Philippine urban population to increase by 67% by 2030

Urban population in the Philippines is expected to rise by as much as 67 percent by 2030 on back of lack of employment opportunities in rural areas, land shortages, and natural disasters and climate change, according to a report released Tuesday by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Australian Government. The report titled "Competitive Cities in the 21st Century: Cluster-Based Local Economic Development revealed the Philippines" said the Philippines is expected to increase its urban population and see an additional 34.8 million Filipinos living in urban centers like Metro Manila, Metro Cebu, and Metro Davao. The report was launched in Manila at the start of the three-day Asian Urban Forum organized by the ADB. Urban Management Specialist Brian Roberts, co-author of the report, said Metro Manila, which has a population of around 12 to 15 million people, is already contending with problems associated with high urban populations. These include congestion, overcrowding and poor quality of life. Roberts said for cities to operate efficiently, it must keep its population between three million to five million. If the population reaches 10 million, the quality of services and other infrastructure facilities will stagnate. This, he said, is exactly what is happening to many urban centers in the Philippines. Roberts said that it is lamentable that 25 percent of people living in Metro Manila are forced to live in households that have "atrocious" conditions and work in low-income and menial jobs. "We need to focus on how do we make provisions for infrastructure, how do we make provisions for housing, and how do we, specifically in this country, deal with the issue of land administration and management," Roberts told reporters in an interview. He said it's important for the government that urban development needs to be planned and financed. Efforts to increase revenues and pursue Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) should be implemented to help finance land use plans. Roberts said these will provide the key to resolving land ownership issues and other similar concerns on land. Roberts said apart from the plans, these can also finance much- needed infrastructure or projects that seek to repair or perform maintenance works on existing facilities. He said that repair and maintenance works on existing infrastructure seem to be missing from the Philippines' development efforts. ADB Southeast Asia Director General Arjun Thapan said that in order to overcome the serious lack in infrastructure in the Philippines, the country needs to spend about 87 billion U.S. dollars for various projects in the next 15 years. The ADB said half of the world's megacities with populations of over 10 million are in Asia, but their extraordinary rise has come at a cost. Rapid urbanization is adding huge pressure on secondary cities which are growing fastest. Over 200 million urban dwellers live in poverty, many in grim city slums. Pollution is worsening, and climate change presents a new threat with the onset of increasingly severe natural disasters.