Daily Times

Cities everywhere are under fire from all sides. They have to contend with rising crime rates, the burden of ever increasing populations, crumbling infrastructure, congestion as well as poverty. And when they are not dealing with these — there is the not so small matter of housing deficits, stressed services, urban sprawl and environmental degradation. All of which leads to a rather fragile state of being. This is said to be borne predominantly of the intense struggle that plays out among the citizenry in terms of battling it out for available land as well as availing economic opportunities to the maximum. And naturally, the larger the city — the more competition there is for limited resources. This is happening across the entire urban world.

But there is some good news for Pakistan, as surprising at it may seem. Thus far none of our cities are among the 20 most fragile urban centres globally, according a World Economic Forum report published earlier this year. This is despite the numerous challenges facing the country in terms of terrorism, political instability as well as the impact of extreme climate change. Thus we must plan accordingly before it is too late.

Migration and Its Impact on Cities was published back in October and in it the WEF finds that small- and medium-sized cities are the most vulnerable. Meaning that Peshawar is almost as fragile as Karachi — despite the latter being at least eight times bigger population wise. What we need on an urgent basis, therefore, is knowledgeable leadership which could be charged with master planning; provided that it sees it through.

We have seen many fragile cities turn things around in a relatively short time span. Indeed, once upon a time, London and Manchester were the world’s most polluted cities. Fast-forward to today and they are among the most stable and liveable. The same progress has translated into parts of the developing world, too; with cities doing better by way of evidence-based and targeted initiatives such as low-cost housing, integrating migrants, safe transport, technological innovation, entrepreneurship-led growth, inclusive public spaces and disaster management.

There is, however, no one-size-fits-all here when it comes to building resilience. Nevertheless, a good first step is to identify what is making a particular city fragile. Let us take the recent Census figures as an example. These show that among the 10 most populous cities here in Pakistan — Islamabad has the most alarming population growth rate; which is put at more than 4 percent per annum. One way to reduce the federal capital’s vulnerability is to integrate the large number of migrants from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa into the services economy. Cities like Peshawar and Quetta take the brunt of terrorist strikes thereby precipitating over time a mass exodus of a vibrant labour force to other parts of the country or else abroad. Therefore what is needed as a top priority is better governance and crime control by way of smart policing.

One way to reduce the federal capital’s vulnerability is to integrate the large number of migrants from KP into the services economy. Cities like Peshawar and Quetta take the brunt of terrorist strikes thereby precipitating a mass exodus of a vibrant labour force to other parts of the country

There is much information out there as to how different cities, each with their own distinct socio-cultural make-up, tackle these problems; and Pakistan can learn much from such approaches. For instance, many cities, including in the Global South, are making the most of the latest technologies to build community resilience, thereby reducing the fragility of cities. In real terms this translates into Copenhagen, for example, managing its storm water drainage infrastructure by way of technology-based forecasting. Or the Japanese city of Fukuoka producing hydrogen for fuel-cell vehicles, resulting in bringing down carbon emissions by some 60 percent. Or else Rio de Janeiro using the world’s first public-facing crime forecasting platform to anticipate the spatial, temporal and demographic risk of unlawful acts. And then are US cities such as San Francisco, Palo Alto and Pittsburgh that are centre-staging online platforms to help keep citizens informed about parking zone regulations, local development plans, heritage sites, flood risks, building permits and planning applications.

Cities around the world are coming up with innovative disaster preparedness and alerting systems given that this now poses the biggest risk to our collective security. In fact, the Global Climate Risk Index 2014 finds that infrastructure loss from natural catastrophes during the last 20 years has cost the world more than 2.5 trillion USD in terms of purchasing power parity (PPP). And here is where Pakistan comes undone. Meaning that extreme climate change has brought with it terrible costs: 174,000 deaths and $26billion in economic losses for the 1994-2014 period. Yet it is still not too late to learn from the Ecuadorian city of Quito. For the latter has developed a disaster alert platform focusing on “seismic concern” to help the municipal government and other response agencies to coordinate in real time.

Closer to home is Mumbai, where most migrants end up living in slums on the outskirts of the city. Thus the Mumbai Municipal Corporation has come up with a GIS based tracking system to identify gaps in infrastructure and services in informal settlements. Likewise, unique postal addresses are being provided to slum dwellers in Calcutta to help them access necessary civic services.

Most large and medium cities face overcrowding and traffic problems. The so-called agglomeration effect is rarely visible here in Pakistan. Instead, congestion and poor environmental quality are the features of our cities, which inevitably blocks productivity and economic growth. To overcome similar challenges New York and Boston have partnered with technological companies to monitor navigation patterns of car users, including those who travel by taxi. Elsewhere the Philippines has introduced an Open Traffic platform to optimise the timings of traffic signals by collecting GPS data from drivers by way of smartphones.

Technology solutions like Treepedia can enable decision makers and city dwellers to monitor urban tree coverage; something that is fast depleting in Pakistani cities due to mega infrastructure projects. Indeed, in Karachi alone, tree foliage has dropped from 18 percent back in 1947 to just 7 percent in 2017.

And then there is the question of how governments and people pay for things. Presently, cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum are making headlines. Yet very few in this country may know just how these block chain technologies have the potential to transform large sectors of governance and bring about transactional economic efficiency. Thus the UAE government remains at the vanguard in terms of further exploring the potential of these digital currencies and introducing them into government services.

In short, there is a long list of progressive initiatives covering virtually every sector into which city managers can tap to better build resilience at the community level, across urban landscapes; especially when it comes to small and medium cities. Thus the only barrier to us becoming stronger is a lack of political will and priority resetting.

The writer is associated with LEAD Pakistan as Team Leader, Sustainable Cities Initiative and can be reached at mrafiq@lead.org.pk

Published in Daily Times, December 8^th 2017.