On the direction of President Mahinda Rajapaksa a committee was appointed under the chairmanship of Minister of Urban and Sacred Area Development Dinesh Gunawardena mainly to carry out maintenance work especially on the roads, clearing up the unauthorized constructions and beautification of roundabouts and parks in the city. The SAARC Summit gave us an impetus to improve the living environment in Colombo and spruce up the city. On the direction of President Mahinda Rajapaksa a committee was appointed under the chairmanship of Minister of Urban and Sacred Area Development Dinesh Gunawardena mainly to carry out maintenance work especially on the roads, clearing up the unauthorized constructions and beautification of roundabouts and parks in the city. The City of Colombo has undergone a massive demographic transition over the past 200 years where its population has changed from 31188 in 1824 at the 1st Census to 642020 in the 2001 Census with a density of 17,216 persons per square kilometre. With the increased urbanisation, environment pollution is one major problem faced by the population of Colombo. The gross overcrowding seen with approximately 700,000 resident and half a million floating population in the geographic bounds of 37.29 square kilometres has caused or augmented the decay of this once beautiful city. It is estimated that approximately 50 per cent of the population lives in slum and shanty settlements and most of them have migrated from rural areas. Then, is there a case for expanding the borders of Colombo than having an internal expansion vertically ? In Colombo, services such as water supply and sanitation, drainage of storm water, treatment and disposal of wastewater, management of solid and hazardous waste, maintenance of roads, supply of adequate and safe food and housing, are unable to keep pace with the urban growth. In addition, the unplanned location of commercial establishments in and around the urban areas is followed by improper traffic. There is mushrooming of illegal settlements and slums, increased overcrowding, poor transport facilities, traffic snarls and pollution, decreased social interaction and increased morbidity and mortality associated with diseases linked to an unhealthy environment created by pollution. The unplanned urbanization due to the overcrowding has resulted in the filling up of the marshy areas and illegal constructions on the canal banks of the city or over drains both in the affluent and poorer areas. Dumping of garbage and waste in the drains by the general public block them and create breeding grounds for mosquitoes. The decrease in the availability of green areas, and the relative inaccessibility of the available green areas to the general public have lead to a population that has minimal recreational facilities in the nature of leisure parks that require some soul searching about fairness meted out to the ordinary citizens. For example, although the Golf Course occupies approximately 1% of the surface area of the city not even .001% of the Colombo residents have access to its grounds. This scenario is the same in many grounds situated all over Colombo which are occupied by private clubs. These clubs have taken over the grounds owned by the CMC for a nominal fee and the grounds are utilized by a few of their members on a daily basis while thousands of ordinary citizens have no option but to stay indoors or use the fume filled city roads for recreational activities. Needless to say that lack of recreational facilities for the general population leads to an unhealthy community with many physical, mental and social problems. Post SAARC Urban Planning, Design & Services for sustainable development It is the citizens and their needs that should be the driving force in future development activities. Prevention is better than cure is an old adage which continues to be meaningful. With lack of space in this over-crowded city, creation of sustainable healthy and environmentally friendly housing estates is a key area that we should concentrate on. The run down state constructed housing estates in Colombo are an eyesore and needs urgent attention. Then in the recent past there has been a housing boom where the needs of the upper middle class were catered to by construction of high-rises by the private sector. Not many have considered the after effects of constructing such apartments without considering the infrastructure available in the area. Should we allow this to continue? The preventive measures have to be put in place even at the earlier stages of planning and designing if we wish to have sustainable healthy communities in housing estates. It is essential to have sustainable communities as maintenance work in common areas in public and private housing estates has to be carried out by the community itself through their own efforts or by hiring labour once the houses are sold. Housing and Public Health The developers are concerned mostly about the physical aspects of healthy living. In a holistic sense, however, healthy living involves not just physical health but also mental and social well-being. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines health as,