Sustainable and planned urbanization need of the hour : Experts

December 23, Kathmandu: Experts have stressed on the need for sustainable and planned urbanization while developing new urban areas and cities across the country.

They made such comments during a webinar titled “Infrastructure and Economic Growth” organized on Wednesday by Nepal Association of Humphrey Fellows (NAHF) and supported by U.S. Embassy Kathmandu.

Addressing the program, former secretary of the Government of Nepal (GoN) Kishor Thapa said “we are constructing buildings, but not building cities,” adding that the new municipalities in Nepal lacked the essential social and physical infrastructures needed for proper, planned, and sustainable urban development.

Thapa also stressed on conserving public spaces while developing urban areas.

Also speaking at the same program, Prof. Dr. Sangeeta Singh informed that Nepal was one of the most urbanized countries in the South Asian region with 62 percent of the total population living in urban areas.

Dr. Singh said  Nepal’s growing urban population had posed many challenges to the government, despite its best efforts to manage the population influx.

The experts argued that haphazard urbanization, inadequate and unregulated constructions, fragmentation of the land, the rise of informal settlements, urban sprawl, and income inequality were some of the problems facing the urban development and planning sector in Nepal.

They opined that there was general confusion in local and provincial governments regarding the policies and programs needed for sustainable urban development.

The experts have called on all the governmental and non-governmental agencies working on urban planning to focus on drafting proper development policies for planned and sustainable urbanization.