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by Ashley L. S. Perera, Senior Professor of Town and Country Planning

The World Town Planning Day is celebrated annually on the 08th of November. This was initially spearheaded by Prof. Carlas Maria dula Paclera of the University of Buenos Aires in 1949.

The objectives of the mission had been firstly to highlight the valuable contribution sound town planning has and could make to improve the quality of human settlements environment and secondly to give worldwide coverage to the ideals of town planning not only within the profession but also among the general public.

Well over thirty countries in four of the continents now celebrate this event. Since last year the Dept. of Town and Country Planning of the University of Moratuwa has taken the initiative to facilitate the commemoration of this event in a fitting manner.

In 2001 the Department jointly organized a national level conference with the collaboration of the Urban Development Authority. The theme of the conference was Urban Planning and the Living Environment. All practising planners of implementation agencies, university teachers and personnel representing related professions participated in the proceedings. It was indeed a rewarding experience as the deliberations dealt with several important issues and with useful interventions by both planers and non-planners. Encouraged by the success of the inaugural conference the Department decided to focus attention this time on the other objectives of creating awareness of the ideals of town planning not only within the profession but also among a wider sections of the community.

This is vital because town planning has become increasing recognized as every bodies business not merely that of the planners. The ultimate objective of planning is to provide a framework within which people can live happy and useful lives. This could best be achieved only with the community involvement in the planning process. Ginsburg, a British Planner, speaking on the subject of positive public participation some years ago observed thus 'just as war is too dangerous to leave to the generals, so planning is too vital to leave to the planners'.

Town Planning as most other professions affects the day to day life of the people. Public participation, public involvement, and public hearings are well recognized means of identifying the aspirations of the people. The conducive human settlements environment that the town planers crave to achieve is a totality which is inseparable and designed for the common benefit of the society as a whole. It could advise the public about the rational of land uses and the meaning and purposes of planning and building laws and help than to arrive at rational decisions. On the other hand, public cooperation and compliance to planning laws and building regulations are vital to establish the conducive human settlements environment that city governance strive to achieve.

Most of the cities in Sri Lanka are beset with problems of crisis proportions. Solid waste management entails one such problem which has caused serious concern to both local authorities and the community in recent years. Solid waste collection and disposal are generally the function and responsibility of local authorities.

It seems however that local authorities have failed to perform either of these functions satisfactorily. Consequently the streets in most towns are strewn with garbage in every nook and corner presenting not only a very unpleasant sight but also unbearable stench and odour that emanate from such refuse. Stray dogs, cats, rats and the like pose additional hazards and further aggravates the already polluted city environment. However, this is hardly the case with most cities in the developed world, with a few rare exceptions. The situation seems well under control in these cities.

Thus most cities in the developed world are reasonably clean and the local authorities in these countries are better organised to deal inter alia with the problem of solid waste collection and disposal. The contrasting situation in cities of developing counties vis a vis their counterparts in developed countries poses some obvious questions. Is this perilous situation due to (a) lack of resources, (b) low priority or (c) indifference of the local authorities. The writer in fact was seeking an answer to this and other related questions as part of his agenda on recent visits to several cities in the US and Canada. The above and many other reasons may have been contributory factors to some degree in aggravating the environmental pollution arising from solid waste mis-management.

However lessons of experience from the aforesaid western cities suggest that the success in solid waste management is primarily attributed to the strict compliance of the community to local authority rules and regulations pertaining to the subject.

This is why the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (UNCHS) over the years has been advocating the democratization of cities on the basis that good urban governance involves participatory division making. 'It not only involves the state and local governments...' states Paul Taylor (1999) 'but also civil society' (economic and social actors, community based institutions, the media etc). He further states that in an increasingly urbanizing world sustainable urban development will depend largely on the management capacity of cities and the active participation of citizens'.

However the reasons for good management of the US and Canadian cities go further than participatory decision making. The writer believes that the main reason for good governance is the rigorous enforcement of local authority laws, rules and regulations which demand strict compliance from community. Citizens who do not comply with the rules and regulations pertaining to garbage collection and disposal or fail to dispose their household garbage in designated locations are heavily fined.

Further citizens are not allowed to let out their pets ie. dogs, cats etc. on the streets. A person who walks the streets accompanying a dog for example should be armed with a bag and perhaps a pair of gloves to collect any consequential dirt. The city administration ensures that its citizens keep even their private lawns tidy. If they fail to maintain their lawns the city council will do so at the expense of the citizens which would amount to a penal rate.

Even in the best of democracies it will be observed that strict compliance to the laws is a must and one could do away with such laws only at a heavy personal cost which he would have to pay in haste and perhaps repent at leisure. It could hence be concluded that the relative cleanliness and conducive human environment achieved in cities in the countries mentioned are primarily due to the rigorous enforcement of municipal rules, regulations and by-laws and the commitment to ensure hundred percent compliance by the community.

Then again one has to be careful in arriving at conclusions given the complexities of city life. There are no cities in the world where governance could be described as ideal. Every city has its strong and weak points. Good or bad are used in relative terms. Jonathan Raban refers to New York and London as soft cities. He states that the soft city of illusion myth, aspiration, nightmare, as real, may be more real, than the 'hard city' one can locate on map... Today the overwhelming fact of life in New York if not in London states Raban, is the violence brewing in its streets.

In New York, Broadway and Plaza are notorious danger spots, and old Vic. in London has the highest record of unprovoked violent assault. As against this type of soft city there is a concept of soft state developed by Myrdhal who states that most Third World countries are soft states where indiscipline, general lack of respect to law and authority, dishonesty, bribery and corruption prevail in all strata of society. Law enforcement in such a society is difficult if not impossible.

This may in some measure account for the state of affairs in our cities. However in the context of the problem of solid waste management community participation and community involvement are sine quo non pre-requisites to achieve success. Solid waste management should be viewed not only from the stages of collection and disposal but also from the point of generation.

At the point of generation there is an attitudinal problem generally referred to as the 'not in my back-yard syndrome' referred to for brevity as NIMBY syndrome. It has been found that households would ensure that their compounds are rid of garbage but would not mind disposing it on public streets and roads. Even when bins are provided those who come within the definition of 'educated' let alone the rest simply throw the garbage from a distance creating a mess in a wider area. Further the volume of garbage generated could be considerably reduced by destroying a part of the refuse at source. Banning the use of polythene bags in favour of the 'pan-malla' (bag made of reeds) could further reduce the volume of solid waste and hence remove an environmental hazard.

Another problem that is prevalent in cities is the problem of traffic congestion and traffic accidents. Traffic congestion within the city need not necessarily require widening of roads. As in the case of solid waste management, traffic congestion within the city is mostly a management problem, which requires among other things the strict enforcement of the traffic code.

There has been a steady deterioration of discipline on roads in recent times. While countries like Sweden are aiming at a zero accident rate, the accident rate on city roads is on the increase. It is imperative that rigorous measures need to be introduced to reduce traffic accidents. However these measures need to be supplemented by public awareness programmes and public participatory approaches at city level.

It is now widely held that participatory approaches, which are more open, accountable and transparent, lead to efficiency in local governance. On the occasion of the World Town Planning Day it is appropriate therefore to conclude this paper by focusing on the Habitat Agenda which is a commitment to 'enabling local leadership, promoting democratic rule, exercising public authority and using public resources in all public institutions at all levels that is conducive to ensuring transparent, responsible, accountable, just, effective and efficient governance of towns, cities and metropolitan areas'.

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