Pakistan: Challenges of life in urban communities.

Urbanization is a process whereby populations move from rural to urban area. World's urban population
increased fourfold during 1950-2003 while rural population increased less than double.

From Indus valley through Mughal era and to British rule, Indian subcontinent experienced several stages
of its urbanization process. Asia is foremost victim of urbanization which in Pakistan is urbanizing at 3%
annual rate fastest in South Asia.

Pakistan has long been a nation defined by its geography and countryside where the majority of the
population is based; where the largest industries are ensconced; and where some of the chief political
power centers are anchored.

Pakistan's current population is about one-third urban, expected to rise to nearly50% by 2025.

Urbanization also has two immediate, and troubling, political implications. One is heightened unrest. The
second real-time political consequence of Pakistan's urbanization is the rise of new hardline players who
find ample support among urban Pakistanis.

Drivers of urbanization

Urbanization is not a new story in Pakistan. Migratory flows occurred in 1947, 1965 and 1971 populating
the mega cities.

In 1990s the anti-Soviet insurgency in Afghanistan spawned a new exodus into urban Pakistan.Today,
urbanization continues to be fuelled by war, insecurity, and economic necessity.

Industrialization, social factors (attraction of cities, standard of living, quality healthcare, educational
facilities, infrastructure, communication, medical facilities, transportation, well-paying jobs and need for
status), modernization and economic opportunity cause urbanization.

Urban areas are characterized by labour market pooling, trade of goods and services, knowledge spill
over, high level of income and economic relations.

This type of development is helpful for employment creation, poverty reduction and planned local
business development in the urban regions. Industrial growth is a major cause of urbanization. City
houses different social and personal profile people including.

In urban areas, people also embrace changes in the modes of living namely residential habits, attitudes,
dressing, food and beliefs.

The need to look into pros and cons of urbanization is grounded on four reasons of the sociological
attraction of urban phenomena: firstly fresh in its concept; secondly transformation in prototype of
social life; thirdly centralized and powerful approach in its influence; and fourthly the continuous
occurrence.

Impacts Individuals built a single-family home (rather than multi-family high-rise building).This also
wastes vertical space significantly resulting in horizontal growth. Urbanization is both promising and
problematic internationally as well as for any single country. Swelling city populations are taxing the
state's ability to provide basic services such as housing, electricity, clean water and healthcare.
The urban heat island appeared due to industrial and urban development.

As concrete, asphalt, bricks etc absorb and reflect energy differently than vegetation and soil. Cloudiness
and fog occur with greater frequency. When it rains, water is less likely to be absorbed into the ground
and instead flows directly into river channels.

Energy consumption for electricity, transportation, cooking, and heating is much higher in urban areas
than in rural villages. Positives of urbanizations include the advancement of information technology,
transportation systems, innovations in media, communication, modern building techniques.
Urbanization cannot be stopped because no country can afford to have a break in the growth of
economic development.

Urbanization could boost the country's sagging economy. Pakistani cities are a chief source of
employment opportunities for small and medium enterprises which provide the vast majority of
Pakistan's non-agricultural jobs and high-growth industries jobs such as information technology.

Cities are also the hub for Pakistan's prestigious educational institutions which impart education,
trainings, skills, and research and development opportunities in marketable disciplines.

Generally speaking, infrastructure is essential for the sustainability of human settlement. In fact, the
rural-urban imbalance in development provides an explanation for the unprecedented growth of urban
centers and slums. However, rural development like multi-sectoral activities, including the improvement
of agriculture, the promotion of rural industries, the creation of the requisite infrastructure and social
overheads, as well as the establishment of appropriate decentralized structures in order to allow mass
participation.

There is therefore, no consensus as to what constitutes the right way to rural development. Approaches
vary from promoting accelerated development of rural people to encouraging self-help schemes.

The economic growth and development needs a booster in the form of urbanization, creating some hubs
which attracts all the sectors to invest and creating ample employment.

Following are the biggest challenges facing urban policymakers.

1. Poor housing quality and affordability

The State Bank of Pakistan has estimated that across all major cities, urban housing was approximately
4.4 million units short of demand in 2015. If current trends continue, Pakistan’s five largest cities will
account for 78 percent of the total housing shortage by 2035. Even if urban population remains stagnant,
the growing trend of nuclear families who seek housing separate from larger families will increase
pressure on housing supply.

