Karachi: Karachi Mayor Wasim Akhtar has warned against the challenges of rapid urbanisation in the country, a news source reported. He stated that the government needs to start working on dealing with the said challenges immediately. The situation will only complicate if the government fails to do so, he added.
He expressed these concerns while in a meeting with a delegation of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). He stated that the metropolitan cities are becoming increasingly instrumental in transforming populations, social and cultural interactions, and economic activities. He added that in Asia, the urban growth is higher than the overall population growth, and that two-thirds of the total population in the region will emerge as urban areas by 2050.
The mayor opined that Karachi plays a key role in the progress of Pakistan as the city is the hub of commercial activities. He added that all departments concerned are collaborating and making efforts to solve basic problems of the city in order to continue Pakistan’s overall development.
The UNDP is a globally engaged organisation that supports urbanisation and addresses the challenges related to it. The organisation extends its services to a different city governments and mayors across the developing world. It helps them to devise scalable solutions to overcome pressing challenges of urbanisation.
The UNDP delegation briefed the mayor that it already works for resolving urban issues in Islamabad. The officials told that the organisation has established an urban platform in collaboration with the capital city’s metropolitan corporation.
