Pakistan needs new urbanisation model: ADB

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has stressed the need for a new urbanisation mode for Pakistan as failing public services, declining quality of life, and decreasing economic productivity undermine urban agglomeration’s economic and social benefits. The Manila-based lender’s report, ‘Pakistan National Urban Assessment: Pivoting towards Sustainable Urbanisation’, released on Wednesday, points out that the current urban development model perpetuates these challenges and needs to be replaced by a sustainable urbanisation model. This new urbanisation model should seek to internalise the economic, environmental and social benefits associated with higher levels of agglomeration; be fuelled by robust planning and evaluation capacities that extend vertically and horizontally, as well as spatially and temporally; and be steered by proactive institutions that underwrite the social and economic well-being of urban citizens with the public services and infrastructure necessary to sustain growth without detrimental social and environmental consequences, suggests the report.