Sindh most urbanised province of country: UNFPA

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Sindh most urbanised province of country: UNFPA ​

ISLAMABAD (June 28 2007): The world population report 2007 launched by UNFPA on Wednesday highlighted the unprecedented shift of the worlds' population towards the urban areas that could both enhance development and promote sustainability or deepen poverty and accelerate environmental degradation.

The report shows that the world is moving from rural to urban areas in character as more than half of the world population is now living in urban areas and most of this urban growth is the result of natural increase rather than migration.

In 2008, for the first time, more than half of the world's population will live in urban areas and by 2030, towns and cities will be home of almost 5 billion people.

This observation was given by Dr France Donnay, UNFPA representative in Pakistan, at launching ceremony of'The State of the World Population Report 2007' here.

The urbanisation factor will increase the number and proportion of young people in the urban population and most will be born into poor families, where fertility trends to be higher. The wave of urban population growth calls for policy makers to consult young people and reflect on their needs, both to realise individual potential and to stimulate urban economies, he said.

The challenges will include increasing the number and quality of schools, attracting new investments to create new jobs and economic vitality and provision of health services including reproductive health so that young people could live fulfilling lives and make their own decisions, he said.

Sarod Lashari, Additional Secretary, Population Welfare Ministry, said that Pakistan is no exception to the findings of the report and almost 100 million of its population is below the age of 25 out of which 36 million people are 15-24 years of age.

The level of urbanisation in the country is highest among the South Asian countries and at present Sindh is the most urbanised province while the least urbanised is NWFP. A large share that is 60 percent of urban Sindh population lives in Karachi and Lahore inhibits 22 percent of the urban provincial population and half of the urban provincial population lives in five large cities, she said.

Peshawar has a population of approximately one million without counting the Afghan refugees in NWFP, which accounts for 33 percent of urban population of the province and the share of Quetta in urban population of Balochistan is 37 percent, she said. Most of the migrant population in urban areas is poor, illiterate and unemployed or underemployed and Pakistan despite the untiring efforts of government under the leadership of President Musharraf, like many other countries is facing the problems of poverty, illiteracy, ill-health, un-employment, inadequate shelter, fragile echo-system and delicate political, economic and social fabric, she said.

The government recognises that high population growth, high densities of population, a youthful structure and increasing urbanisation have implications for the economy, resource planning and sustainable development, she said. High population growth undermines the government's efforts in raising the standard of living of the people and it impedes the pace of development both at the macro and micro level and high reproductive rate bringing its fold many challenges for the government, Lashari said.

In the process of urbanisation, the government is facing the challenge to pace up infrastructure and development, provision of quality education and health to a growing population, generation of new jobs, she said. She said that the Prime Minister has given the vision of 3E's-Education, Empowerment and Enlightenment to have focused approach on the issue of population growth and to increase the literacy rate both for males and females, as the best way of controlling the population growth saying that no change was possible without education.

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Pakistan’s urban population to equal rural by 2030: UNFPA​

* 35-50pc of urban population living in katchi abadis
* Over half of world’s population to live in cities by 2008

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s urban population is likely to equal its rural population by 2030, according to a report titled ‘Life in the City: Pakistan in Focus’, released by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) here on Wednesday.

The report was released to coincide with the launch of a UNFPA report on the global urban population, titled ‘Unleashing the Potential of Urban Growth’, which says that more than half of the world’s total population will live in cities by 2008.

According to the report on Pakistan, the proportion of females is lowest in rural to urban migration and highest in rural to rural migration. The same pattern has been observed in India. In the rural-urban stream, the share of females is 51 percent in Pakistan. A relatively large fraction of rural-urban migrants crosses provincial boundaries. The perception that “the urban migrant is invariably a male” is incorrect; females make up a considerable proportion of migrants.

At least one in every three city dwellers in Pakistan lives in a slum. Many migrants, who move to cities in order to find jobs and have a better life, may not find jobs in the formal sector or any kind of decent shelter with a minimum of basic amenities. The informal sector provides employment to most migrants and they gravitate to squatter colonies where they build some kind of shelter for themselves. As a result, slum and marginal human settlements have spread in most urban localities, particularly in urban agglomerations.

In Pakistan, the urban population living in katchi abadis varies between 35 and 50 percent. The growth of these informal settlements in the two mega cities, Karachi and Lahore, has particularly been massive. In the former, these settlements increased from 212 in 1958 to more than 500. In Lahore, there are more than 300 katchi abadis, while in Faisalabad, at least 40 percent of the population lives in these abadis.

The report also shows the share of the urban population increased from 17.4 percent in 1951 to 32.5 percent in 1998. The estimated data for 2005 shows the level of urbanisation as 35 per cent. The level of urbanisation in Pakistan is the highest in South Asia.

According to the 1998 census, Sindh is the most urbanised province with 49 percent percent of the population living in urban areas. NWFP is the least urbanised province with only 17 percent of its population living in urban areas.

The shares of urban population in Punjab and Balochistan in 1998 were 31 and 23 percent respectively. There has been a visible narrowing down of the growth rate differentials among provinces, although the urban population in Balochistan and Islamabad has been increasing at higher rates of 5.1 and 5.8 percent respectively.

More than 60 percent of the population of urban Sindh lives in Karachi and this concentration has increased over time. Approximately three-quarters of the total urban population of Sindh are concentrated in just three urban centres: Karachi, Hyderabad and Sukkur.

In Punjab, 22 percent of the urban population lives in Lahore, and half of the total provincial urban population lives in five large cities.

Peshawar has a population of approximately one million without counting the Afghan refugees, which is 33 percent of the urban provincial population. The share of Quetta in the total urban Balochistan population was 37 percent.

More than half of the total urban population of Pakistan lived in 2005 in eight urban agglomerations: Karachi, Lahore, Faisalabad, Rawalpindi, Multan, Hyderabad, Gujranwala and Peshawar. Between 2000 and 2005, these cities grew at the rate of around 3 percent per annum, and it’s projected that this growth rate will continue for the next eight to nine years.

By 2015 it is estimated that the population of Karachi will exceed 15 million, while Lahore and Faisalabad will cross eight million and three million-respectively.

According to the UNFPA global report, more than half of the world population, around 3.3 billion, will be living in urban areas by 2008 and the number will swell to around five billion by 2030.

Presenting the report in Islamabad, country representative of UNFPA Dr France Donnay said that the growth of cities would be the single largest influence on development in the 21st century, but little was being done to maximise the benefits of urban growth or reduce its harmful consequences. “Between 2000 and 2030, Asia’s urban population is to increase from 1.36 billion to 2.64 billion and Africa’s from 294 million to 742 million,” she said.

Rawalpindi Nazim Raja Javed Ikhlas said that his government was trying hard to provide better civic amenities in rural and urban areas without discrimination. “We spent Rs 23 billion in the last year on various developmental projects including construction of new roads and repairs of old ones, and Leh Expressway project,” he said.

A UNFPA statement received in Peshawar said that poverty, housing, environment, governance and administration were the pressing problems of new urbanites, and suggested joint action by governments, civil societies and the international community to improve the social, environmental and living conditions of the urban population. Governments must also expand schools and health services to deal with the expected explosion in the urban population.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007\06\28\story_28-6-2007_pg7_9