Anna Fionah L. Bojos, Chief Reporter
Tomorrow's urban centers, not least of all Cebu, will be competing with each other for industries and investments.
But their ability to attract investors will depend a lot on what they can offer in terms of land, power, communication links, roads and other support infrastructure and services.
The dispersal of industries to new urban clusters and the rapid growth of these areas will prod traditional metropolitan centers like Cebu, Manila, Davao, Bacolod and Iloilo to fight to maintain their dominance.
To stay on top, Cebu and the rest of the centers have to meet housing needs, create urban land, upgrade infrastructure, increase water supply and manage domestic and industrial waste.
The challenges that the cities of the future will face were spelled out by Jose Antonio League, World Bank operations officer for urban development and LGU development, in an international forum on regional exchange and cooperation held here last Friday [Aug. 14].
"The 21st century is considered as the urban century. It is expected that in 20 years, there will be more people in developing countries who will be living in cities than in rural areas ..."
Urbanization in the Philippines is continuing, with half of the total population now living in urban areas.
League said it is expected that by year 2020, 65 percent of the total population will be in urban centers.
In the same forum, League said Metro Manila and other metropolitan areas would remain as the primary service, commercial and finance centers aside from being international and domestic transshipmment points.
But they will lose their dominance as urban clusters as Subic, Olongapo, Clark-Angeles, Cavite-Laguna, Batangas, Naga, General Santos and Cagayan de Oro get a chunk of industry and commerce.
There will be competiton among urban centers to come up with areas for large industrial plants, commercial centers and major housing developments, said League.
In addition to their strategic location and resources, League said "the competitiveness of these urban clusters depend a lot on their ability to provide infrastructure, services, efficient governance and urban management necessary to create an environment conducive to productive activity."
The task of providing new land is already a challenge in itself since at the current urban population growth rates, the estimated requirement is a minimum of 2,000 hectares of developed and serviced land.
Though not mentioned by League, Cebu has several proposed reclamation projects in Cordova, Lapu-lapu while Cebu City is currently undertaking the reclamation of 320 hectares of its foreshore land at a whopping cost of P2.8 billion.
"Housing the temming urban population will be a major undertaking," he said.
National figures as of 1995 show that there are three million homeless people and 500,000 new housing units are needed every year. In Cebu City, six out of 10 people do not own the homes they occupy.
Another problem League pointed out is the inadequate support infrastructure especially new roads that would ease traffic in metropolitan areas.
Under the Metro Cebu Development Project (MCDP) II, some 16 roads in Metro Cebu are widened or opened.
League also said water supply is a major infrastructure that has to be provided in a massive scale. He added that for cities to be sustainable, water resource management should be improved.
While League's example was Metro Manila, water shortage itself is felt in Metro Cebu and the future of Cebu's watershed is currently being debated by environmentalists, big landowners in the mountain barangays, city officials and other sectors.
The Metro Cebu Water District (MCWD) provides only 35 percent of the urban population with water. The rest get their supply from private wells.[Related article]
Another important concern is the management of garbage, whether liquid, solid or industrial waste.
League stressed the need to provide a sewerage system, sanitary landfill and treament plants to properly manage these wastes.
"Cities of the future must be able to address the problem of urban poverty and to reserve land early on to avoid the problems faced by older cities like Metro Manila."
He advised that income-generating programs that can be undertaken in partnership with other stakeholders must be planned and implemented to increase the chances for the urban poor to become productive.
"These are but some of the major challenges facing governments of cities and urban areas in the future. They are daunting challenges but we have no choice but to cope with them the best way we can."