LEGAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE PROBLEMS

AR-309: ARCHITECTURE AND TOWN PLANNING (B)

By

RAVINDAR KUMAR
Assistant Professor
Department of Architecture and Planning
NED University of Engineering and Technology
Karachi

LECTURE NO. 10
TOPIC: LEGAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE PROBLEMS

Introduction:
In order to comprehend the legal and administrative problems in town planning at first it is important to understand the terms ‘Legal’ and ‘Administrative’. The term legal mean “established by or founded upon law or official or accepted rules”[1]. Thus; legal problems in town planning must be either related to law or official accepted rules of town planning. Here the question arises that in what context the legal problems may be addressed? Because legal problems in town planning; may vary in each context and urban setting. Similarly the term administrative mean “of or relating to or responsible for administration”[2]. Therefore; administrative problems in town planning must be related to administration of a town. Now; in order to understand the legal and administrative problems in town planning one must have a thorough understanding about the Law and Administration of a town. On the other hand the knowledge about urban problems may also be the way to learn legal and administrative problems in an urban context.

What is a Law?
Law is a system of rules, usually enforced through a set of institutions. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as the foremost social mediator in relations between people. Law governs a wide variety of social activities. All legal systems deal with similar issues and behaviors, but each country categorizes and identifies its legal standards and principals in different ways. A common distinction is that between "public law" (a term related closely to the state, and including constitutional, administrative and criminal law), and "private law" (which covers contract and property). In civil law systems, contract fall under a general law of obligations, while trusts law is dealt with international conventions. Law spreads far beyond the core subjects into virtually every area of life. Three categories are of importance here i.e. Law and society, Law and commerce, Law and regulation. Law and society include Labour law, Civil rights and Human rights law, Immigration and nationality law, Social security law and Family law. Law and commerce include Commercial law, Admiralty law and the Law of the Sea, Company law and Intellectual property law. Law and regulation include Tax law, Banking law, Competition law, Consumer law and Environmental law. Regulation deals with the provision of public services and utilities. Especially since privatisation became popular private companies doing the jobs previously controlled by government; energy, gas telecomm and water are regulated industries.[3]

What is an Administration?
The term administration, as used in the context of government, differs according to jurisdiction.[4] In business, administration consists of the performance or management of business operations and thus the making or implementing of major decisions. Administration can be defined as the universal process of organizing people and resources efficiently so as to direct activities toward common goals and objectives.[5]

What is Public Administration?
Public administration can be broadly described as the development, implementation and study of branches of government policy. The pursuit of the public good by enhancing civil society and social justice is the ultimate goal of the field.[6]

What are Urban Problems? [7]
Urban problems remain similar worldwide. The United Nations Development Programme announced on 28 July 1997 that unemployment remains the world's number one urban problem, according to a survey of mayors of cities from around the world.

The purposes of the survey was to identify issues and severity of urban problems, to identify areas where cities are experiencing some successes, and to establish a baseline for future more systematized surveys to help the United Nations better understand trends, needs and opportunities.

More than half of the world's population now lives in cities and towns rather than in rural areas. Urban problems and their solutions, therefore, now on top the world's agenda.

The UNDP survey of 14 categories of problems and the percentages of mayors identifying them as "severe" are as follows:

1. Unemployment-----------------------------52.0%
2. Insufficient solid waste disposal -------------42.0%
3. Urban poverty------------------------------41.6%
4. Inadequate housing stock-------------------33.8%
5. Insufficient solid waste collection------------30.9%
6. Inadequate water/sanitation facilities-------28.4%
7. Inadequate public transportation------------26.2%
8. Traffic congestion----------------------------22.3%
9. Poor health services--------------------------21.5%
10. Insufficient civil society participation----------20.9%
11. Inadequate education services----------------18.9%
12. Air pollution----------------------------------17.4%
13. Urban violence/crime/personal safety--------13.5%
14. Discrimination (women. ethnic, poor)---------6.8%

Significantly, 70 percent of the responding mayors who rank unemployment a severe problem also rank urban poverty as severe. All problems stem from poverty. Thus, development programmes should be financed to lessen unemployment and hence to urge people to work a bit harder. The education sector should be highlighted to make people understand problems related to modernisation and everything related to illiteracy. Urban problems stem from rural-to-urban migration. The best way to work with the large number of new comers is to have them share the burden of leadership by taking part in providing services.

