# data[].attributes.body
Problems:
Bangkok is built on highly compressible layers of soft clay. The sinking of the city is mostly driven by the sheer weight of the built-up urbanisation, as well as uncontrolled groundwater extraction.

Bangkok is sinking 10 times faster than the rising sea levels and parts of Bangkok are sinking by two centimetres annually.

Bangkok will experience nearly a two-fold increase in damage costs between 2008 and 2050 due to land subsidence. It is predicted that almost 70 percent of the increase in flooding costs in 2050 for Bangkok will be due to land subsidence.

Solutions:
On 12 May, the National Water Resource Commission (NWRC) approved a US$412 million plan to combat drought and floods as well as improve drainage and water quality in Thailand’s main interprovincial canal – the Klong Prem Prachakorn.

Bangkok also plans to build more parks within the city.
The Centenary Park serves as a kaem ling (monkey cheek) water-retention area for the community, like how a monkey holds food in its cheeks until it needs to eat.

Under normal conditions, water that is not absorbed by plants flows into the park’s storage system, where it is stored for watering during dry periods. When floods hit, the containers hold water and release it after the flooding has subsided.

# data[].attributes.body
Housing

In India, many people find themselves in slums, 55.5% of the population lives in them. In addition to this, in many Indian cities, such as Mumbai, low-income people rent tiny, cramped rooms and apartments in old, over-crowded tenement blocks.

Solutions in India:

In some case local and international NGOs provide housing – or at least improve basic

services like sewers – but this is relatively small scale in terms of impact. In many cases slum dwellers carry out ‘self-help’ improvements to sewers, roads, water supply and open areas often with NGO support.

In Metro Manila, slums proliferate along riverbanks, clogged streams, railroad properties, roadsides and parks—all public domain. A total of 372,500 families or 14.1 percent of families in the metropolis live in shanties of less than 10 sq m and 390,900 in shanty apartments 10 to 19 sq m. These 763,400 shanties make up Metro Manila’s slums.

Quezon City has an even larger slum population than Manila. Access to community water and electrical systems appears to be minimal or, if available, are shared by many.

Solutions in the Philippines:

Reallocation of the budget to favor housing for the poor

More efficient collection of real estate taxes

Adopting a progressive property tax

President Aquino approved a $62B USD budget for 2015. Simply allowing 10 percent of the current and future budgets for housing that could suffice to eradicate the nation’s slums in 10 years’ time

# data[].attributes.body
AIR POLLUTION:

Coal burning has been the main cause of air pollution as winter heating started

With Beijing’s amplified wealth, individuals are more capable of affording motor vehicles. The number of motor vehicles on Beijing’s roads has doubled to 3.3 million with nearly 1200 added each day. Emissions from motorized vehicles contribute to nearly 70% of the city’s air pollution.

An estimated 49,000 deaths in Beijing and Shanghai this year were caused by smog, say pollution trackers.

US$23 billion in economic losses in the cities of Beijing and Shanghai alone since January 1, 2020

Higher levels of smog are associated with a wide range of diseases, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder, heart disease, stroke and lung cancer.

Shanghai saw an estimated 27,000 deaths from January 1, more than the 22,000 in Beijing, partly a reflection of the city’s higher population.

Shanghai registered higher rates than Beijing of sulphur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide, two other major components of smog

Beijing has issued a yellow alert as their air pollution reaches a hazardous level, halting construction projects, vehicles causing heavy pollution and smokestack productions

Kindergartens and schools have called off all outdoor activities

SOLUTIONS

China has banned coal burning in multiple cities

“clean air counter” launched by environmental groups in July 2020

The online tool, launched by the Helsinki-based Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), Greenpeace Southeast Asia and IQAir AirVisual, measures smog in 28 major cities worldwide and uses models devised by the Global Burden of Disease research programme to estimate the health impact.

China aims to launch a nationwide emissions trading scheme in the next five years, starting with the power sector and expanding to other industries.

The pilot schemes have been running in seven provinces and municipalities since 2013. By August, they covered some 3,000 polluters in over 20 sectors including steel, power generation and cement, according to the environment ministry.

President Xi Jinping’s pledge at the UN General Assembly last month that China would be carbon neutral– or reach net-zero emissions – by 2060 and that it aimed to hit peak carbon emissions before 2030.

