Water is one of the many precious resources that this plant is blessed with. Even if most of the surface of the earth is covered with this resource, only a small percentage of it is usable. That is why water management gaining more and more ground in the modern era. Even if I am not in agreement with the quote from the lecture that stated 21 century wars could be fought for water instead of oil, I firmly believe that, with unwise water management practices, regional conflicts would be inevitable. The recent tension between the Nile basin countries in east Africa can be cited as good example.
Concerning scarcity.....
In the lecture it was also discussed that mostly the middle eastern countries and northern Africa would face a critical scarcity in water at the beginning of the next decade.I think the participants made the forecast based on the geographical and climatic conditions of the countries. But in my opinion, the term scarcity in water context should consider the legislative aspect too. In some areas, even if there is abundant water resources, due to lack of fair legislation on how to use it, people could not harass the resource as they want. A good example for this - once again - are the Nile basin countries. Because of the old aged legislation that highly favor only few of the basin countries, most of the upper stream countries are susceptible to drought and hunger even if a large amount of the resource either originates from or crosses their land.
On global Changes.....
It is quite obvious that global changes like climate change, population growth, urbanization and the like have strong interaction with water. Issues raised related to climate change are mainly those of rises in sea level that eventually reduces fresh water. Moreover urbanization and energy production as they are water thirst processes,efficient water management system is a must to cope up with these global trends. But most importantly, as over population is the root of all the problems, I suggest that a wise water management strategy should also focus on how to directly or indirectly tackle this problem.
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Lecture diary 2: Workshop on Mega cities
One of the most pressing problems in megacities is that of housing provision for the urban poor. In majority of the cases, these people do not have access to clean water, sanitation facilities, health care and waste disposal.
Based on the issues of the fictitious illegal housing settlement called Ibare in Lagos, Nigeria, the theme of the workshop was to develop strategies for megacities in their bid to have an urban development scheme that is acceptable to the various stakeholders involved.
The stakeholder teams in this workshop were:
1. Federal government officials
2. City planners
3. NGO/Community leaders
4. Social scientists/academics
5. UN habitat team
I was member of the social scientists / academics team and we were strongly pushing for the following points to be taken into account in the process of devising an urban development program:
1.The importance of involving the community (participatory approach). This can be
launched by arranging forums with the aid of NGOs who shall act like a bridge
between the community and the government officials.
2.The utilization of good quality building materials that is environmentally
friendly.
3.Housing schemes shall be compliant with the proper building standards.
4.Available land for residential purpose shall be properly administered by the .
government
Finally, a question for the government guys......
how far does it work to try to relocate a certain group of people to make way for developing the land? :)
Based on the issues of the fictitious illegal housing settlement called Ibare in Lagos, Nigeria, the theme of the workshop was to develop strategies for megacities in their bid to have an urban development scheme that is acceptable to the various stakeholders involved.
The stakeholder teams in this workshop were:
1. Federal government officials
2. City planners
3. NGO/Community leaders
4. Social scientists/academics
5. UN habitat team
I was member of the social scientists / academics team and we were strongly pushing for the following points to be taken into account in the process of devising an urban development program:
1.The importance of involving the community (participatory approach). This can be
launched by arranging forums with the aid of NGOs who shall act like a bridge
between the community and the government officials.
2.The utilization of good quality building materials that is environmentally
friendly.
3.Housing schemes shall be compliant with the proper building standards.
4.Available land for residential purpose shall be properly administered by the .
government
Finally, a question for the government guys......
how far does it work to try to relocate a certain group of people to make way for developing the land? :)
Lecture diary 1: Urban Risks
On the lecture....
Urban risks can take various forms such as accidental deaths, natural and technological hazards, diseases, etc. For instance, majority of airplane accidents occur during take-off and landing, which puts all the settlements around airports in an increased risk. Thus, proper city planning needs to take into account such factors.
The state of population by itself poses a risk. In developing countries the problem is due to rapid population growth whereas in some developed countries, in contrast, it is due to a decrease in population. Although there is significant improvement in city life and increased involvement of governments in assessing and managing risks, there is still the demand for better security due to:
high concentration of infrastructure
high concentration of industries, trade and commerce
high population density
The long term impact of rising sea levels was also discussed. Coastal cities are in imminent danger and the economic impact of such a disaster is also bound to be massive. But what causes rising sea levels? Is it due to climate change? In my opinion it is and the biggest problem today is human action contributing to global warming.
On the weighting discussion....
In our weighting discussion, we tried to filter out, from the list of various urban risks, the most important ones in the European context. Even if we did not base our discussion on statistical data, we generally decided that hazards like floods, extreme temperatures and storms/cyclones, in that order, are very important to be taken into consideration when one plans urban environments in Europe. In another hand,Tsunami, earth quakes and volcanic eruption pose low risk. Incidentally, the weighting from the other group was more or less similar to our analysis.
Projecting this discussion to my own town, Addis ababa, would result in a different output. As Addis ababa is located in one of the poorest countries in Africa,Ethiopia, the main urban risks would mainly be related to overpopulation which is the root of all the problems.
Urban risks can take various forms such as accidental deaths, natural and technological hazards, diseases, etc. For instance, majority of airplane accidents occur during take-off and landing, which puts all the settlements around airports in an increased risk. Thus, proper city planning needs to take into account such factors.
The state of population by itself poses a risk. In developing countries the problem is due to rapid population growth whereas in some developed countries, in contrast, it is due to a decrease in population. Although there is significant improvement in city life and increased involvement of governments in assessing and managing risks, there is still the demand for better security due to:
high concentration of infrastructure
high concentration of industries, trade and commerce
high population density
The long term impact of rising sea levels was also discussed. Coastal cities are in imminent danger and the economic impact of such a disaster is also bound to be massive. But what causes rising sea levels? Is it due to climate change? In my opinion it is and the biggest problem today is human action contributing to global warming.
On the weighting discussion....
In our weighting discussion, we tried to filter out, from the list of various urban risks, the most important ones in the European context. Even if we did not base our discussion on statistical data, we generally decided that hazards like floods, extreme temperatures and storms/cyclones, in that order, are very important to be taken into consideration when one plans urban environments in Europe. In another hand,Tsunami, earth quakes and volcanic eruption pose low risk. Incidentally, the weighting from the other group was more or less similar to our analysis.
Projecting this discussion to my own town, Addis ababa, would result in a different output. As Addis ababa is located in one of the poorest countries in Africa,Ethiopia, the main urban risks would mainly be related to overpopulation which is the root of all the problems.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)