United States:
Although, worldwide, urban violence/crime/personal safety is not ranked high among the survey's 14 categories of problems, crime is ranked severe by mayors in the United States. They say "Our biggest challenge is fighting the crime that has been caused as a result of illegal drug trafficking. Our efforts to strengthen the police department and involve neighborhoods and citizens in addressing their local problems have helped make a real difference in safety levels and decision-making processes. Success in addressing jobs, tax base growth, and road improvement and partnerships, has helped to improve the economic future of community and the quality of life of each resident." On the other hand, Canada's Mayer considers unemployment and air pollution as his city's severe problems and describes "Urban success in the new millennium will hinge on providing cities with the legislative and fiscal capacity to deal with the challenges they are facing. Cities need to forge new partnerships with senior governments to address population growth and employment, the provision of hard infrastructure and social services, and appropriate governance structures." The diversity of major problems identified among North American cities is further illustrated by the mayors of Mexico who rates traffic congestion and inadequate housing as his city's most severe problems, attributable to rural-to-urban migration, whereas insufficient solid waste disposal as that city's most severe problem.

Latin America
Illustrative of the prominence of unemployment as a severe problem in Latin America is the response of the mayor of Leon, Nicaragua. According to Leon's mayor, "Currently the municipality is facing a truly economic crisis where more than 23% of the population is experiencing extreme poverty and more than 70% of the economically active population is unemployed -- implying a clear tendency for the deterioration of health and education as well as an increase in illiteracy." Similarly, unemployment is reported to be the most severe problem of Argentina's and Ecuador's cities. Besides unemployment, the most serious problems reported for Cordoba, Argentina are traffic congestion and air pollution.

Europe
A few European mayors consider unemployment a severe problem. Traffic congestion is also cited as a serious problem. Few European cities mark urban poverty as a problem. However, Europe's cities appear to be experiencing problems related to modernization and technology. They write: "We are transforming a typical fordist town into a modern, European town. That is a slow and difficult long-term process that needs time and the participation of the whole city system. The risk of such urban transformation is to forget large parts of the population. We do not want that -- we are working to bring together development and solidarity. Relating technological to environmental concerns, Cologne's Mayor writes: "The success in establishing modern technology enterprises (e.g. media, bio- and genetic technology, environmental technologies) shows that there is a possibility for economic progress without interfering with environmental interests, for reconciling economy and ecology."

Africa
Many African mayors note the interrelatedness of unemployment and poverty, rural-to-urban migration, and the consequent negative impact on services. "The most serious problems in our city are interrelated; urban unemployment causes poverty, and because of such poverty, people are not capable of paying for services such as health and education." Similarly, Mayor of Uganda cites "the collapse of industries" as causing "urban poverty arising from unemployment." Also, the mayor of Zimbabwe laments the "low levels of industrial development leading to unemployment and poverty." Mayor of Nairobi Kenya comments: "Due to population influx into the city, adequate provision of services -- such as housing, schools, medical, water, sewerage, roads, etc. -- is a nightmare." Some African mayors’ link unemployment to problems related to idle youth. Thus, Mayor of Bobo-Dioulasso writes: "Bobo-Dioulasso was a cleaner town in the past. Young men of Bobo-Dioulasso spend most of their time drinking tea. They don't want to work." Mayor of Banjuk Gambia adds: "Problems of drug use and rural-urban migration among our youth have increased considerably as a result of the persistent drought and unemployment, consequently causing enormous strain on the already stretched resources of the city." The city of Dakar Senegal, is undertaking a program to employ youth to improve the city. Thus, Mayor claims: "In the face of the distressing sight which is sometimes found in the city, Operation 'Be clean and make clean' has enabled the municipality to put to work all the young people, grouped in association to clean up the city of Dakar. Other than the creation of employment, this experience has the benefit of: developing a sense of citizenship, enabling participation in the management of the city, and fighting against exclusion and poverty."

Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East
The mayors of both Damascus Syria and Nicosia Cyprus rank inadequate public transportation as their most serious problem. Damascus Mayor cites "all kinds of pollution" as a major problem. Nicosia's mayor adds that "Nicosia remains the only divided city in the world." The mayor of Turkey's fifth largest city, Bursa comments that its most serious problems (housing, infrastructure, employment, etc.) derive from immigration from eastern Anatolia, Bulgaria, former Yugoslavia, and Albania. The mayors of both Rafah and Gaza in Palestine claim that the lack of infrastructure is their most serious problem, especially inadequate water/sanitation facilities and sewage systems. Gaza's mayor also emphasizes inadequate housing, whereas Rafah's mayor emphasizes not enough paved roads, as other serious problems.

