Rural no more

Anchalee Kongrut and AP

More than half of Thailand's 63 million people now live in cities as a growing number of Thais trade in their ploughs for more urban pursuits, an urban planning professor said on Wednesday.

The country's urban population jumped to 50.9% in 2006, as officials expanded the definition of urban zones and counted unregistered residents, said Yongtanit Pimonsathean from Thammasat University.

Worldwide, more than half of the global population - 3.3 billion people - will live in urban areas in 2008, according to a UN report entitled State of World Population 2007: Unleashing the Potential of Urban Growth.

Dr Yongtanit added that Thailand's urban culture has changed in recent years, with the population becoming older and more diverse.

The number of foreign workers, for example, has doubled from 2002 to 2006 to 66,099. Nearly half are working in Bangkok.

"The increasing number of foreign workers, especially the young urbanites, has brought about the awareness of the different way of life and living traditions," he said.

At the launch of the report yesterday, the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) urged governments of developing nations in Asia to improve their policies on helping the growing urban poor.

Garimella Giridhar, the UNFPA representative in Bangkok, said massive urban growth in Asian cities is imminent and unavoidable, and governments could do better than just trying to drive poor people out.

"It [the increase in urban poor] is not that bad. To take it as bad is a misconception," he said.

Over the next two decades, the number of people across the world living in urban areas is expected to reach five billion.

The phenomenon has been dubbed the "second wave" - a global demographic shift which will see farmers abandon their rural homes for cities.

The first wave of migration to cities happened between 1750 and 1950 in Europe and North America, as they industrialised.

The report warned that urbanisation, if unchecked, will breed pollution, crime, sexual diseases and other social problems. But it also suggested that governments try to view urbanisation as an opportunity.

Cities create environmental problems but they can also create solutions, it said. Concentrating populations in cities can contribute to the long-term sustainability of a nation and its economy.

It said no country in the industrial age has ever achieved significant economic growth without urbanisation.

The report suggested that governments accept the right of poor people to live in cities, provide good and affordable housing, adopt sustainable land use to minimise the ecological impact and join international efforts to support strategies for future urbanisation.

Somsook Boonyabancha, director of the Community Organisations Development Institute, an agency that helps slum dwellers get permanent housing, said it has faced an uphill battle in changing the mindset of bureaucrats so they view the urban poor as resources, not just problems.

People in government, at the central and provincial level, tend to limit development to material advancement.

"We [society] do not look at city development though a social organisation process. We often think infrastructure will solve problems ... not of humans as problem solvers," she said.

She said that efforts in Thailand to empower communities had faced considerable problems.

To achieve good urbanisation, the government needs to let communities participate in decision making, said Ms Somsook, who trained as a town planner in Denmark. Good urbanisation management is "real" democracy, she said.

"Urbanisation in Europe is successful because its political systems let local communities decide on development projects," she said, citing cases in France, Denmark and elsewhere in Europe where communities help draft development plans and budget proposals