The toxicity situation in Accra is very challenging to the health conditions of the city’s population. This situation is aggravated by a high level of urbanization and a large population. These chemical substances are from e-waste, industrial and institutional waste-discharge, environmental, and household waste. In the landfills where electronic waste substances are disposed of, children, mostly boys between the ages of 11 and 18, take apart the electronic scrap, often with their bare hands, burn it, and sometime use stones to extract metal parts. These activities pose many health challenges to these young children and others in the city, like itchy eyes, lung and kidney infections. Read more or join the discussion.
Submitted by Felix Nyamedor — Mon, 07/29/2013 – 00:00
The fact that developed countries have been using Africa as a dumping ground for electronic waste is an old story. Under the guise of “charitable donations,” tons of e-products of dubious worth — refrigerators, washing machines, computers, cellular phones, TVs (the list goes on) — are disposed of on the continent every year. Kenya is no exception to this trend: it is estimated that every day the port of Mombasa receives thousands of electronic devices. These subsequently get sold on to businesses and other institutions, but their shelf life is approaching its end and most of this equipment lives out its final years in the country and is subsequently not adequately disposed of. Read more or join the discussion.
Submitted by Katy Fentress — Mon, 07/29/2013 – 00:00
Nearly everyone in India has a mobile phone these days. Rickshaw drivers slow their engines to answer calls en route. Streetside fruit sellers take orders with their mobiles. And women picking up trash in the road use their mobiles to keep tabs on their children. Yet the growing availability of new technologies raises concerns for environmentalists, who warn that e-waste can be extremely hazardous if not dealt with properly. A Times of India article says that old computers and electronics can lead to public health issues such as mercury poisoning or a possible stroke if they are simply dumped and left to pile up. Hazardous e-waste is part of a larger issue in urban India about the lack of waste management services — especially for hazardous industries including biomedical companies, oil refineries, and chemical industries —leading to serious environmental and health issues. Read more or join the discussion.
Submitted by Carlin Carr — Mon, 07/29/2013 – 00:00
The Tietê river is the State of São Paulo’s most important river. Its runs more than 1100 km and crosses almost the entire state from east to west. The river is particularly important to the city of São Paulo, as it marks its urban geography. Unfortunately, the river has been polluted for years due to the lack of care, especially from the São Paulo Metropolitan Region, which encompasses 37 municipalities and has around 20 million residents. The pollution of the river began in 1920 with the construction of various infrastructure projects in the city. Then, between the 1940s and 1970s, during the city’s expansion, the river started receiving industrial effluents and domestic sewage. Read more or join the discussion.
Submitted by Catalina Gomez — Mon, 07/29/2013 – 00:00
O Tietê é o rio mais importante do Estado de São Paulo. Com 1100 km, ele atravessa praticamente todo o estado de leste a oeste. O rio é particularmente importante para a cidade de São Paulo sendo que ele marca sua geografia urbana. Infelizmente o rio se encontra bastante poluído, devido a anos de descuido, principalmente na Região Metropolitana São Paulo que tem um total de 37 municípios e 20 milhões de moradores. O processo de degradação do rio começou na década de 1920 com a construção de algumas obras de infraestrutura na capital. A poluição industrial e esgotos domésticos tem origem principalmente no processo de expansão urbana ocorrido entre as décadas de 1940 e 1970. Leia mais o discutir.
The Tietê river is the State of São Paulo’s most important river. Its runs more than 1100 km and crosses almost the entire state from east to west. The river is particularly important to the city of São Paulo, as it marks its urban geography. Unfortunately, the river has been polluted for years due to the lack of care, especially from the São Paulo Metropolitan Region, which encompasses 37 municipalities and has around 20 million residents. The pollution of the river began in 1920 with the construction of various infrastructure projects in the city. Then, between the 1940s and 1970s, during the city’s expansion, the river started receiving industrial effluents and domestic sewage. Read more or join the discussion.