It said the accumulated trading volume of those schemes was 406 million tonnes of carbon-dioxide equivalent greenhouse gas emissions, with a total value of 9.28 billion yuan (US$1.38 billion).

Reduced carbon dioxide emissions by an estimated 2.5 million tons a year

# data[].attributes.body
Water Pollution
All 13 rivers in Jakarta and their dozens of tributaries are highly polluted.

Challenges:
The National Development Planning Board (Bappenas) reported in February that 96 percent of river water in the city is severely polluted.

Jakarta rivers receive an estimated 2.5 million cubic meters of wastewater per day. More than 70 percent of the wastewater comes from millions of households and the remaining comes from commercial buildings and industrial activities.

The polluted rivers have also degraded the quality of the Jakarta Bay ecosystem. Fisherfolk in Muara Angke, North Jakarta, often complain about catch declines, allegedly because of pollution from the rivers.

Water pollution also decreases the quality of sanitation, making people more vulnerable to water-borne diseases such as cholera and typhoid. This can be seen from the open toilets in Dharavi, as waste just goes into a river.

Solutions:
Sanitation workers have been employed to start treating waste from the river, especially floating litter.

Jakarta’s sole wastewater treatment plant (IPAL) is located in the Setiabudi Reservoir in Central Jakarta. It can only treat about 2 percent of wastewater, which comes not only from households in Jakarta but also from millions of houses, factories, commercial buildings and agricultural fields in upstream areas.

The government has long planned to develop the Jakarta Sewerage System (JSS) to process household waste at the Jakarta IPAL before the water is pumped into rivers. The JSS is set to manage waste treatment in 15 zones.
The project is set to finish in 2026

PAL Jaya has planned to take another approach to treat wastewater by installing pipes that would treat waste water.

# data[].attributes.body
Congestion
Many megacities have catastrophic traffic congestion, adding costs to businesses and commuters and increasing urban air pollution.

The traffic congestion level of Mumbai in 2018 amounted to 65%, meaning that it took 65 percent more time to get from one point to another compared to a free flow situation. The city has 510 cars per km on road as compared to 108 in Delhi. Mumbai is followed by Colombian capital, Bogota (63%), Lima in Peru (58%), New Delhi (58%) and Russian capital, Moscow (56%).

The reason behind such high traffic is lack of road space. Though, Mumbai’s private car population is less than a third of Delhi, the city has just 2,000 km of road as compared to 28,000 km in the national capital.

This can be seen as both a good and bad thing. It indicates a strong global economy, but the flip side is that there are millions of drivers wasting time in traffic, decreasing productivity, whilst also having massive environmental impacts, increasing urban air pollution, and contributing to global warming.

In Mumbai, recently, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Agency (MMRDA), the agency responsible for urban planning in the Mumbai region, began to hold conversations with ITDP about the possibility of enacting congestion pricing. Congestion pricing is seen as an important tool that will raise revenue that can be invested in other forms of transportation like buses and pedestrian paths. Currently, Mumbai is constructing a second metro corridor and hopes that the opening of this corridor can coincide with the unveiling of the congestion pricing. Ideally, through the right pricing and implementation, this regulation could significantly reduce the number of private vehicles on the roads. However, it is not clear how the pricing will be implemented – such as through zones like in London or based on peak travel times.

# data[].attributes.body
Impacts on sanitation and services e.g education

Impacts:

In Mumbai, a lack of education facilities means that some children (more than 80 percent of under 18s) do not go to school - and can be forced into child labour. Children born in slums often do not have a birth certificate and without this they cannot access healthcare, education or exert their human rights. India's rapid growth has meant rapid urbanisation with thousands moving to cities to find a better life. However, many end up living in crowded slums earning a wage that is insufficient for their families' needs. Living conditions within the slums are overcrowded and lack basic facilities like water and sanitation. In India in 2017, 59.5% have access to at least basic sanitation. 41.3 % of Mumbai’s  population lives in slums (World Population Review, 2016).

Inadequate sanitation is highly costly. It is estimated that inadequate sanitation cost India $54 billion (64% of GDP) in 2006. 70% of this was health related (Kumar, 2011). A reluctance to acknowledge the home and individuals as equally important as public institutions in fixing problems of sanitation and fighting the disease transmission in the community (Nath, 2003).

