Question – Describe two challenges of living in a Mega Cities. Describe the responses to these challenges (HSC 2003), referring to specific examples.

Living within a megacity is tough, and the number of problems associated with living in a megacity seems endless. Unemployment, high levels of poverty, poor urban infrastructure, housing concerns with the large number of squatter settlements and the gap between the “well-off” and the poor continues to grow – these are just a small number of issues that these large cities inhabitants face on a daily basis. Arguably the two major problems faced would be pollution and the rapid population growth within these cities – many governments have tried to adopt policies and initiatives to curb these problems with mixed results.

Pollution, both air and water, have been a “constant thorn” to theses cities, many have struggled to cope with it. Mexico City is a perfect case of a city that has failed to take control of the problem. It is estimated that about 1 million of the 18 million residents of Mexico City have suffered some sort of permanent damage from the pollution, other effects from the have been headaches, breathing difficulties and eye irritations. Traffic congestion goes hand in hand with air pollution that the city now faces – on an annual basis the number of vehicles continues to grow at a rapid rate. One response to this challenge has been the development of a successful subway rail system – it carries about 4.5 million passengers daily and the prices are kept low, that is in an effort by the Government to encourage more people to use it.

The worst Mega Cities identified by the World Health Organization (WHO) in terms of air pollution are Beijing, Los Angeles, Cairo, Jakarta, Mexico City, Moscow and Sao Paulo. The WHO conducted a study in 1992 as a response to the epidemic increases in pollution related illnesses. Some recommendations and responses to address the problems of urbanization and air pollution include – Constant air quality management, attention to short term solutions to the problems at hand and as well to look at long term objectives, having preventative measures in place in any new industrial or urban development.

It is important that problems with air pollution (and pollution generally) are dealt with quickly. The United Nations, which undertook a pollution study in 20 Mega Cities, is intended to guide the efforts to solve and prevent some of these problems from occurring in future emerging cites. Preventing pollution problems before they occur is usually the most cost-effective method for dealing with air pollution.

Water pollution is also a large challenge that living within a Mega City poses – lack of reliable drinking water, small percentage of water is treated for pollution and poor sewage measures are all problems. Within Mexico City, polluted water is a major concern for the public, with the rapidly growing population the amount of untreated sewage and industrial waste entering the city’s water is growing to a level that alarms public health officials. The untreated waste is often used to irrigate vegetables and other crops grown for urban food supplies – this poses major health concerns for both farmers and consumers and this practice must be stopped.

The second major challenge faces by these cities is the rapid population growth on an annual basis. For many cities the rate is well over 5 %, within Jakarta and Beijing the percentage is closer towards a double-digit figure. Mexico has a rapid urbanization process and Mexico City is at the heart of it, 74% of the countries now live in these urban centers. The “rural-urban drift” has continued to see rapid population growth and movement at the incredible rate of 1000 people a day. Employment has been the reasoning behind such growth in population and subsequent movement.

As a result of such a rapid population expansion, stress is placed on infrastructure and it is clear than an inadequate urban infrastructure is what many face on a daily basis. This is very evident within Beijing – crowded hospitals, schools, roads and public transport. Mexico City is also facing similar infrastructure troubles with only 60 % of the city’s garbage is collected due to poor funding and “overwhelming pressures” placed due to the large size of the city. The remaining half of the garbage isn’t properly disposed of, it is simply left in the streets to rot or dumped illegally on landfill sites spread across the city.

It is clear that Mega Cities face many difficulties and struggle to survive on a daily basis. The responses to these challenges have not been as effective as they could be – burdening debt, corruption and high interest payments on loans are all hampering possible initiatives. However in the case of Mexico City the initiatives have been moderately successful – a drop in the annual population growth rate from 4.8% in the 1980’s to 1.8% in 1999, slowing of immigration and “slow and steady” infrastructure improvements have taken place. The two major problems, pollution and rapid growth, still need to be addressed but it is safe to say that authorities and other organizations are changing the way that Mega Cities are functioning.