By Michael O Alabi
Akure is one of Nigeria’s emerging cities. Located within Ondo State in the country’s south west, it’s a settlement about 350kms from Lagos where roads meet from major towns such as Ilesa, Ondo, Owo and Ado-Ekiti.
Its population is climbing fast. In 2006 it was home to about 484,798 people. Today the population is estimated to be about 637,458 and growing as people move to it from rural areas.
But the way in which local authorities are going about building the city is deeply flawed. It also doesn’t to take into account lessons learnt from elsewhere in the world about how best to build healthy cities. For example, one of the main health risks for city dwellers is a lack of access to green spaces. Another is the fact that people are often forced to travel vast distances to get to work.
In a recent research paper, I explored the way Akure is being developed. There are two major problems with the approach the city is taking. The first is that green spaces are being lost because city officials have cleared green open spaces and farmlands on the edges of Akure to make room for buildings. Satellite images that I examined showed that where thick vegetation and farmlands accounted for about 51.5% of land cover in 1986, that stood at just 38.8% in 2018.
The second problem that people are being moved to formerly green spaces at the very edge of the city and this is taking a big toll on them financially and from a health perspective.
I found that city officials have not considered how approaches like mixed-use developments closer to the city centre might alleviate the housing shortage as well as protect Akure’s green spaces.
A balance must be struck between accommodating the town’s growing population and making sure that urbanisation doesn’t entirely wipe out green spaces and farm land. This is possible, as is clear from initiatives in China, Thailand, Brazil and Australia. Read more>>>
