Cabinet nod to identify and declare urban areas in Pradeshiya Sabha territories

• Large spike in urban population expected once move completed  
• SL’s urban population was estimated 19% of total population in 2020 due to misrepresentation of urban areas 

The Cabinet nod has been given to identify and declare urban areas in Pradeshiya Sabha territories, that is likely to lead to a large spike in urban population of the country, having been under-counted for decades.
Sri Lanka’s urban population, which is counted based on administrative boundaries, remains grossly underestimated. 
An ‘Administrative Unit’ is utilised as the main criterion for categorising areas as urban areas. Accordingly, only the municipal council areas and urban council areas are categorised now as urban areas. 
Due to the weakness in the criterion most of the urbanised areas are recognised as rural areas,” The Government Information Department noted.
The Cabinet of Ministers on Monday approved a proposal by Prime Minister  Mahinda Rajapaksa as the Minister of Urban Development and Housing to identify the urban areas in Pradeshiya Sabha territories with the assistance of a consultancy committee and consequently to declare the urban and country areas identified in those Pradeshiya Sabha areas subject to the Town and Country Planning Ordinance.
In 2020, the country’s urban population only accounted for 18.7 percent of the total population, almost at the same levels seen in 1981, placing Sri Lanka among one of the least urbanised countries in the world.
However, according to United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), the country’s actual urban population is expected to reach 50 percent of the population.

“Many Pradeshiya Sabha areas are in nature urban, but are listed as rural. Sri Lanka’s administrative definition of ‘urban’ does not consistently represent areas with increasingly urban characteristics, such as relatively high populations and building densities,”UN-Habitat has noted.
In 1987, the government changed its urban boundaries by abolishing the unit of ‘Town Councils,’ under the new local government system, which caused an overnight reduction in the country’s urban population. 
Sri Lanka has six main cities with a resident population of over 100, 000, 34 intermediate or medium-sized towns with populations between 20,000 and 100,000 and 94 small towns with a population less than 20,000.
Due to misrepresentation of urban areas, UN-Habitat pointed out that urban centres in rural regions are neglected in urban planning.
“Urban centres in the ‘lagging regions’ are still struggling to become effective in terms of service. Lack of vision and strategy, poor resource mobilisation and planning, inadequate skilled resources, vulnerability to hazards and lack of sound and integrated business and maintenance plans (especially for infrastructure) have hindered the growth of small city centres over the last few years,” it stated. As the government has postponed the population and the household census, which was to be conducted this year to 2022/2023 due to the pandemic, the urban population is likely to include population in new urban areas within Pradeshiya Sabhas, which is to be identified.
The Department of National Physical Planning is entrusted with the power to declare the urban development areas in terms of Town and Country Planning Act No. 13 of 1946 amended by Act No. 49 of 2000. 
However, the UDA is the core city planning authority responsible for formulating urban plans.