Submitted by Catalina Gomez — Mon, 07/29/2013 – 00:00
Bangladesh is one of the world’s biggest ship dismantlers: about 52 percent of the world’s big ships are demolished each year near the coastline of Chittagong. Every year, these ship breaking industries earn around US$1 billion. More than 30,000 laborers, including men, women, and children, work in the city’s 70 shipyards companies. Though ship recycling is a profitable industry, ship breaking activities carry a real threat to the ambient environment and to workers, as the whole process entails a series of risky tasks and a number of hazardous substances. The demolition of ships is considered one of the most dangerous occupations in the world. Read more or join the discussion.
Submitted by Editor — Mon, 07/29/2013 – 00:00
Anyone comparing countries can quickly conclude there isn’t a direct fixed relationship between economic growth and quality public services. Per capita income can be terrible while total national income is high. Economic growth can be high yet maintain widespread inequality. This is not a sustainable way to run a country, yet this is how things are and have always been done in Brazil, the last country in the Americas to abolish slavery and today the world’s 7th largest economy where 21% of the population is still under the poverty line. Brazil today is 106th in GDP per capita. We also rank among the worst in inequality, at number 17, although this is a significant improvement over the 1st place position we occupied two decades ago. Read more.
Submitted by Catalytic Communities — Thu, 06/20/2013 – 11:08
I have just returned from the European Foundation Centre’s (EFC) annual meeting in Copenhagen. The organizing theme was “Sustainable Cities: Foundations and Our Urban Future”, which generated much welcome and critical discussion. The bulk of the meeting was not so much—perhaps counter-intuitively—on sustainability in an environmental sense, but in a social one. For example, how can foundations play a role in the support of people, communities and cities that are prosperous but also just, equitable and inclusive? These are clearly key to long- and perhaps even mid-term sustainability. For, as several people at the conference memorably said: we have to survive today… and tomorrow and next week if we hope to sustain ourselves all the way to next year, next decade, and next century. Read more.
Submitted by David Maddox — Tue, 06/04/2013 – 16:32
What is the city we want to create in the future? What is the city in which we want to live? Certainly that city is sustainable, since we want our cities to balance consumption and inputs to make a footprint that can last into the future. Certainly it is resilient, so our cities are still in existence after the next 100-year storm, now due every few years. And yet: as we build this vision we know that cities must also be livable. Indeed, we must view livability as the third indispensible—and arguably most important—leg supporting the cities of our dreams: resilient + sustainable + livable. Read more.
Submitted by David Maddox — Wed, 05/22/2013 – 09:34
The term Private Public Partnerships (PPP) in India is a dirty one. While partnerships present an opportunity for stakeholder collaboration that generate value by pooling of complementary expertise and resources, the practice in India has meant subcontracting of tasks and strategy by public sector to the private sector with little accountability or responsibilities on outcomes. The only driver of the partnership has been project finance and profits. This has been especially true in housing or slum redevelopment schemes from Dharavi in Mumbai to Katputali colony in Delhi driven by PPPs between city governments and large private developers. Maximizing the value of land while delivering maximum number of low-income housing are contradictory and misleading national policy objectives with fatal social outcomes. Read more.
Submitted by Rakhi Mehra — Fri, 04/05/2013 – 04:51
La llegada a las zonas urbanas trae consigo necesariamente un impacto en los emigrantes, que deben adaptarse al nuevo entorno. Sin embargo, es importante destacar que los recién llegados también ejercen una influencia significativa en las ciudades en las que se establecen. En paralelo a las complejas consecuencias económicas y sociales del movimiento migratorio, éste también tiene un significativo impacto cultural. Las estrechas relaciones de solidaridad que forman entre los emigrantes son, precisamente, un claro ejemplo de este tipo de impactos. Constituyen un ámbito en el que perviven costumbres y tradiciones culturales, que facilitan la supervivencia y el arraigo en circunstancias a menudo muy adversas. En ocasiones, estas costumbres de origen rural pasan a formar parte del patrimonio común de las ciudades, que acaban por aceptarlas como propias. Este es el caso de las mingas en Cali.
