The tale of good cities - EDITORIAL

Yesterday, the United Nations marked World Cities Day to promote the international community’s interest in global urbanization, push forward cooperation among countries in meeting opportunities, addressing challenges of urbanization and contributing to sustainable urban development around the world.  

This year’s theme is ‘Building Sustainable and Resilient Cities’. The general theme of World Cities Day is Better City, Better Life, while each year a different sub-theme is selected, to either promote successes of urbanization or address specific challenges resulting from urbanization.  

The UN says that this year it has selected the theme because cities need support to become resilient and develop their capacity to absorb the impact of hazards, protect and preserve human life and limit damage to and destruction of public and private assets while continuing to provide infrastructure and services after a crisis.   

UN Secretary-General António Guterres in a message says, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Paris Agreement on climate change, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and the New Urban Agenda together provide a road map for a more sustainable and resilient world. How our cities develop will have significant implications for realizing the future we want.  

This year’s World Cities Day focuses on resilience and sustainability. Every week, 1.4 million people move to cities. Such rapid urbanization can strain local capacities, contributing to increased risk from natural and human-made disasters. But hazards do not need to become disasters. The answer is to build resilience -- to storms, floods, earthquakes, fires, pandemics and economic crises, the UN chief says.  

According to him, cities around the world are already acting to increase resilience and sustainability. Bangkok has built vast underground water storage facilities to cope with increased flood risk and save water for drier periods. In Ecuador’s capital city of Quito, the local government has reclaimed or protected more than 200,000 hectares of land to boost flood protection, reduce erosion and safeguard the city’s freshwater supply and biodiversity. In South Africa’s Johannesburg, the city is involving residents in efforts to improve public spaces so they can be safely used for recreation, sports, community events and services such as free medical care.  

“On World Cities Day, let us be inspired by these examples. Let us work together to build sustainable and resilient cities that provide safety and opportunities for all,” the UN chief adds.   

In Sri Lanka, the Maithripala Sirisena - Ranil Wickremesinghe national unity government set up the Ministry of Western Province and Megapolis with the aim of making urbanisation a vital path of its vision of a just, peaceful and all-inclusive society. Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka worked out and started implementing several important projects such as the Homagama technology city where some 300 acres of state land were to be used for nanotechnology and artificial intelligence projects which would give younger generation Sri Lankans opportunities to use their creative talents and enterprising skills to start new projects. Several similar projects were also being worked out.   

Creativity, innovative and enterprising skills are being promoted in most countries to enable the younger generations to create a better world for the common good of all. As in any venture there are also the negative aspects. Apple boss Tim Cook, in an interview with Cable News Network (CNN) this week, warned that multi-national technology companies should take effective measures now to prevent the excessive invasion of privacy.  He warned that if effective measures were not taken immediately technology companies might have the ability to know more about ourselves than even what we know.  

While being conscious about the forbidden apple, we also need to make full use of modern technology including artificial intelligence to develop not only mega cities but also our rural areas so that the village people too would have an equal place and equal say in sustainable eco-friendly development. At the same time what we need to forbid is our leaders getting involved in hate speech or extremism which might provoke some mentally unstable people to massacre innocent people as we saw in the horrible crime at the Pittsburgh Jewish synagogue last Saturday.