The ABCs of Sustainable Development Goals and Sudan’s situation XII

Goal 11: Make cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable

By Dr. Hassan Humeida
KIEL, GERMANY: Goal 11 is about making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.

The eleventh goal of the Sustainable Development Goals seeks to support urban rural living in ways that keep pace with modern human requirements.

This goal works to ensure that rural and urban residents, by 2030, and have access to adequate and safe basic services at an affordable cost for all residents, especially in remote villages or slums.

This builds on comprehensive and sustainable urban expansion by planning and building houses and settlements that are appropriate to the countries’ environments to keep pace with human requirements in the future.

This goal also ensures that all residents enjoy safe, accessible and sustainable means of transportation. It considers the requirements of certain groups in society, such as children, women, and the elderly.

The eleventh goal pays special attention to access and safety ways for patients and people with special needs to achieve their goals in guaranteed, accessible, safe and sustainable ways.

Humans in different societies hold a special significance in this goal, like any other goal, by ensuring the protection and preservation of the natural and cultural heritage of each country.

This goal also considers the natural and environmental aspects of climate change by working to plan, implement, and build sustainable housing and settlements that accommodate everyone, reduce the burdens and pressures of climate change, and limit the damage that can result from natural disasters.

In developing countries, especially poor ones, the eleventh goal calls for financial and technical support to build modern and sustainable housing using local materials that are easy to obtain, as well as residences that can confront the surrounding changes and withstand natural disasters in all their forms and manifestations.

This goal also seeks to reduce the number of deaths and limit the damage to the population in areas that are vulnerable to environmental and natural disasters. It also aims to deal with the economic losses that can result from water disasters and floods, a decrease in gross domestic product, and the negative impacts on the poor and vulnerable segments living in the affected areas.

Among the priorities of this goal regarding the environment and its protection is how to deal with waste, ways to reduce its quantity within a possible framework, and ways to recycle or dispose of it in cities and municipalities through modern ways.

These up-to-date ways reduce the waste negative impact on the environment and on people’s health, especially on the quality of breathing air in cities and municipalities.

The eleventh goal also seeks to expand green spaces, especially in cities, so that they are part of public places that serve the needs of children, women, the elderly, people with special needs, and the sick.

Another aim is to enhance the national development of countries by linking the structures of the sustainable development goals – the well-known sustainability triangle of the social aspect, the environmental aspect, and the economic aspect -, in a way that serves the purposes of sustainability in rural and urban areas, and with the hope of reaching them wholly or in part.

The world’s population migration from villages to cities began early, and the population of large cities has been constantly increasing over the years.

The poorest countries were characterized by the displacement of farmers and herders for the purpose of searching for work to support them, which paved the way for the exacerbation, in addition to other factors, of poverty and hunger in many countries.

Back in 1990, there were only 10 global cities with a population exceeding 10 million people. Within a few years, the population of cities increased and their number reached 28. It is expected that the number of these mega cities will exceed 33 within the next few years, as in the future every 9 out of 10 cities will become a mega city with a population exceeding 10 million people.

While urban expansion is still limited to the major industrial countries today, matters will change in the future and the lion’s share will be in developing countries, especially the poor ones, reaching 90% in the next few years.

The first reason is attributed to urban expansion and life in cities, which contribute 80% of the gross domestic economic product, to providing job opportunities and income for the population.

Currently, more than 4.2 billion people, or 55% of the world’s population, live in cities. This number is expected to reach 6.5 billion people out of a total of 10 billion people by 2050.

Since cities exploit 3% of the total area of the Earth, they are responsible for consuming between 60% and 80% of the total energy, and therefore they are responsible for not less than 70% of carbon emissions in the atmosphere.

The number of city residents living in slums is estimated at approximately one billion people, although this number is variable and is constantly rising.

Considering Sudan’s position on this goal of “sustainable cities and local communities,” it can be said that Sudan is a promising country in this regard if it is one day blessed with lasting peace. It is a country that has all the basics of life and the natural and human capabilities that can achieve this goal.

This assumption is based on reference to the vast areas that Sudan enjoys, a country in which the longest river on the face of the earth flows (the Greater Sudan has the longest Nile River basins of all). It also has a rainy season that supports the growth of shade plants, pastures, and the basics of human and animal food.

Sudan has long coastlines (the Red Sea), resorts, marine islands and natural reserves that can serve sustainability purposes if they are used sustainably.

With regard to cities, specifically the capital, Khartoum, which is distinguished by its unique location, it is necessary to review the planning of some residential neighborhoods in which buildings, factories, squares, and cemeteries have strategic locations, but do not serve the purposes of sustainability.

There are also some sites on the shores of the Nile, islands, resorts and nature reserves that have not been used sustainably, preserving their natural heritage significance or upholding the possibility and means of their development in the future.

There are still problems in many rural areas and urban areas regarding dealing with waste and ways to reduce, recycle, reduce, or dispose of it in thoughtful ways.

In addition, there are places in the middle of neighborhoods for the purpose of waste disposal, and these are sometimes adjacent to kindergartens, schools, hospitals, or restaurants and cafeterias.

The same thing applies to sanitation and its resulting impact on the environment and water pollution in rivers and groundwater. The impact of harmful carbon emissions from vehicle exhausts and chimneys of factories in various cities, including the capital, Khartoum, plays a negative role in environmental health.

Burning car tires in demonstrations is also a harmful effect, and is responsible for the occurrence of respiratory diseases, skin diseases, and a precursor to the occurrence of cancerous diseases through chemical emissions that harm the body membranes and cells.

It has been observed for years that public parks, large squares and sports fields in Sudan, especially in Khartoum, have been transformed into architectural buildings that serve purposes other than the those of civil sustainability for local communities.

Here, for example, is the encroachment on sports fields in the middle of neighborhoods for profitable commercial purposes for specific individuals. The squares were sports tracks and places for residents to breathe between the afternoon and sunset.

Even the wide squares and vast gardens known previously as May Gardens and later as the April Gardens, did not escape bullying and were transformed into buildings to change the layout of the old face of the capital, Khartoum.

These squares and gardens were a destination for family trips for both residents of the capital and visitors, and a meeting place for citizens on evenings, holidays, and the country’s religious and national celebrations.

In order for Sudan to keep pace in the future, based on the eleventh goal of the Sustainable Development Goals, urban planning must be reconsidered, not only in the triangular capital with its three cities – Omdurman, Khartoum, and Khartoum Bahri-, but also in the countryside and cities.

Perhaps the solutions here also lie in reconsidering transportation methods and networks that have not kept pace.

But it also lies in the concentration of services for citizens in locations that exacerbate the problems due to the high population density in these locations.

There must be sites reserved for residents that include public squares and green parks available to everyone.

Other solutions are to support the planting of villages and cities, starting with homes and residential neighborhoods, and to instill in the hearts of children in kindergartens and schools an early love for greenery and shade.

More solutions include commemorating the good old days regarding nature and the environment through traditional events, such as the celebration of Arbor Day in the country by the former Forest Service, and more recently the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. On Sudan Day, seedlings were presented to students and citizens to be planted in schools and homes.

Forestry, agriculture and nutrition employees and experts talked about how to preserve the green areas in the country, as a precaution against desert encroachment and its harmful effects on plants, animals and humans.

They talked about ways to preserve nature and the environment surrounding villages and cities, as well as about their role in combating poverty, hunger and disease by securing food in the country.