A survey completed in five North American downtowns reveals a huge disparity regarding perceptions of Rio de Janeiro’s favelas. Catalytic Communities‘ first-ever Favela Perceptions Survey interviewed 300 North Americans next to mass transit stops in downtown Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, New York, and Montreal in March 2012. Another 325 people were interviewed in Rio de Janeiro. All 300 North American respondents had heard of favelas prior to completing the survey. Of those who had never been to these communities, 79 percent viewed them unfavorably, whereas 72 percent of respondents who had visited favelas viewed them favorably. Learn more.
O Complexo da Maré é conhecido por ser uma das maiores favelas do Rio; esta composta por 16 comunidades onde moram mais de 130,000 pessoas. O bairro está localizado na zona norte da cidade, entre a Avenida Brasil e as Linhas Amarela e Vermelha. A Maré conta com poucos equipamentos sociais como escolas e postos de saúde, mas conta com um batalhão de Polícia Militar. Mais.
Rio de Janeiro has 6 million inhabitants, of whom an estimated 20 percent live in informal settlements. The number of favelas is still debated, as there are several ways of defining what constitutes a favela, but estimates range from 500 to 1000. Whatever the number, what Rio’s favelas have in common is that the great majority of them still lack basic urban services. These settlements also lack or have very poor social service provision, especially in the areas of health, education, and social assistance. The Morar Carioca program — understood by many to be the social legacy of the Olympic Games to be hosted in the city in 2016 — aims to urbanize more than 500 slums and benefit more than 320,000 households. Learn more.
Rio’s dramatic topography and rapid urbanization process have made the city more prone to certain types of environmental hazards, including landslides, erosion, and deforestation. When the Portuguese arrived in the city’s Guanabara Bay in 1501, the mountains were covered with thick Atlantic rainforest. In the ensuing years, as this protective covering has been stripped away to make room for settlements, the thin soils have become susceptible to landslides and the rock layer has been left exposed to weathering, making it more prone to erosion. In addition, the lack of drainage in many of the city’s poorest neighborhoods has contributed to excessive flooding during the summer rainy season. Learn more.
Community mapping is a process that involves communities in the production of diverse local information, knowledge, and resources. In neighborhoods around the globe, it has led to greater inclusion and empowerment of communities in their own development process, as local participants take part in planning, enumeration, and information gathering and processing exercises that were conducted previously only by experts. As the introduction of new technologies — including digital cameras, mobile phones, global positioning systems (GPS), and geographic information systems (GIS) — makes community mapping more sophisticated, it is also being used to identify risk areas or damaged urban infrastructure, with communities mobilizing to take appropriate action based on the data. Learn more.
Rio de Janeiro is one of the host cities for the World Cup to be held in Brazil in 2014 and is the host city for the Summer Olympic Games of 2016. In the meantime, Rio has the opportunity to boost its international image, leveraging its already world-renowned sites and the warmth of its residents. But beyond this temporary PR buzz, can such events lead to something more? Can these two major sports events contribute to long-term improvements to the life of Rio de Janeiro, including poverty alleviation and the promotion of opportunities for the city’s more disadvantaged populations? Learn more.
The 10,000 inhabitants of the Cantagalo and Pavão / Pavãozinho informal settlements, situated in the southern part of Rio de Janeiro, have recently begun to appreciate what it means to be connected to the formal city. Since mid-2010, they can access two elevators that connect their communities — located on two facing sides of one of Rio’s many hills — with the General Osorio metro station in Ipanema. The elevators also allow easy walking access to the commercial areas of Copacabana and Ipanema, Rio’s most important touristic destinations, where many of the informal residents go for work. Before the opening of the elevators, these communities could only be reached by a steep stairway of more than 700 steps, which locals had to climb and descend several times a day. Learn more.
Urban India can boggle the mind of even the most seasoned planners. The country’s economic growth has put metropolitan areas at the center of aspirations, causing widespread migration from rural villages and towns. With little urban planning on which to base the massive population growth, Mumbai has mushroomed chaotically. Transport, housing, water, sanitation, healthcare and education fall short of residents’ most basic needs. Few master plans have moved from theory to action. And frustrated citizens have grown increasingly wary of political inaction. Yet one government program, the country’s ambitious Aardhaar initiative — which aims to provide every citizen with a unique identification number — has the potential to return planning to foundational basics on which to base equitable urban development. Read more or join the discussion.
