World Habitat Day today:

Harmonius cities

S. Kodagoda

Since 1985, the United Nations celebrates 'World Habitat Day' on the first Monday in October of each year, to focus on the state of human settlements and the basic right to adequate shelter for all. This occasion has been celebrated on several themes by the UN-Habitat. This year, 'World Habitat Day' will be celebrated on the theme of 'Harmonious Cities'.

Mainly, the United Nations chose this theme to raise awareness.

A rural housing scheme

Harmony in cities means redressing the imbalance in the socio-economic fabric of a city, in many cities, wealth and poverty co-exist in close proximity. A society, however, cannot claim to be harmonious if large sections of its population are deprived of basic needs while other sections live in opulence.

A city cannot be harmonious if some groups concentrate resources and opportunities while others remain impoverished and deprived. Income inequalities with cities not only threaten the harmony of cities, but of countries as well as they create social and political fractions within society that could develop into social unrest or full-blown conflicts.

Environmental sustainability

Climate change is one of the most critical global challenges of our time. Recent disasters have demonstrated man's growing vulnerability to climate change. The impact of climate change affect:

- Agriculture

- Endanger food security

- Erosion of coastal zones and result in rising sea levels, increasingly intense

- Nature disasters

- Extinction of species and the spread of rector-borne diseases.

- The level of climate changing-green house gas emissions from a city are determined by its residents consumption patterns, lifestyle, income level and urban sprawl.

Urgent action is needed to foster widespread use of new energy efficient and environmentally friendly technologies to reduce pollution, carbon emissions and loss of bio-diversity.

* The loss of cultural identity in cities:

Cities are not just brick and mortar. Each city has a soul that is exhibited through its cultural heritage. A city may have excellent facilities and infrastructure but lack of social cohesiveness or vise versa. To measure the well-being of citizens, one should not only focus on the ability to own material resources but also on the social needs and relations of the individual. A city needs to preserve its cultural identity in order to achieve harmony.

Cities are powerful catalysts for national development. But for development to be sustainable, it needs to be set an environmental of harmony that provides inclusive living conditions for all their residents regardless of their economic status, gender or age. Each city resident has a right to live in a decent environment with access to basic services and resources.

How this is managed equitably is one of the greater challenges today.

The social values also tend to change when the economic and political aspirations of the people are not fulfilled.

Therefore, it will be of no use to focus on social factors alone for crime in a city, since social, economic and political factors are inter linked. But, the social factors have great influence in the physical design of our cities. Urban and rural areas have traditionally been viewed as exclusive and competing spheres placed in separate areas for planning, development and investment purposes.

National and local governance structures thus traditionally remain unable to deal with urban-rural linkages. Likewise, international organitions and donors. Consequently, policies reflect either urban or rural biases, overlooking the dynamics and importance of the development linkages between the two.

But the importance of a more holistic approach to local, national and regional territorial development is currently receiving increasing recognition in the international development agendas, and the potential of urban-rural linkage approach to development is attracting greater advocacy.

It is now widely recognized that there exists an economic, social and environmental interdependence between urban and rural areas and a need for balanced and mutually supportive approach to development of the two areas.

The discrete consideration of rural development as completely distinct from urban development is no longer valid. A new perspective, referred to as the rural urban linkage development approach, is increasingly becoming the accepted approach.

Rural-urban linkage generally refers to the growing flow of public and private capital, people and goods between urban and rural areas. It is important to add to these, the flow of ideas, information and innovation.

Better infrastructure:

Adequate infrastructure such as transportation, communications, energy and basic services from the backbone of the urban-rural development linkage approach. There is a positive relationship between adequate of transport, easy of mobility and better employment prospects. Adequate investments in infrastructure, particularly transport, improve rural productivity and better access markets, jobs and public services.

The role of small and medium sized towns have received renewed interest and recognition as of bridges in the urban-rural development continuum, in a well balanced system they act as infrastructure clusters for rural areas.

It is important therefore that governments at the national and local level of large cities, small and medium sized towns and rural areas, recognize the potential of rural-urban development linkages approach, the impact of their development actions on urban and rural areas and the positive role they can play in poverty alleviation. There is a need to gain better understanding of the relationships between urban and rural areas and the variety in the nature of these linkages.