into a smart house. After extensive and major investment to rehabilitate all the wiring, LAN sockets and Air conditioning system his additional investment nearly doubled.

He just realized that he will not be able to achieve his vision.

Imagine instead of a house you are planning a city.

For example, African cities share three features that frustrate their development. They are congested “but not economically dense”. That means low investment in infrastructure, business, job opportunities and affordable housing. It’s an urbanization of people, not capital.

The majority of African cities are disconnected. They are collections of small, fragmented neighborhoods poorly served by unreliable transportation, utilities, basic infrastructure and primary health care.

Being inward-looking rather than export oriented, make these cities costly, both for residents and businesses.

To give some perspective on By 2030, about 200 million people will move from rural areas in India to the country’s urban centers. The shift is almost equal to the populations of France, Germany, and the United Kingdom combined. While theoretically urbanization increases productivity and improves GDP per capita over the long term, urban centers in India will generate nearly 65 % of the country’s GDP. It will definitely cause significant pressure in those urban centers. How can they coop to accommodate the growing population in terms of living space, jobs, health, education and transport, etc…?

Urban condensed areas are lacking access to proper infrastructure and basic services are more likely to be impacted by disasters. In addition the cost of upgrading the infrastructure is almost nearly impossible if it involve a lot of people displacement.

Urbanization globally is equivalent to internal migration whereas people are moving from villages and remote areas to large dense cities in search of better life and future.

We should ensure that we develop the remote areas and small villages since they contribute in almost all countries to sustainable economic growth and food security to name few.

Please share with me some examples if you disagree with my analysis and if you agree with it please share some best practices on how to ensure adequate and balanced growth between mega cities and remote areas.

I believe the smart cities of the future are the ones who are connected with the remote areas since they need them to survive and thrive.