Mumbai’s unique geography as a peninsula city has styled its expansion in ways dissimilar to other cities. Rapid population growth in other metropolises explodes outwards in multiple directions, forming suburban pockets in unpredictable bursts. In Mumbai, the only possibility is north, making the push away from the central business area more vast with continued expansion. The result for those living in the northern suburbs and on the edge of the city is a longer and longer train commute on one of only two rail lines. Yet studies have found that despite this natural growth pattern, the poor actually continue to work closer to home than their wealthier counterparts, calling into question the importance of connectivity to the traditional economic center of the city. Read more or join the discussion.
Mumbai is a city of migrants. Millions of residents have journeyed to the island city from all around the country, bringing a rich diversity of languages, religions, and customs. They come with hopes and dreams of having more than they did in their jobless villages, toiling invisibly in all corners of the city. Many of these migrants are the foundation on which the city is built — literally. Construction is the single largest employer of migrant laborers in India’s cities. Both men and women — the poorest of the poor — spend endless hours laying down bricks, carrying cement, chopping away at old roads to bring home a meager living for their families, most of who live right at the sites. Read more or join the discussion.
India’s poor have few media outlets of their own. Their struggles for housing, human rights, basic services, equality, and dignity are told in snippets on the nightly news and in newspaper columns. Their dreams and demands are relayed in brush strokes, leaving aside the important details that humanize their existence. Yet a most unlikely group — women in India’s brothels — have pioneered a monthly newspaper that gives voice to the women and children in the red light districts of India, and sets an example for a democratic movement toward giving the power of expression to the disenfranchised. Read more or join the discussion.
Millions of people across the globe die of tuberculosis each year. Tragically, nearly all of these cases could have been cured. The public health threat hits hardest in the developing world, where 98 percent of TB deaths occur. Perhaps most unfortunate is the fact that a cost-effective strategy, DOTS (Directly Observed Treatment, Short-course), has been available for years, yet its promise remains unfulfilled. In Mumbai, the government has gone so far as to make treatments available for free. Yet TB continues to affect the city’s poor and vulnerable. Read more or join the discussion.
Mumbai, India
As the city sleeps, a small army of “green soldiers” hits Mumbai’s streets. Wading through mounds of garbage outside apartment complexes, corporate parks, and retail outlets, the city’s rag pickers — often among the poorest residents — separate out recyclable materials that would otherwise unnecessarily add to the over-burdened city landfills. The rag pickers recycle waste to sell to scrap dealers, carrying out one of the simple and doable practices in dealing with the city’s alarming 9,200 metric tonnes of waste generated every day. Read more or join the discussion.
The daily struggle for water consumes the lives of the poor. Women wait hours in line for water that is often of questionable quality, paying exorbitant rates — often much higher than richer urban dwellers. Contaminated water steals the lives of millions of children each year. Husbands miss valuable work days, and leftover savings is often spent on medical bills from waterborne illnesses. Read more or join the discussion.
What is the current situation in Mumbai?
The urban poor in the Global South lack access to banking and financial services, and women are disproportionately affected. They are less likely than men to hold a bank account, to take out a loan, or to borrow money. This is a detriment to development, since women are more likely to spend extra funds on their family, thereby improving food, education, and health. This series of articles profiles approaches to bridging the financial inclusion gender gap in São Paulo, Mexico City, Nairobi, Bangalore, and Dhaka. Read on to learn more, and then join the discussion below.
Tendo em conta a situação descrita pela Ministra, uma das principais prioridades do governo brasileiro durante vários anos, tem sido a redução de barreiras de informação e o desenho de produtos financeiros adequados para a população de baixa renda. Um dos principais mecanismos de promoção da inclusão financeira, especialmente para mulheres, tem sido Bolsa Família, o programa de transferências que beneficia a 13 milhões de famílias. O programa transfere mensalmente dinheiro para todas as famílias dependendo de seu nível de pobreza e número de crianças. O 93 por cento dos beneficiários direitos são mulheres, o que contribui no seu posicionamento e influencia dentro do núcleo familiar.
