Development and Issues of Megacities – Examples from Both Developed and Developing Countries

Introduction

The Oxford English Dictionary defines a megacity as “A very large city, typically one with a population of over ten million people.” (Lexico.com, 2022). The concept of megacities first came to light in the 1950s. Today, the United Nations estimates that there are thirty megacities worldwide. Tokyo is currently the largest megacity, with a population of 37.4 million (National Geographic Society, 2018).  However, this status may change soon due to the low rates of natural increase in the city as well as the high population growth of other growing megacities such as Dhaka and Mumbai. This article examines various megacities by highlighting examples from both the developed and developing world. It will start off by discussing how megacities have developed globally, moving on to the development and appeal of megacities and why people migrate to them. Lastly, it will explain the major issues and problems that plague megacities, as well as suggesting possible solutions to overcome these problems.

Development of Megacities

By the 1800’s, only three percent of the world’s population lived in areas considered cities (World Population History, 2022). Today, with two thirds of the world’s population living in urban areas, there is a greater need for developing megacities. One of the major megacities today is New York city which hosts more than a hundred billionaires and a million millionaires. Moreover, it is known as the world’s melting pot, considering that it has many nationalities residing within its limits. Mexico City, Shanghai and Tokyo are some of the other megacities of the current era.  To regulate and sustain the rapid population growth in these cities, some of them, such as Shanghai, have started to construct overspill cities surrounding the main megacity. Overspill cities are areas meant to provide housing and work opportunities for the extra population that lives in megacities (Collins English Dictionary, 2022). It is interesting to note that nine of the ten projected megacities expected to come into being by 2030 are located in the Asian and African continents (World Population History, 2022).

Appeal of Megacities

Over the past few years, many researchers have wondered the reasons behind the attractiveness of megacities and their subsequent growth. In Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh alone, there is an inflow of more than half a million migrants each year. In these megacities, urbanization brings about greater development and opportunities in terms of employment, education and health. The more developed an area, the better work opportunities available for the residents as well as quality education access for the children. Moreover, developed areas generally have a much better health system than developing regions. They also provide access to facilities such as quality transport networks, sewerage systems as well as water treatment plants (World Population History, 2022). As societies shifted their mode of production from agrarian (developing) to industrial (developed), there was a greater inflow of people. These areas were recognized as centers of learning, culture and development. Furthermore, apart from people migrating into these cities, the rate of natural increase was high in general as well. This means that there were a greater number of births in these areas as compared to deaths, leading to an overall increase in population numbers (OECD, 2006).

As development increases in urban areas, people grow wealthier, as was the case with Singapore (Economics AltSimplified, 2020). The effective government policies, promotion of inflows of foreign direct investment, and providing quality facilities for its inhabitants was one of the key reasons why Singapore transformed itself from a former British colony to one of the most prosperous and successful cities in the world. Its focus on putting its own people first manifests itself in the form of the government providing affordable public housing with racial quotas as well as inviting multinational corporations to work within the state for the purpose of training and educating its own nationals. Furthermore, policies of good governance in the country have encouraged inflows of migrants from all over the globe, a boon for the city because of its falling rates of natural increase.

Issues of Megacities

Despite the allure of megacities, they are also plagued with many problems, some of which are unique to them due to their status as megacities. Staying with Singapore, one can say that there are massive inequalities within the city-state among different groups of people, especially among the nationals and migrants. Migrants have conglomerated in groups and communities that live in visibly more downtrodden areas than the rest of Singapore which seems to be elite and developed. Examples of areas such as these are “Little India”, a town made up of a majority of people from the Indian subcontinent, with a higher rates of crimes carried out than the rest of Singapore; (Siddique & Shotam, 1982), and China town, which has a majority of Asians living and working within it. Apart from this, Singapore is considered to be one of the most expensive places to live in. This has contributed to its low birth rates, which has led to an overreliance on migrants for providing both skilled and unskilled labor in the city (Economics AltSimplified, 2020).

Similarly, other megacities also have major issues that come alongside their development. The problem of housing is a massive one in most megacities. Constant inflow of migrants as well as high population growth rates in some areas means that the cities are overrun with people, all of who require housing. After a certain point, the cities cannot expand anymore, with the new settlements being too far away from the city center and therefore contributing to large travel costs and time to reach work places (IIED, 2013). Therefore, one solution that many megacities have found in this regard is to densify the city. This means that instead of expanding the housing outside the city limits, high rises are constructed to accommodate growing housing and working needs. These are created to be more affordable so as to be easily accessible for most people. In this way, the efficiency of buildings is increased (Pelczynski & Tomkowicz, 2019). These may be constructed on reclaimed land, as in the case of Lagos, which is constructing a planned city to cater to its massive growth in population. However, this has led to alienating the slums in the area as well as the people living within them, who view the land as their own.

The construction of high rises, although useful in providing housing and work spaces, leads to the provision of cramped spaces in which many people are living in pitiable conditions. For example, in the documentary “Karachi Rising”, eight to twelve people live in tiny, one-bedroom apartments, some sleeping under the bed at night and others in the kitchen. However, it has to be noted here that families still prefer living here as compared to having bigger accommodations outside the city primarily because of the long distances they will have to travel to reach their jobs on a daily basis (IIED, 2013). Another major drawback of these high rises includes them being difficult to navigate for the elderly as well as children. Most of the low-income apartments and offices do not possess elevators, posing hardships for the elderly and children to navigate the stairs frequently. Therefore, these people are then limited to staying inside their homes for long periods of time with no healthy activities such as access to fresh air or taking exercise.