Solutions:

The Slum Sanitation Program (SSP):

National governments on both political spectrums continue to highlight the importance of making India “open defecation free” by adding and maintaining more public toilets (Shannti Dinnoo, BBC, 2014)

The SSP was:

Implemented between 1996-2005

A World Bank aided initiative

Led by NGOs and community-based organizers

Part of the Mumbai Sewage Disposal Project (MSDP)

An implementation by The Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM). The objective of the MSDP is to provide a healthier and improved environment for the citizens of Mumbai while minimizing the impact of wastewater on the natural environment

Approach:

Constructed 328 toilet blocks consisting of 5100 toilets which helped approximately 400,000 slum dwellers

Participatory

Demand-responsive

Aim:

“Improving the health and environmental conditions in Greater Mumbai including slum dwellers”

# data[].attributes.body
Impacts on rural areas:
By 2030, it’s estimated that urban areas will triple in size, expanding into cropland and undermining the productivity of agricultural systems that are already stressed by rising populations and climate change.
Roughly 60% of the world’s cropland lies on the outskirts of cities. A major worry is surrounding the disappearance of this productive land is the impact it will have on staple crops such as maize, rice, soya beans, and wheat, which are cornerstones of global food security, leading to famine.
More than 1 million people are officially thought to live in designated slums in Delhi yet the number is likely to be far higher given the non-designated slums that exist in the city as well.
Solutions:

Europe
In Europe, there are some initiatives that are achieving this. In fact, there is an entire network dedicated to the development of rural areas. An example of this rural development can be found in Finland, one of the regions with the highest level of rural depopulation. Here, 300 villages are enabling the creation of sustainable resources and boosting industrial development, curbing depopulation and giving the region new economic and social opportunities.

Africa:
In Africa, the Masai village of Terrat has 1,252 homes in the village and the nearest hamlets are a day’s walk away. It is around 90 km from the nearest town, Arusha. In 1980, agriculture, biofuels and tourism threatened the population. Ten years later, 21 of the inhabitants of Terrat joined forces and, among other initiatives, launched a community radio which is said to have had a transforming effect on Terrat, and the Masai community in general. These impacts can be split into three categories: identity consolidation; improvements in health, education and revenues; and better political governance and engagement.

# data[].attributes.body
Flooding
Challenges:
As most people are well aware, the immediate impacts of flooding include loss of human life, damage to property, destruction of crops, loss of livestock, and deterioration of health conditions owing to waterborne diseases. As communication links and infrastructure such as power plants, roads and bridges are damaged and disrupted, some economic activities may come to a standstill, people are forced to leave their homes and normal life is disrupted.

Solutions:

China
Drainage system is one of the critical indispensable infrastructures in cities. Nowadays, water surface ratio and seepage rate of grounds keep decreasing. Along with an increasing frequency of heavy rainstorm, the capacity of most build-up drainage systems in China cannot afford the actual amount of water input due to less governmental investment and aged pipelines (Jiang, 2011). Thus, both central government and local governments must reinforce the construction of drainage systems in cities and increase governmental input to reduce the frequency of urban flooding.

This concept has become very popular in China (creating a sponge city), a country that has seen the rate of urban flooding more than double in recent years. According to Kongjian Yu, “a sponge city is one that can hold, clean, and drain water in a natural way - using an ecological approach.”  So, rather than funnelling rainwater away, a sponge city retains it for its own use, within its own boundaries. The uses include: irrigating gardens and urban farms, recharging depleted aquifers, replacing or replenishing the water used to flush toilets, and processing it so that it can be clean enough to use as drinking water.

Europe
Green roofs (roofs that are covered with vegetation), by their very nature, absorb rainwater and help to mitigate flooding. It’s a stormwater management tool; for the community, it reduces stormwater runoff; and for the environment, it prevents combined sewer overflow, neutralizes the acid rain effect and removes nitrogen pollution from the rainwater.

Restore floodplains because of their significant role in flood protection, water management and nature conservation. Essentially, what floodplains do is retain and absorb water, thereby shielding nearby towns from the effects of heavy rainfall.

Jakarta
A solution to stop the flooding or would be a systematic reform to how the city approaches the flooding. Building more dams or more flood reservoirs would help, until trash and other things clogged up the channels and stopped the effectiveness of it. Adding more water pumps would also help.