En el estudio del Especial de Inclusión Financiera de Nextbillion y Ashoka Changemakers, CrediMUJER de Perú afirma que la inclusión financiera está relacionada con el reconocimiento de los derechos de las mujeres, el refuerzo de su autoestima, autonomía económica y control de su vida.
Over the past decades, Chamas have increased in popularity: women have embraced them not only to send their children to school, undertake household maintenance, and weather them through major events and crises, but also as engines with which to forward their entrepreneurial skills and invest in income-generating activities.
Samasta started in Bangalore in 2008 and in just the first two years reached nearly 77,000 clients with a 99.97 percent repayment rate. Originally focusing on India’s southern states, the institution’s goal is to expand north and reach 1.8 million people by the end of this year. The bank’s focus is to “bridge the gap between ambition and achievement for the working poor across India, by providing financial and non-financial services in a sustainable, long-term relationship to enable them to achieve a better quality of life.” Samasta has had to expand its range of products in order to keep its clients as long-term customers.
ঢাকার বস্তিতে বসবাসরত মহিলারা সাধারণত অর্থনৈতিক ব্যাবস্থার ব্যাবহার সঠিক ভাবে করতে পারেন না; অপরুন্তু ডোনার এবং এন জি ও এর কাছ থেকে যে পরিমান অর্থ আসে তা এই বস্তির মহিলারা পান না, কারণ ডোনার এবং এন জি ও এসব বস্তি মূল্যায়ন করে না। এসব মহিলারা কোন ধনশম্পত্তিও পান না এবং তারের কোন ভুমি অধিকারও থাকে নাহ। বস্তুত, খাদ্য এবং কৃষি জরিপ অনুযায়ী বাংলাদেশে কেবল ২% মহিলা ভুমির মালিক, যা প্রতিবেশী দেশগুলোর তুলনায় অত্যন্ত কম। মহিলারা পার্লামেন্টে এবং অন্যান্য কর্মক্ষেত্রে এখন কাজ করলেও ভূমিমালিকাধীন নারীর সংখ্যা এখনো অনেক কম, যা অর্থনৈতিক নিরাপত্তা রক্ষায় অত্যন্ত গুরুত্বপূর্ণ।
Transportation infrastructure is a key factor in enhancing economic growth and quality of life. Still, many recent transportation initiatives, by focusing on cars and highways, have favored the rich and the middle class. The following articles explore ways to provide safe, affordable, eco-friendly, and reliable transportation to the poor in the Global South. Read on to learn more, then join the discussion below.
Despite a number of post-1994 initiatives, urban transport system problems persist. Recently (2006-2012), in the largest Public Private Partnership yet launched in South Africa, between the Gauteng Provincial Government and Bombela International Consortium, a rapid rail project worth R20 billion (US$ 2 billion) was implemented. The “Gautrain” rapid rail network consists of two spines: one (south-north) linking Johannesburg and Pretoria, and the other (west-east) linking the Sandton business district and OR Tambo International airport. Coupled with this, in 2007 the City began constructing an ambitious Bus Rapid Transit System (BRT) known as the “Rea Vaya” (see Fig. 2).
In contrast to the BRT, the Gautrain, in catering purely for the affluent car owner/user, from a social perspective clearly suffers from the criticism of class/mobility-related exclusion; although this could be offset by a BRT system that, unlike the Gautrain where there is no clarity in providing mixed-income residential development around its stations, clearly allows for mixed-income along BRT corridors.
In 2008, Governor Fashola’s state government introduced the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) scheme through the Lagos Metropolitan Transport Authority (LAMATA) to improve road transport system and ultimately reduce congestion. The new fleet of buses were designed to be more comfortable, and introduced an organised system of public transportation. The pilot BRT transport scheme runs through 22 km of exclusive lanes, providing faster transport at affordable prices for commuters. Since its inception, a lot of positive impact has been recorded. Highlights recorded by the World Bank include:
Yet a solution from Chennai offers a comprehensive example for Mumbai on how to move toward sustainable, comprehensive mobility. In August, Shreya Gadepalli, of the Institute for Transportation Development Policy (ITDP), presented her work with a new initiative, the Chennai Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority (CUMTA), at the ORF to share the progress Chennai has made and how it might apply to Mumbai.