Despite efforts to densify cities, the high number of migrations into megacities and high population growths have led to the creation and rise of slums. These are informal settlements which often have squalid conditions of living and unstable houses which pose threats to human life (Cities Alliance, 2022). There is often a lack of water and sanitation facilities in these areas and people living in such close quarters promotes the spread of various diseases such as cholera, HIV/AIDS at a much faster pace than in other localities (World Population History, 2022). Currently, the largest slum in Asia is located in Mumbai, India, known as the Dharavi slum (DW Documentary, 2022), where more than a million people live on a two square kilometer area. In Bangladesh, more than four million people live in the slums in Dhaka.

As a result of the high population demand, there is a great need for creating infrastructure which caters to the needs of the people. This is not just limited to providing housing facilities for them, rather, facilities catering to the health and transport needs also have great requirement. In Mumbai, trains carry three to four times the legal limit of passengers in them on a daily basis (DW Documentary, 2022). This is because of the shortage of cheap, available transport to commute people to their workspaces every day. As a result of the overcrowding on trains, people often hang on to the carriages, putting themselves in extreme danger. This adds to the overall lack of safety protocols followed on trains, and has led to six thousand people dying annually on the train tracks of Mumbai.

Another issue prevalent in megacities is the massive inequality between the richest and poorest classes. In Mumbai, the expansion of slums in the natural forest areas have led to numerous tiger attacks on poverty-stricken children and adult residents while the rich do not have to contend with problems such as these (DW Documentary, 2022). Furthermore, there is great noise and air pollution in the city. To escape this, the rich of the city have constructed their own high rises, living in luxury apartments, away from the negative effects of both air and noise pollution. For example, one of the richest families in India, the Ambanis, live in the so-called “billionaires row” of Mumbai, in a US $2.6 billion house consisting of twenty seven floors. (India.com, 2021) In contrast approximately 1.2 million people, representing more than ten percent of the population of Mumbai, earned less than INR 20/day (The Times of India, 2009). Similarly, New York, which hosts more than a million millionaires also has 8.3 million homeless people living within it (The Bowery Mission, 2021).

Due to this inequality, which results in few resources for many, and the lack of land available to expand houses, people also start to build up on their own (IIED, 2013). This is done to accommodate growing families, resulting in a great number of people living in a small area. Moreover, the lack of land for expansion leads to construction occurring on agricultural land. In the case of Karachi, the amount of land available for cultivation decreased from 61% of the total land area, to 19% of the total land area by 2000. At this point, urban planners believe that it is not possible for Karachi to expand further. The only option left is for the city to densify.

Densification also results in the erosion of green spaces. This lack of green spaces has led to rising temperatures in these megacities along with other effects of climate change plaguing them (IIED, 2013). With the threat of rising sea-levels increasing, Shanghai is a megacity that is most vulnerable to massive flooding and destruction, whereas Dhaka is the most vulnerable city to climate change in general. These effects may have devastating consequences on the millions who live within these cities and wreak havoc on the economies of the countries where these megacities lie. Furthermore, the construction of high-rises and multi-story slum homes makes the people living within them more vulnerable to natural disasters such as earthquakes. Cities such as Tokyo have resorted to building earthquake proof buildings but the same cannot be said for cities in developing countries such as Karachi, Mumbai or Dhaka.

Lastly, it stands to reason that the more the number of consumers, the lesser the natural resources available. This is why there is a severe shortage of water in some of these megacities. Mexico City, for example, is slated to hit a population of 24 million people by 2050. It is also the only megacity without natural reservoirs of water. Therefore, there is a growing requirement of water for drinking and usage in the city. Frequent rainfall can allow the city to harvest rainwater for up to ten million of its residents which may alleviate the problem of water access to some extent. Cities which do have access to water have polluted those streams due to over usage from the growth of population or human activities have led them to become sewerage canals. In Karachi, for example, the water of the Lyari river used to be clean enough for drinking and agriculture usage. However, now, the river is a polluted open sewer, unfit for human consumption.

Conclusions

Despite the multitude of problems megacities face in both developing and developed countries, it would be wise to emulate the example of Singapore and ensure that each city becomes a thriving locality which puts the well-being of its residents above all else. It is the need of the hour to plan adequately for housing and expansion of these megacities, in ways that do not impinge upon the natural resources or agricultural land of the area. According to some urban planners, it would be pertinent to create high rise housing facilities for the poor and relocate people from slums to areas where the railway network intersects with the road network (IIED, 2013). This would ensure that the people would not have to wait long hours to have access to transportation to take them to their work. Another measure that megacities could take could be to provide credit to the poor without demanding collateral (which the poor do not have), so that they may create adequate housing facilities for themselves. It is imperative that the governments of countries focus on the densification of their major cities rather than ignoring it entirely. It needs to be done in an organized, peaceful and sustainable manner to benefit all the stakeholders involved.