Taking A Look At The Pros And Cons Of Urbanization

The rapid growth of urban areas in developing countries is causing a large debate on whether it is overall beneficial or harmful to the countries and societies that they are located in. In 2000 two billion people in the developing world lived in cities, by 2030 it is expected to be around five billion. The cities that are growing the fastest are located in Asia and Africa. The question of whether this is a positive impact is rooted in how it will affect the poverty level. There is mass poverty in urbanized areas, one in three people in the developing world who reside in cities live in what is to be considered slums. Poverty is of course a factor in the rural communities as well and to decide whether urbanization is helping the poverty level is difficult to decipher. The main factors are how well the government and private sector can deliver services to higher populated spaces and the way the denser populations affect overall health and environment of the community. In “Cities of the Future: Today’s “Mega-Cities” Are Overcrowded and Environmentally stressed” Divya Abhat argues that the growth of megacities is extremely harmful to the environment and has negative …show more content…
Jakarta, Indonesia has a population of 8.5 million people a unique aspect of Jakarta is the 5.5 million people that are not included in this population that commute to the city everyday. This obviously leads to many issues with traffic and pollution. Dhaka, Bangladesh struggles with black smoke and high blood lead levels especially present in children. In 1992 the World Health Organization listed Mexico City as the number one contaminated city in the world, and not much has improved since then. The overwhelming population is causing huge air pollutants(footnote). There are obvious negative environmental and health effects due to this mass