Urbanisation challenges in Zambia - Grace Chishimba, a Zambian nurse based in England, has not been home since she put to rest, her mother eight years ago. Ms Chishimba decided that she visits her mother-land, to establish business prospects and probably build a house which she could one day call home. Her long planned holiday trip to Zambia began as far back as September 2011, when she decided that she could utilise her Christmas holiday to run a few errands back home.

Her morning flight to Lusaka, worked to her advantage, because she was able to get a clear glimpse of what was in her youthful days a garden city (Lusaka), as she was being driven home to Makeni, from the airport.

"I was shocked to see the pace at which the city is expanding. There are new buildings everywhere, I was amazed at the number of new shopping malls that have sprang up. It is impressive to note the fast pace at which infrastructure has developed," she said.

Like many other Zambians in the Diaspora, Ms Chishimba would have expected to see an improvement in the shanty slums dotted around the city.

The next few days after her arrival, were very adventurous. She took time to have a feel of public transport when visiting friends and relatives in Lusaka.

This was how she realised that despite the fast pace at which the city had grown over the last years, it had become more congested with people and traffic on the road.

The population of people had according to Ms Chishimba almost tripled, while traffic congestion on the roads left much to be desired and is something that she will not miss, as she returns to England.

When one gets into Lusaka city, from every point you are welcomed by slums, un-designated bus stops, street vendors, and street kids, not to mention heaps of uncollected garbage, blocked drainages, poor road networks, just to mention a few unsightly scenes.

The infrastructure developments taking place and the unsightly scenes, all come as a result of the effects of migration of people from rural to urban areas, in search of better living conditions.

And as this trend continues without the town planners having realised it is anticipated one can only envisage that ten years down the line there would be no room for expansion in Lusaka.

Most of the land will have been occupied by all unsundry and in addition challenges that come along with urbanisation would have increased.

Urbanisation is the increase in the proportion of people living in town and cities, and occurs as a result of increased movement of people from rural to urban areas, and this trend tends to be more prevalent in countries which are still developing.

During the November 2011 National Population Forum in Livingstone, Central Statistical Office (CSO) defined migration as a form of graphic or spatial movement involving a change of residency between clearly defined geographic units.

On the other hand internal migration refers to changes of residence within a nation and is defined in terms of residential movements across boundaries that are often taken as the boundary or minor divisions of the province or district of a country, while international migration involves change of residence by crossing of international boundaries.

In the Zambian context, an urban setting is defined as a locality with at least 5,000 people half of whom are not engaged in agriculture.

Such a locality should have urban attributes such as electricity, piped water, schools and hospitals.

Localities with less than the population threshold but have these facilities qualify as urban centres.

The world is undergoing the largest wave of urban growth history. In 2008, the world population stood at 6.7 billion of which more than half of it was living in towns and cities.

By 2030 the number will almost be 50 billion, with urban growth concentrated in Africa and Asia.

And over one-third of Africa's one billion inhabitants living in urban areas, and it is estimated that by 2030, that proportion will have risen by half.

Some of the causes of urbanisation include rural to urban migration which is happening at a large scale due to population pressure and lack of resources in rural areas more recently urban to urban.

People living in rural areas are pulled to the city often because they believe that the standard of living in urban areas will be better.

Natural increase in population and is caused by a decrease in death rates while birth rates remain high.

Expansion of urban settlements, modernisation and industrialisation are among other causes of urbanisation.

Urbanisation brings along socio-economic impacts such as a city grows, the cost of housing and infrastructure grows, since there is less water, land and building materials available, and greater congestion problems.

The increase in urbanisation had led to over-crowding, scarcity, of clean water, perennial flooding, augmented slums, and congestion.

Other impacts include higher levels of unemployment especially among the less skilled people, while negative vices such as drug abuse, crime and others have increased.

Cities have strong socio-cultural impacts on their surrounding rural areas. The mass media depicts city life as being superior to rural life, the standard language is deemed to be that national capital, and better services are received in urban areas.

The fertility rate in urban areas is often lower than in rural areas due to the absence of agriculture, the cost of raising children, food and living space in urban areas is more costly.

In urban areas, people have taken advantage of the availability of family planning services, and view having smaller families as being more cost effective.

As a city decays in this way, governments often do not meet the service needs of residents such as clean water and urban development is dominated by lack of sanitation.

While some of the adverse effects of urbanisation include increasing competition of living in urban areas, which has triggered several negative effects.

Slums and its consequences of over-crowding, lack of sanitation, poverty, illiteracy, unemployment and high crime rate are some of the worst impacts of urbanisation.

Global warming, air pollution, water scarcity and population as a result of urban sprawl, pose serious threats to the environment.

The challenge facing the world today is to minimise the negative effects and build the benefits.

Infrastructure needs to be improved. Opportunities should be created within rural areas to prevent migration to cities.

Other strategies include management of the population through the reduction of unwanted fertility in both urban and rural areas, through the use of modern family planning techniques.

The influx of people into urban areas has given rise to negative social vices such as juvenile delinquency and prostitution, alcohol and drug abuse among others.

Urbanisation entails construction of more infrastructure to cater for the needs of people in urban areas. If unchecked, it can retard rural development as out-lying areas are not only deprived of human resource but deprived of a critical mass required to draw Government attention for the need to develop rural areas.

University of Zambia (UNZA) lecturer of Demography and Population studies, Namuunda Mutombo, said unplanned pregnancies can result from these activities and there is a high probability that children born under such circumstances may end up in the street and may end up having children under the same circumstances...it is a vicious cycle.

"If these are not controlled, they lead to increased crime in cases where the level of employment is lower than the demand for employment. Unplanned settlements become a common feature of uncontrolled population movements.

" This exerts pressure on local authorities to provide safe water, and other sanitary facilities.

Urbanisation increases air pollution. These problems can lead to increase in diarrhoea and respiratory diseases, not to mention the HIV/AIDS pandemic."

However, from a positive perspective, urbanisation may be beneficial to Zambia, if only the right people migrate into urban areas.

Dr Mutombo said skilled people would add something positive to urban livelihoods as they would contribute to the production of goods and services for both the rural and urban residents.

He, however, said unskilled migrants are the main source of problems associated with unplanned urbanisation.

"Most of them have nothing to offer apart from engaging in illegal activities as a quick way to make money in urban areas to cope with urban life."

One of the best ways of addressing problems associated with urbanisation is by strengthening local councils, to re-plan some of the slums in Zambia.

Zambia has enough land and water resources, which if backed by proper rural resettlement schemes can not only decongest the urban areas that can contribute to growth in GDP.

Miriam Zimba

The Times of Zambia/03/01/2012