AUICK Third Study Course on Specific Fields of Urban Policy 1998

THEME

Population and Environment.

BACKGROUND

The Asian Urban Information Center of Kobe (AUICK) was established in 1989 through the support of the City of Kobe and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), with the purpose of contributing to the resolution of urban problems confronting Asian cities, caused by population increase in urban areas. Since 1996, AUICK has implemented the "Study Course on Specific Fields of Urban Policy" for administrative officials of medium-sized Asian cities. The course is designed to meet the needs of local government administrators seeking to manage urban population and development issues more effectively.

AIM

The course is designed to meet the needs of local government administrators seeking to manage urban population and development issues more effectively.

This year's course titled as the "Population and the Environment" focused on Kobe's experience in tackling problems of urbanization and introduced its policies in the field of urban planning and the environment. Experience from within the training group was regarded as a rich source of information and importance was placed on interactions between participants throughout the course.

The course also covered the restoration measures implemented after the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake, which hit Kobe's most densely inhabited areas in January 1995, offering the participants an opportunity to discuss how to develop a city that is prepared for natural disasters.

PARTICIPANTS

The course consisted of participants from 8 target countries: Bangladesh, China, Indonesia, Pakistan, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Shawkat Mostafa
Private Secretary to Mayor, Cittagong City Corporation, BANGLADESH

Yang Jienanf
Director of Department, Tianjin Environmental Protection Bureau, CHINA

Muhlas Udin
Chief, Mother and Child Welfare, Surabaya Municipality, INDONESIA

Zulqarnain Bin Mohamad
Head, Planning Research and Development Section, Urban Planning Department, Ipoh City Council, MALAYSIA

Safdar Hasan Raja
Administrator, Municipal Corporation Faisalabad, Punjab, PAKISTAN.
(Current post: Secretary, Provisional Transport Authority Punjab, Lahore)

Tai Ji Choong
Deputy Assistant Commissioner, South Eastern Environmental Health District Office, Ministry of the Environment, SINGAPORE.

Veerachai Thongpaiboon
Chief, Water Quality Management Subdivision, Khon Kaen Municipality, THAILAND.

Bui Thanh Tung
Office Manager,  Department of Science, Technology and Environment, Haiphong City, VIETNAM.

PERIOD

PROGRAM

REVIEW

Cities are exploding due to rapid increase of population and industries and simultaneously serious environmental degradation. Taking into account critical stage of urbanization, the Third Study Course on Specific Fields of Urban Policy decided to focus on "Population and the Environment." Highly qualified staff of the city administrators participated in this study course from eight cities in eight countries in Asia; China, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Rapid population increase mainly caused by migrants flooding into cities form rural areas, exceeds the capacity of city to provide adequate urban services including housing, employment opportunity, and pubic health care. In addition, mushrooming small industries to meet local demands have brought about serious pollution problems.

Administrators are aware of the necessity of preventing pollution and improving living environment, and making efforts with such slogans as healthy city and green city. They also recognize the difficulty to resolve environmental issues and often lack in relevant knowledge and technologies.

Developed countries have also experienced serious environmental problems caused mainly by very rapid industrialization. However, they managed most of the problems effectively by new technology and government control. Although there was a heavy population concentration in large cities, the national population increase in these countries was very low compared with Asian countries.

In view of the complex relationship between population and environment, AUICK asked Professor Gayl D. Ness, Professor Emeritus of the University of Michigan, who is a member of AUICK International Advisory Committee, to make a lecture on "Population-Environment Dynamics". His very interesting and informative lecture gave the participants a basic understanding of population-environment mechanism. One of the points to be noted in his lecture was "Governments have both responsibilities and capacities to manage the population-environment relationship."

Kobe acted as a proper host for the course with its good store of knowledge and experiences concerning the population and environment problems, in particular in relation to the management of great earthquake.

Finally, I believe that Japan's experience in the environment and pollution issues presents an excellent lesson to city administrators in Asia and that the subject should be taken up in the future course again.