When provided, housing is often low quality. Pakistan ranks eighth among the ten countries that
collectively hold 60 percent of substandard housing across the world. Karachi, one of the world’s fastest
growing megacities with an estimated 17 million people, ranks second lowest in South Asia and sixth
lowest in the world on the Economist Intelligence Unit’s 2015 livability index.

2. Water and Sanitation

In most Pakistani cities, water is supplied only four to 16 hours per day and to only 50 percent of the
population. According to the Asian Development Bank (ADB), 90 percent of water supply schemes are
unsafe for drinking. Shared latrines among households are common in cities and access to solid waste
management services remains low. In the most population-dense areas of Karachi, one toilet is shared
between twenty people. The World Bank estimates that poor sanitation costs Pakistan around 3.9
percent of GDP; diarrhea-related death and disease among children under five being the largest
contributors.

3. Transportation

Karachi is the only megacity in the world without a mass public transport system. Meanwhile, the cost of
private transportation is estimated to have increased by over 100 percent since 2000. Those who cannot
afford the commute are forced to live in unplanned, inner-city neighborhoods.

Increased private transport on urban roads has caused severe congestion. The government has
responded by upgrading many urban roads. However, infrastructure for the most common modes of
travel in Pakistan – such as pavements for walking or special lanes for bicycles – either does not exist or
has been encroached upon. This is despite the fact that 40 percent of all trips in Lahore are made on
foot.

Mobility in urban Pakistan is also harder for women. An ADB study found that almost 85 percent of
working-women surveyed in Karachi were harassed in 2015.

4. Health

While overall health and nutrition are better for urban than for rural populations, child mortality and
malnutrition indicators show that Pakistan’s urban poor have health outcomes only marginally better
than the rural poor.

Better health outcomes in urban areas are explained by improved access to private health care in cities.
But with the exception of immunization, utilization of basic public health services is very low in urban
areas.

Poor health outcomes are also a direct impact of the pollution caused by rapid urbanization. According
to the World Health Organization, Karachi is the most polluted city in Pakistan with air twice as polluted
as that of Beijing. The level of pollution in Punjab’s major cities is also three to four times higher than
that determined safe by the UN.

A lack of clean drinking water remains a major contributor to the high mortality rate of children under
five years old. According to Save the Children’s 2015 Annual Report, poor urban children in Pakistan are
more likely to die young than rural children.

The challenge of global warming has also intensified in cities. A rise in concrete structures across the
urban landscape is increasing temperatures within cities.In 2015, an unanticipated heat wave in Karachi
led to almost 1,500 deaths.

5. Education

Although urban areas have higher student enrollment and better learning outcomes, close to 10 percent
of all children in Lahore, Karachi and Peshawar remain out of school.
Like healthcare, better education in cities is explained by the private sector. From 2001 to 2014, the
share of primary enrollment in urban private schools rose from 25 percent to 40 percent.

Moreover, there seems to be an inverse relationship between public schooling and city size. In small
cities, approximately 35 percent of all children aged five to nine are enrolled in government schools. In
capital cities, that figure drops to 22 percent.

Continued preference for private schools reflects the low quality of government schools in urban
centers. While all private schools have basic facilities (drinkable water and toilets), they are missing in
around 12 percent of government schools in Lahore.

The absence of educational and health facilities in smaller cities pushes people towards big cities, where
service delivery becomes increasingly strained as the urban population grows.

6. Land Management

Outdated land use regulation and building codes, the absence of a unified land record system and patchy
data on land use result in poor urban land management. One consequence is extreme inequality in land
use. In Karachi, 36 percent of the population lives in formally planned settlements that consume 77
percent of the city’s residential land, where urban density can be as low as 84 people per hectare. On
the other hand, Karachi’s many informal settlements have densities of more than 4,500 per hectare.
These hugely varying densities have resulted in unequal access to vital urban services.

Unplanned urban sprawl continues unchecked. Housing schemes built beyond city limits have used up
an estimated 60,000 acres of prime agricultural land. Both Karachi and Lahore have seen the
development of large real estate schemes by private and military developers particularly along the
highway. These ventures are redefining urban limits, further straining service delivery.