Private Enterprise and Financial Markets > Environment > Urban Environment and Pollution Control
Urban Environmental Challenges in Latin America
In Latin America rapid urbanization and population growth in the cities has increased significantly since the 80s. This phenomenon has come along an escalating demand of natural resources (e.g. water, land, energy, air) affecting negatively the environmental quality of urban centers and their surroundings. Increases in demand of resources by the transport, industry and construction sectors have also put pressure on the availability of natural resources and their carrying capacity. Migration and displacement trends have also accelerated the growth of settlements that do not have the basic infrastructure to adequately secure the quality of life and health conditions that are essential to human development.
Internal Link of Interest: Urban Environment
As a result of the pressures on the environment aforementioned, urban centers constantly present high levels of air pollution and water contamination, slides, and yet, deforestation and loss of soil for agriculture in the peripheries of the city. Because urban and demographic growth is expected in the following decades, greater demands over natural resources will accompany this process. Therefore, it is important that the diverse set of actors engage in urban development will consider as priorities the challenges that are described below. These are challenges that are closely relater to the field of urban environmental management:
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Land-use and planning: There is an increasing demand over land in most urban centers of Latin America due to expansion of urban infrastructure, population growth and the related demand of services and physical space that these two cause. The continuous growth of illegal settlements, which generally occurs in the edges and limits of the city, has impacted the relationship between the urban center and its periphery. Urban growth has contributed to deforestation and land degradation, in addition to the pressure over the land exerted by agriculture and animal farming. Also, urban expansion has altered the hydrological ecosystems while increasing the vulnerability and risks to natural disasters. As a result, the sum of these forces impacts the availability and sustainability of natural resources that serve not only the urban centers but also regional and national ecosystems.
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Water and Sanitation Accessibility and Coverage: In the area of water and sanitation in Latin America there have been remarkable achievements after decades of investments to secure access of urban communities to these services. In the region, institutional reforms have prompted decentralization and privatization processes including that of water and sanitation services. In some countries, the supply of drinking water covers most of the urban population although the deficit in the sanitation services remains high. This situation is worsened for those communities living in the periphery or illegal settlements of the city [*].
Internal Link of Interest: Urban Water and Sanitation
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Solid Waste Management: In Latin-American cities solid waste collection services not only have limited coverage -in particular in low-income neighborhoods- but they also lack for waste disposal processes. Most of the cities have disregarded the impacts that industrial and toxic wastes represent to the citizens and the environment.
In smaller cities, deficiencies in solid waste management services are even more critical. Most of these cities do not have controlled and regulated land waste sites (landfills) and consequently, most of the waste is disposed in opened lands. The inadequate handling of solid waste has significant environmental impacts including: superficial water pollution, soil and aquifers contamination, air pollution (due to unregulated waste burning) and landscape deterioration. Additionally, deficiencies in solid waste management trigger respiratory and gastrointestinal diseases among the urban population.
Internal Link of Interest: Pollution and Waste Management
- Disaster Risks: In Latin America, the riskiest areas in urban centers are generally marginal settlements where lower income groups live in constructions that are not properly designed to resist a natural hazard or disaster risk. Both social and economic forces are triggers of the development and expansion of these illegal neighborhoods that are vulnerable to flooding, slides and quakes. Additionally, the lack of land-use regulations and the weak institutional framework to execute and monitor compliance with norms intensify the vulnerability to disasters. Deforestation and river basin degradation in the peripheries of cities are other factors that increase risks to natural disasters. Therefore, it is important to highlight the economic, social and environmental impacts of disaster vulnerabilities and risks due to the potential loss of infrastructure, social capital and fiscal implications that recovery programs could have.
Internal Link of Interest: Disaster Risk Prevention and Mitigation
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Air Pollution: In Latin America, the main polluting source of air in cities is urban transport. During the last decades there has been a significant growth of both private and public vehicle fleets resulting in greater levels of air contaminants mainly CO, PST, PM10, HC, NO2, SO2 and Ozone. In many cities, the meteorological and geographical conditions of cities are determining factors in air pollution. Examples of this situation in the region are Mexico City, Santiago de Chile and Bogotá, which are three of the cities with the highest levels of air pollution.
Air contaminants produced by automobiles cause respiratory and cardiovascular diseases that threaten the lives of the urban population, particularly that of children and elderly people. Today, in many capitals of the region, health problems caused by the high levels of concentration of air contaminants have been registered as public health matter that have broader social and economic implications.
Air pollution also derives from both private and public industry emissions that intensify the environmental health impacts to urban citizens. Examples of these heavy polluting industries include large-scale thermoelectric sites, metal manufacturing and refineries that produce contaminants such as SO2, PST and CO2. Emissions from micro-enterprises activities, and biomass and waste burning add to the problem because they are not regulated in most of the cities. Other air contaminants may come from street dust, particles coming from construction and road sites, and fuels used in homes.
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Transport Management: The accessibility to transport systems and the mobility of citizens in urban centers is closely related not only to economic productivity but also to urban quality of life. In Latin American cities, public transport is fundamental to their functioning; it offers a more egalitarian mobility alternative to those who do not own a vehicle. Another factor that highlights the relevance of transport management is the decline of air quality in many cities and its public health impacts. City governments should strive to offer transport systems that are economically efficient, financially feasible and environmentally favorable and consequently, they would improve the quality of life in cities.
Internal Link of Interest: Urban Transport
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Institutional Development and Capacity: The development and strengthening of institutions managing and involved with the environment are cross-sectoral factors that need to be articulated with those mentioned above. In the region, despite the progress of decentralization, municipal governments are not completely autonomous and do not always work in close coordination with central governments to manage environmental challenges. In most cases, the municipal-central government relationship is affected by the rigidity of public sector institutions that maintain sectoral and hierarchical organizational structures. Many public administration processes and decisions are fragmented and oriented by a one-sided force: from central to local governments. As a consequence, local governments are unlikely to promote interagency coordination mechanisms and good communication practices. On the other hand, lack of effective coordination can spur jurisdictional conflicts that may intensify the loss and degradation of natural resources.
In addition to the vague definition of national and local competences for urban environmental management, most municipal governments face technical and financial limitations. Nevertheless, during the decentralization process that took place in the 80s and 90s, municipal governments were assigned with responsibilities for planning, financing and implementing environment and development programs and projects in urban centers. Efficient public participation and communication channels in decision-making processes are additional aspects that need continuous support, despite the increasing role that civic organizations are playing in public policy processes. In sum, institutions in charge of urban environmental management can continue promoting efforts to strengthen their capacities (e.g. legal, technical, administrative, financial and public participation) to address more effectively environmental challenges in cities.
Internal Link of Interest: Municipal Developmentl
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[*] Source: Rojas, Eduardo (2004) Desafíos de un Continente Urbano. Inter-American Development Bank. Washington DC.
