Dhaka,Bangladesh: fastest growing city in the world

christine brown

Close to half a million migrants make their way to Dhaka every year. Urbanization seems to be the new trend of of many countries throughout the world. For all the new and old city dwellers, this brings hazard and security. The hazardous part of moving to Dhaka is the pollution, poverty, lack of enough energy and water, and just the fact that its jam packed with people. With all this being known, one may think there is no plus side to urbanization, but there is. Urban living provides families with better connections to health care and hospitals, better job and career opportunities, and also birth rates in cities tend to be lower than in villages. Experts feel that if urbanization is well maintained, it may save the planet! Dhaka's accelerated advancement of city folk is said to be the early future of the world. This is not necessarily a good thing because it means that the country sides on earth are quickly being cleared out. Dhaka is also said to be an extreme case of slum cities. About 50% of its people live in the fast growing, run-down towns, and with the country forever facing climate and economic dangers, that percentage is sure to rise. Some researchers do not fear that the rapid growing population of cities is a problem. They feel that with less incentive to have children and more women working, the population increase will eventually fall. Theorist Stewart Brand feels that urban areas use energy more efficiently than country areas do. He says, " the old way of thinking is slums were the problem...the new way of thinking is they're the solution."
I believe that with more people moving to the cities, they will have better access to health care and better jobs. However, I don't know if i agree with Brand and slums being the solution. Sure, not everyone who moves to the slums of any city stays at the bottom of the totem pole, but there are many that do and that never reach their goal. In some cases, families were better off in the villages they came from. If everyone moves to the city where land is scarce, who is going to grow food? If people are poor in the slums and no one is living in country areas, they're not going to be able to afford the prices of imported goods which will increase hunger...I'm just saying.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503543_162-20015798-503543.html