Asia and Pacific
The city of Wuhan China has given high priority to solid waste collection and disposal as city's most severe problems. Same is the case of the cities of Baroda and Guntur in India, Nagoya of Japan, Kathmandu of Nepal, and Suva of Fiji. Suva's Mayor explains: "The Fiji land tenure system has made it very difficult for our finding an alternative site for our solid waste disposal." Mayor of Kawasaki Japan cites an "aging society and declining birth rate" as that city's most serious problem. "The sudden arrival of the aging society is a serious problem facing the whole of Japan," he comments. "It is predicted that Kawasaki's population over 65 years will double by the year 2010." Accordingly, "we must concentrate on building facilities providing care for the elderly, and find sources of workers." Likewise, Nagoya's Mayor Lists as City's number one problem as "Preparation of a care system for a rapidly aging society." Mayor of Pusan Korea claims that traffic congestion and clean water are his city's most serious problems. The mayor of Kathmandu Nepal, also cite water supply as their most serious problems and explains: "The demand for drinking water has been increasing due to the increased population and rapid urban growth. At present, the total water supply per day from ground and surface systems in the valley is limited to 60 million litres per day whereas the demand is 114 million litres per day."

KARACHI[8]
The Karachi Development Authority has categorized the critical problems of Karachi as:

1. Poor environmental conditions in slums and Katchi Abadis;
2. An abnormal increase in population leading to quick urbanization;
3. Health hazards owing to lack of proper water supply, sewerage, and storm water drainage;
4. Pollution owing to industrial wastes;
5. A defective transport system and consequent vehicle-created air pollution;
6. The destruction of historical heritage and green areas;
7. A haphazard location of some industries;
8. A disparity in densities of different areas in the city;
9. Congestion of roads and the downtown area causing, noise and pollution;
10. A defective refuse collection and disposal system;
11. Pollution in coastal waters causing harm to marine life; and
12. Pollution caused by light and electronics.
    

Other issues may also be added, such as a disregard for architectural heritage, faceless blocks of commercial and residential buildings, and the conversion of amenity plots into speculative housing. Urban planning and development in Karachi suffer from many problems, some of which are listed below.

1. A lack of evaluation of previous planning attempts—Planning initiatives often start anew without adequately evaluating possible merits of past plans.
2. The incapability of the planning authorities to execute the plan—Planning in Karachi has been under the auspices of Karachi Development Authority (KDA), which does not possess any legal or administrative control on the nineteen other land development agencies of the city. Thus the capacity of Karachi Development Authority to execute the plans has been constrained.
3. The absence of political mandate for the planning process—Planning processes have usually been under the direction of the donors or UN agencies, without enjoying the political mandate necessary for keeping open the possibility of ad hoc adjustments.
4. Technical shortcomings in the planning process—Assumptions used in planning have often been drawn from inadequate sample surveys and obsolete physical data. Even today, Karachi does not have a comprehensive mapping base usually required for all kinds of planning and development exercises. Adding to the lack of information is the fact that data gathered by the Defense institutions are not accessible by the public.
5. The planning authority is usually not the financing agency of the exercise—this fact has made it nearly impossible for planning agencies to execute the various components according to the outlined framework.

Conclusion:
Karachi is in chaos, but it is inhabited not only by the prophets of doom and the merchants of gloom. There are those who care, who have—even if only in their own small way—achieved results that need appraisal, evaluation, and even propagation. Hope for the future lies in these informal efforts. In this city globally known for continued strife and turmoil, the informal sector has indeed managed to keep it alive and thriving. Even with its ever-increasing population and heterogeneous mix, the city has shown great resilience and strength to not only survive but to actually evolve its own alternate culture. Without informal initiatives, this would have been impossible to achieve.

References:
[1] http://www.google.com.pk/search?hl=en&q=define%3A+legal&meta=
[2] http://www.google.com.pk/search?hl=en&q=define%3Aadministrative&meta=
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law (must read)
[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Administration_(government)
[5] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Administration_(business)
[6] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_administration
[7] http://mirror.undp.org/magnet/icg97/SURVEY.HTM
[8] http://www.megacitiesproject.org/network_karachi.asp