The Hindu Business Line : Three pillars of sustainable urbanisation

The three pillars for sustainable urban development are improving the enabling environments, the framework of institutions, policies, incentive structures, and reporting requirements for urban governance; ensuring that decentralisation and devolution are made to work; and continuing programmes of technical assistance and training for improving urban governance and management.

In late November, the Asian Development Bank and the Cities Alliance (a global coalition of cities) brought out a volume of essays on Urbanisation and Sustainability: Case Studies of Good Practice, edited by Professors Brian Roberts and Trevor Kanaley of the University of Canberra.

The context for the book is provided in the foreword by Mr Bindu N. Lohani, a senior official of ADB in-charge of regional and sustainable development. Development in Asia is tied to the growth of sustainable cities; cities are the main locations of production, trade, and productivity growth, together providing the basis for rising standards of living; and over the next 25 years, Asia's urban population will grow by around 70 per cent to more than 2.6 billion people, which implies that an additional billion people will be residing in urban habitats.

Case Studies

Of the dozen country studies covered in the ADB study, three are considered here to see what they have to tell the languishing cities of Asia.

The country chapters on Bangladesh, People's Republic of China and India were written respectively by Professors Nazrul Islam of the University of Dhaka; Aprodicio A. Laquian of the University of British Columbia, and Om Prakash Mathur of the National Institute of Public Finance.

Each of the three chapters deals with one or more cities and also one or more non-governmental organisations. Thus, the Bangladesh country chapter has a discussion on the city of Chittagong, the Shakti Foundation that provides micro-credit to the poor, and the Bangladesh Environment Movement, an NGO working for the improvement of the environment.

The PRC chapter comprises three case studies: Of Nanjing where the key concern was revitalising the inner city, to avoid the usual phenomenon of decay of the inner core and the somewhat mindless spread of the outer areas; the case of Shenzhen, the SEZ, which signifies the building of a city from the scratch, not quite developing a new town as such but developing a town around an existing habitation; and the industrial revival and development in the Liaodong Peninsula, an illustration of how to revitalise aging industries, make regional development more efficient, and balance regional growth by effectively linking urban and rural development schemes.

Chittagong Model: To avoid

Chittagong is the second largest city in Bangladesh, with a population of four million. The port of Chittagong is the principal seaport of the country and the second most important industrial centre. The Chittagong City Corporation (CCC), like cities anywhere else, has the responsibility for civic infrastructure development, garbage disposal, maintenance of parks and playgrounds, etc.

The CCC, however, extended its services to education, health, environmental protection, preservation of hill areas, disaster management, establishing a compressed natural gas (CNG) plant, supplying water to poor communities, installing a power plant, operating a pharmaceutical factory, garbage recycling and shopping complexes.

The Bangladesh chapter points out that the Education Department of CCC operates six kindergarten schools, two primary schools, 41 secondary schools, eight girls' colleges, five computer institutes/colleges, a health technology institute, a midwifery institute, and a university.

I have come across a report card on the city brought out by Democracy Watch of Dhaka. The data for the report card were collected from a thousand households in February 2001. The CCC educational and health services received the highest approval or satisfaction ratings: 72 per cent and 68 per cent respectively. In contrast, here is the set of lowest ratings: Mosquito control: 10 per cent, Public toilets: 17 per cent, Drainage: 22 per cent, Garbage disposal: 23 per cent and Foot over bridge: 23 per cent. Though not lowest, the approval rating for water supply was only 39 per cent.

I would venture to say that the CCC is one of the many examples of organisations that may not deliver what they are really expected to, but do an excellent job of those they take up in realms not quite mandated.

Lessons and Strategies

Lessons and Strategies for Sustainable Urban Futures is the title of the last chapter (Chapter 16). The opening statements of the chapter are absolutely valid and are very important: "Asia's future is urban. It is in developing sustainable cities. Urbanisation is both driven by and supports economic growth." Given this, the challenge for Asia is to avoid unplanned and haphazard urbanisation and ensure orderly and citizen-friendly urban growth.

The editors, both well-known experts on urban development and management, have drawn a number of lessons from the one dozen country cases. Of the many lessons, a relatively important one is stated as follows: "The case studies clearly illustrate the damaging effects of poorly functioning land markets and inadequate land titling on local economic development and the performance of local government. Well-managed land markets are a primary factor contributing to the success of urban development in Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore." The editors seem to endorse the Andhra Pradesh reforms on property taxation, but the ground reality is the continued understatement of property values simply to reduce to some extent at least the tax payable.

The statement that one must applaud is that few local government administrations appear to understand that decentralisation calls for greater autonomy and responsibility for policy development and a reduced dependence on central government for resources and other advice. Simply stated, the traditionally taught first law of management is that authority must be commensurate with responsibility. This is never respected even in the best of democracies like India.

Towards the closing pages of the book, the three pillars for sustainable urban development are suggested:

Improving the enabling environments, the framework of institutions, policies, incentive structures, and reporting requirements for urban governance;

ensuring that decentralisation and devolution are made to work; and

continuing programmes of technical assistance and training for improving urban governance and management. None can disagree with these.

(The author, formerly with the National University of Singapore and the World Bank, is Professor Emeritus, GITAM Institute of Foreign Trade, Visakhapatnam and Visiting Faculty, Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning — Deemed University — Prashanti Nilayam. He can be reached at bhanoji@gmail.com.)

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