In this report, ESCAP explores the future of urbanization in Asia and the Pacific, focusing on the dynamic shifts in the region’s urban landscape. It highlights the region’s demographic transformations, including population ageing, and the persistent challenges of urban poverty and inequality. The analysis covers urban areas of all sizes, …
GLOBALISATION is no longer considered profanation. Today urbanisation and globalisation have to work in tandem, bringing in information, and consequently, opportunity. This study was triggered off by the collapse of a rubbish dump in Payatas Manilla on July 11, 2000 killing 218 and burying another 300 in the rotting garbage. …
Quite frankly our friends in government would be right in saying that they are damned if they don't and even more damned if they do. But what can we say. It is truly amazing how our government agencies learn so little about how programmes can be made to work. Every …
When roads become an extension of living rooms When Hannes Linck moved in August 1999 to Quartier Vauban, a newly-built neighbourhood in the southern German city of Freiburg, he decided to sell off his car. Hannes lives with his wife and two children in a flat built by a housing …
Whereas European cities are making an effort to return to walking and cycling through innovative ways of pedestrianisation and car-restraint policies, the tradition of cycling and walking is being squeezed out of Asian cities. Only Japan and Singapore are making some efforts to revive these practices. In Chinese cities, where …
Despite the growing mayhem in city after city and town after town, neither the Central government nor any of the state governments has found a way to deal with the problem even as urban India fast drives itself into an abyss. As a result, it is courts and public-spirited citizens …
Ground water levels in Kathmandu , Nepal's capital , are falling because of increasing industrialisation and urbanisation.This was stated in the State of Environment Nepal 2001report , which has been prepared by the government with the help of several international non-governmental organisations (NGOs).Studies prove that more than 50 percent of …
this monumental book is a fascinating analysis and documentation of the development of urban sanitation infrastructure in the us . It takes one through an illuminating journey spanning almost 500 years from the urban epidemics of the early 1500s to the debates around waste incinerators in the 1980s and beyond. …
Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) has been launched by Govt. of lndia for promoting urban reforms and investments in the selected 63 cities of India. Ludhiana is one of the eligible cities. CDP is a requirement to access the funds under JNNURM as per the guidelines. A set …
just whom would you vote for as the greatest Gandhian in the Indian sub-continent of the post-Independence era? Our vote will unhesitatingly go to the Pakistani social scientist Akhtar Hameed Khan, in whose memory social activists from all over Pakistan met on October 12, 2000, his first death anniversary in …
In 1990, senior government officials gathered at Paro to draft broad parameters for the country’s development agenda. The conclusion was the “Paro Resolution on Environment and Sustainable Development”, a statement that redefined sustainability in the Bhutanese context. It read as, “The capacity and the political will to effectively address today’s …
With modernisation has come the pressure on the forests. Though almost three-fourths of the country is still covered by dense foliage, the demands from a growing population can put unprecedented demands on them. Be it for construction, fuelwood consumption, infrastructure development, it cannot be underestimated. At the same time, 60 …
T he challenges that Bhutan is faced with are indeed daring, but rather than taking corrective measures, one cannot deny the fact that the government is taking proactive steps to mitigate the evils of development. For instance, air pollution. Though not of the proportion Indian metros like New Delhi are …
On the road to destiny The tradition-bound Himalayan kingdom readies itself to brace modernism In 1958, when the then Indian Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, went to Bhutan on a state visit, the only way he could reach the capital Thimpu was over land. He demanded to be met at the …
The library of the Centre for Science and Environment ( cse ) has just put together a collection of clippings from April 1999 onwards on floods in major cities of India. First it was drought and now it is floods, not just rural floods but also urban floods. Urban environmental …
Many fruits and vegetables are grown in wetlands of Bihar, the most important ones being makhana and singhara. Known as foxnut, makhana (Euryle ferox) is now gaining the status of a major cash crop. Bihar accounts for 75 per cent of country's total output. The fruit has a high nutritional …
Kawar Jheel Bird sanctuary, district Begusarai The Kawar lake, as notified "protected' by the state government on June 20, 1989, is 6311.63 hectares (ha). When it was notified, farmers opposed the move. Local politicians also supported them. "Even the former agriculture minister of Bihar, Ram Jeevan Singh, who is among …
The Sahanis are known as "masters of water'. This fishing community had been living in the wetlands of north Bihar for aeons, relying on them for sustenance. They did so by fishing or helping people cross the surging rivers that crisscross the floodplain. Or by displaying their art of trapping …
The population of pied myna is declining alarmingly in Bangladesh. Being an insectivorous bird, the myna plays an important role in protecting crops. "Random destruction of the myna's nesting trees, increasing pressures of human population and unscientific use of insecticides have led to its decline," said Khalilur Rahman, a bird …
india's overall health care system performance has helped the country to the 112th position among World Health Organisation members, according to the World Health Report 2000 released in the latter part of June. India stands 133rd on the basis of per capita expenditure in the field of health. With these …
