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urbanization:(preparing background for research)

by | 25-04-2013 01:57



Human needs are derived from nature. Besides nature, at present, human hunger for physical infrastructure is also growing. With the advancement of technology, world has become a global village and human life have become materialistic. It is undeniable that population and consumption of natural resources are directly correlated. Demand for other physical infrastructure will be high with the growing population. Rural areas though have enough supply of natural resources to meet the basic requirement of human they are unable to provide optimum physical facilities that a human desires in this century. Hence urban areas are the prime focus for livelihood for most of the humans.

Urban areas are considered to be the engine of growth. Due to availability of infrastructure of development and nature of occupation it generates more economy and bears capability to accommodate larger population. Derived from self- interest and lust of better facilities, migration from rural to urban area has become a natural phenomenon. Besides, natural growth of urban population is inevitable. Due to this, for the first time in the history of human civilization 50% of the world?s population live in urban areas (International Herald Tribune, 2/26/2008) and the urban population is ever increasing both in developing and developed countries. Over 90% of the urban growth is occurring in the developing countries adding 70 million new residents to urban areas each year. And the next two decades the urban population of the world?s poorest regions, Southern Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa is expected to double. (P. Bajracharya, 2012).

With the growing population, pressure on the urban resources and physical infrastructures is ever increasing. Upon ineffective response to these issues, haphazard urbanisation has taken place globally, which not only deteriorates the environmental entities of urban but also adversely affect human health and civilization for which urbanisation took place. The deterioration of urban environment is even worse in developing countries due to haphazard urbanisation.

In context of Nepal, rate of urbanisation is slow compared to neighbouring countries. There are 99 municipalities which are considered to be urban however there exists 132 small towns having urban characteristics. Though rate of urbanisation is less, rate of urban population growth is very high. 17% people reside in urban areas but urban population growth rate is 6% with respect to population figure in 2001 (CBS, 2011). It is obvious that more people need more infrastructures however according to an analysis by Ministry of Urban Development in 2012 Nepal lacks 41000 million rupees to fulfil the demand of municipalities for urban infrastructure development as demanded by city dwellers. This indicates pressure on existing urban infrastructure and services is mounting and if it is not addressed properly and systematically, haphazard urbanization will surely destroy existing urban environment.

The real case could be taken from Kathmandu valley, which provides shelter to 2.5 million people. Kathmandu valley?s population has been increasing in geometric ratio however infrastructural development has been negligible in comparison to the demand. At present 48% population live in rental houses indicating deficiency of houses. Also drastic change in land-use pattern, increased number of slums and squatters, urban sprawl, congested roads, polluted rivers, air and squeezing free spaces have described the impact of haphazard urbanization resulted from ineffective response to growing urban population