Urbanization is great, but where will all these people live?

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Photo by rawkkim on Unsplash
Photo by rawkkim on Unsplash

More than 50 percent of people worldwide live in cities, and the World Health Organization predicts that this proportion will continue to increase. – Jasmine Reese on 5 Major Problems of Urbanization

In accordance with Wikipedia, urbanization is the population shift from rural areas to urban areas i.e. towns and cities in the quest for access to better job opportunities, education and health care facilities. It is a direct result of economic development which leads to an increase in the size of the urban population, economic activity and a change in culture.

However, in the midst of this transformation, all too often the issue of resources is overlooked until the eleventh hour when they have been stretched too thin largely because of population density and continued population influx within a given space on limited assets.

Given these circumstances, inadequate housing, poor water and sanitation as well as poor health care services tend to prevail inspiring the question; where will all these people live?

Population increase translates into an increase in demand for space and resources. In cities, deforestation has already been implemented in certain areas and is ongoing in an attempt to respond to need for space.

However, with resources not being directly proportional to population invasion, an intricate situation of inadequate or substandard housing results giving birth to slums which don’t meet safety standards.

Considering that urban areas can only take in so much, an integral and sustainable solution is decentralization which will ensure that there’s rural area development.

With economic growth and development in these areas, the constant need for people to move into cities will be minimized as greener pastures people often migrate for will be in their backyard. This will also ensure that existing limited resources in urban areas are also enough to cover its population.

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