Advisory Center for Affordable Settlements & Housing

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Rapid Urbanization: Problems and Challenges for Adequate Housing in Pakistan

Urbanization is accelerating at an exponential rate in developing countries and it has now become the modern trend of today’s globalized world which is making a very rapid progress with the support of everyday innovative technology. This new tradition of modernization is prompting people to leave their homes and to get exposure to the world. As everything comes naturally with positive and negative impacts, one wants to see how this big change is affecting our world. Asia, in particular is the most affecting continent where one can see the rapid growth of urbanization. This paper examines various aspects of urbanization in Asia region and taking Pakistan as prototype of urbanization phenomena. The reason behind the study is the lack of formal housing in urban spaces as one of the major consequences of unplanned and uncontrolled modernization of cities in Pakistan. The analytical insight into current issues and challenges faced by Pakistan, because of increasing population and rising trend of migration toward urban centers, will serve in identifying the problems in right direction. Answers and solutions only then can be formatted based on the organized examination of existing problems. Affordable housing is the new remedy for the current problem of urban housing and it has been accepted by the urban poor like a holy thing. It has something to serve in real or it’s just a superficial concept to give a timely relief to poor community.

Pakistan is one of the Asian countries to experience this huge migration to mega cities causing the traffic congestion on the roads when housing is dominating the forefront sector built by this migration of new comers into cities. Provision of adequate housing in such transforming cities is not impossible or something very difficult to achieve. Rather what developed countries have done to cope with the housing issue is to see this alteration in optimistic way. As they consider human source as the driving force for economical, social and political development of the city. With the influx of people there are more opportunities to human source, labor, and industry; so is the need or demand for more housing. As this demand is a continued process which is not going to stop anywhere in between. The policy makers, designers, urban planners, developers, stake holders are doing efforts on the upgrading of slums, but nobody is giving attention to the new group of people coming to cities and forming informal settlements. As a result, the main issues are inadequate housing services and infrastructure.

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