UN: World's Cities Now Unmanageable

(ENS) - Sprawling in every direction, the world's metropolitan areas are dangerously unmanageable, says the United Nations Center for Human Settlements (Habitat) in a report titled "The State of the World's Cities." Habitat says the existing institutions governing cities can't do the job any more. Habitat director Anna Tibaijuka said the main problem is the divide between affluent central business districts in one area and slum and squatter settlements in other sections of the city. "Not unlike Charles Dickens' time 150 years ago, the city is increasingly divided," Tibaijuka said. "The problems are the result of poverty and exclusion, in the context of globalization." Along with opportunities, globalization has created cut-throat competition among cities to attract business. "Such competition has not necessarily benefited all city residents," she said.

The report says Tokyo is the world's largest city, with 29 million people. Second is New York City, with 20 plus million people. Lagos, Nigeria, is the only African city among the world's top ten, with more than 13 million people, but wars are causing more and more people to move from the countryside to urban areas.

Habitat says a sustainable city has a lasting supply of natural resources and security from environmental hazards. Sprawl is linked with overuse of non-renewable energy sources, which leads to climate change, air pollution and environmental and human health problems. Sustainable energy production and use should be encouraged by pricing policies, fuel switching, alternative energy, mass transit and public awareness. Human settlements and energy policies should be coordinated, the Habitat Agenda says.

Jay Moor, the coordinator of the report, told reporters that one of the messages from the analysis is that institutions have not been developed well enough to manage cities. "Indeed, the process of governing cities is just now being learned, and in very few places is it being done successfully," he said. "Many people have said that national governments are losing their authority in a globalizing world. In some ways, they are losing control over liberalized financial elements of globalization, but they still play a very strong role in development and regulation."