Written By: Akpejeluh, Peter
A Lagosian recently tweeted “How can I drop my friend at the airport and he got to London before I got home?” If you live in Lagos, I bet you can relate to this.
Well, this is caused by the geometric increase in population and rural-urban migration experienced in most cities.
Today, about 3.5 billion people live in urban settlements and by 2050, that figure is estimated to rise to about 6.5 billion of the world’s population. Cities of yesterday are now tagged as mega-cities. While in 1990, we had a total of ten megacities around the world, today there are forty-seven mega cities.
“What will the future look like and are we prepared to accommodate such boom in population and migration?” is a question we need to ask ourselves.
Cities and communities, which is what the Sustainable Development Goal 11 encapsulate, can be a vehicle for conveying new ideas, culture, art, science and social development. However, extreme poverty, inadequate infrastructure such as housing, transportation, water and food supply amongst others have bedeviled most urban spaces.
In all of these, the question that begs to be asked is, how can we make cities and communities sustainable? Yes, we, because it is a combined and collective effort from government and individuals. Sustainability in this context implies safe and affordable housing, upgrading of slum settlements, adequate transportation services, creation of green public spaces and improved urban planning and management.
It is important to note, for SDG 11 to be achieved, particularly in Nigeria, there must be a radical shift towards technology as cities cannot attain sustainability without being “smart”. In Singapore, sensors, cameras and tracking devices are built on an already existing digital system to enable concerned agencies send signals to drivers for efficient traffic management. In Kolkata, Geographical Information Systems are used to map out unplanned settlements and subsequently making vital public services available for the inhabitants. In Quito, Ecuador also, there is a mobile platform for womenn to report sexual harassment claims on the public transport system.
Lagos which is the the economic capital of Nigeria was recently ranked as one of the world’s worst cities to live in. The odds for Nigeria to achieve the SDG 11 or any other SDGs for that matter is highly improbable if there is no collective intention and increased collaboration amongst individuals, organizations and government towards building smart cities and communities.
Leveraging on existing and future technologies can help create an intelligent and inclusive urban systems where waste, cost and ecological impacts are minimized and the quality of life of all, increased.
Again, with the development of our continent, the responsibility is ours. You and I.
