MegaCities Essay Essay

Mega Cities be cities that father a tribe of more than 8 million and are characterised by the ch every last(predicate)enges they face, including w entirely plugs involving the liberal economy, unemployment, poor sanitation and shelter. These put unders are largely large(p) in these cities due to rapid urban ripening and a insufficiency of resources. In many cases action has been taken by national governments and non-governmental organisations (nongovernmental organizations) to fighting and reduce the impact of these issues, however In assure for these strategies to be effective they need to fit 3 primary criteria, the final result must be community based, cost effective and sustainable economically and environmentally. Strategies much(prenominal) as micro pay.. Etc. have been adopted to result these challenged.A primary challenge facing many mega cities is the populations heavy reliance on the informal economy as a means of income. The informal economy is a sector of u nregulated prune and with this comes soaring unemployment rates and a lack of jobs to support the ever-increasing population. Jobs in the informal economy are particularly prominent in Dhaka, Bangladesh, where 65% of all jobs are found in this sector. Jobs in the informal economy buzz off a threat to mega cities and their population as workers are not protected and are open to exploitation (e.g. Child labour) and mess employed conversationally pay no tax (e.g. Street vendors, rickshaw drivers) leading to a reduction in the governments revenue. A number of strategies have been undertaken in set up to transform informal work into the formal economy, including Micro financing.Micro financing involves nongovernmental organizations giving out small loans (approximately $US200), which provide people with money to formalise their business. There are a number of NGOs that undertake this strategy, including Opportunity International, which is an Australian charity, operating in manila , targeting particularly impoverished communities. Access to these loans is based on a persons standing in the community and once the business begins to sustain itself loans must be repaid. The issue of this process is a formalised business, which then contributes to governmentbeneficially by providing it with revenue. This strategy to combat the prominence of the informal economy has been particularly successful, adheres to the leash evaluation criteria and provides users with lifetime skills and an income, which could potentially make better their accompaniment standards/quality of life.another(prenominal) challenge face by a large majority of mega cities is attack to shelter, due to population growth in mega cities being too thoroughgoing for sufficient supply of housing. This in turn leads to the creation of informal housing, such(prenominal) as homesteader settlements, which are generally formed on free unwanted land, such as next to rail lines or sewage systems. Info rmal housing is extremely prominent in developing countries such as India, where 500,000 people live on the pavement in Kolkata with at least 4 million more sustainment in squatter settlements as well as 1 million people living in cemeteries in Cairo, and of the Philippines population residing in slums. This informal housing creates a number of problems for its residents and government it lacks basic services (sewerage, electrical energy, water), leading to unsanitary living conditions.There is a lack of tenure, which is the legal right to occupy land, which cabbage residents from wanting to correct property, insecurity for people and also extremely high crime rates particularly in the Favelas of Rio de Janiero where the police are ineffective to patrol, due to extreme gang violence. NGOs and governments have undertaken strategies to improve the issue of lack of entryway to shelter, including the Kolkata Bustee Improvement Project, a joint hatchway between government and non-g overnment organisations. This is a site and service program center that the project takes an existing site and provides it with necessary services, such as sanitation, electricity etc.This program in turn reduces the cost burden on local anesthetic government and creates jobs by incorporating the local community into the work. This movement has try to stop Indias slum clearance policy, which frees up NGOs to be able to assist the extreme urban poor. This movement has proved to be extremely successful in meliorate the shelter dapple in Kolkata as it improves the living standard of squatter settlement dwellers, provides jobs and skills to the local community (therefore adding to the formal not informal economy) and also allows NGOs to be able to assist the poor as they were previously curb by government policies. Another benefit is that it is cost effective because it aims to improve existing settlements and creates tenure.Access to sanitation is another key challenge faced by ma ny Mega Cities that is, providing safe food and drinking water and sewerage management. Due to increasing populations, inadequate and ancient sewerage systems and also lack of access to fresh water many Mega Cities face sanitation issues. This issue is particularly prominent in cities such as Manila, where only 11% of people have access to a sewerage system, Karachi at 20% and Dhaka at 18% of the population. Water Borne diseases are particularly prominent in megacities, such as Cholera, Dysentery and Typhoid. Furthermore the disposal of solid dotty in Mega cities has lead to issues involving contamination of groundwater and creating Vernon, this is common of Jakarta where only of all rubbish gets collected. To combat the issue of sanitation, local governments and NGOs have established very effective, low-tech strategies, such as the Pour besotted Toilet.This initiative is a relatively cheap response to the needs of unintended urban settlements in mega cities. A displace flush t oilet has a water seal that avoids the problems associated with odour and insects. However its effectiveness is limited by the fact that the system is not suitable in cities where the groundwater table is mingy to the surface, which is the case in many mega cities, including Mumbai and Kolkata in India and Dhaka in Bangladesh. Also, pour flush toilets can produce substantial quantities of heavily contaminated effluent which can require substantial downstream infrastructure to avoid arrant(a) environmental and public health problems. Despite the disadvantages of this strategy it has proved to be a very successful short term solution to the issue of sanitation and is widely used in Mega Cities around the world, due to the fact that they are simple to use and can be kept pillage fairly easily.Mega Cities face many challenges largely due to their high population increase rate. They therefore need to develop a number of solutions and strategies to combat these prominent issues, such as the informal economy, access to shelter and access to sanitation. If action is not taken to confront these issues they will only stick more consequential, leading to more deaths and further environmental and land degradation. Governments andNGOs continually need to create strategies to solve these issues and their efforts so furthermost have proved to be extremely beneficial in improving the quality of life of residents of Mega cities, as they fit the three primary criteria compulsory for solutions to be effective.