১৯৬১ অধ্যাদেশে সপ্তম নম্বরের অধীনে বাংলাদেশ রোড ট্রান্সপোর্ট কর্পোরেশন (বি.আর.টি.সি) প্রতিষ্ঠিত হয়েছিল। এটি বাংলাদেশ সরকারের স্বীকৃত পরিবহন কর্পোরেশন যা সকল শ্রেণীর মানুষের জন্য সস্তা এবং আরামদায়ক ভ্রমন ব্যবস্থা প্রদানের জন্য প্রতিষ্ঠিত হয়। বর্তমানে বাংলাদেশে বি.আর.টি.সি এর ১,১১৬ টি বাস পুরো বাংলাদেশে চলাচল করছে কিন্তু এগুলো ৪৭ মিলিয়ন (প্রায় ২৬ শতাংশ) দরিদ্র মানুষের পরিবহন চাহিদা মিটাতে যথেষ্ট নয়।
Sebagai angkutan umum, Kopaja sering mendapat sorotan negatif dikarenakan alasan: Pertama, penumpang Kopaja sering berlebih hingga dua kali lipat sehingga rawan kejahatan seperti pencurian dan pelecehan. Kedua, Kopaja juga dianggap jauh dari aman sebab sering kali alat kemudi dan pengukur kecepatan yang seadanya. Banyak pengemudi mobil pribadi yang merasa terancam sebab cara menyetir sopir Kopaja yang ugal-ugalan dan sering melanggar rambu-rambu lalu lintas dan membahayakan pengguna jalan lain. Ketiga, Kopaja merupakan penyumbang besar polusi perkotaan disebabkan buruknya sistem pembuangan karbon yang cukup membahayakan bagi manusia dan lingkungan.
Iniciemos com o metrô. Embora ele tenha sido inaugurado faz quase 35 anos atrás e apresente um atendimento médio de 650 mil pessoas durante um dia útil, ele está subutilizado. Por exemplo, ele tem só 35 estações em quanto o de São Paulo, tem 62 e aquele de Buenos Aires tem 86. Também existem queixas constantes sobre a superlotação, contribuindo a percursos incômodos e inseguros.
Aunque la situación actual dista mucho de ser buena, el premio se ha otorgado a un proyecto actualmente en marcha y que puede redundar en una mejora significativa de la situación medioambiental. En primer lugar, está previsto que 200 autobuses híbridos comiencen a circular por Bogotá a partir del 15 de diciembre. Los buses, marca Volvo, son fabricados en Brasil y ensamblados en Colombia. Podrán circular tanto por los carriles de alta velocidad del Transmilenio como por rutas convencionales, pues tienen puertas a ambos lados. Está previsto que circulen por la Carrera 7º, una de las principales de la ciudad y por la que en la actualidad solo circulan busetas y coches particulares. Una vez que los autobuses híbridos comiencen a circular por esta carrera, sus elevados niveles de contaminación descenderán de forma significativa. Estos buses no necesitan conectarse a la red eléctrica para recargarse.
Mumbai is the type of city that makes you want to do something. When I first came in 2008, I had the same feeling. I started an English language program at a shelter for 20 homeless boys. This year, I decided that the kids needed to see the world beyond their very rudimentary makeshift home on the beach, right next to some of the fanciest five-star hotels in the city. We launched a crowd-funded campaign on Indiegogo called “Send Mumbai Street Children to Aurangabad” to send them on a trip outside the city. In a few days, we had met our goal, and within a couple of weeks, we doubled it! The project has inspired us to start a bigger “fresh air” trip campaign for the kids to visit their national treasures, enjoy the lovely nature of India’s countryside, and bond together in a new environment.
