Today is World Cities day. The Day brings to light the inequalities within the biggest cities in the world and pushes for greater social inclusion, including equality and access to services and opportunities. The theme of this year’s World Cities Day is “act local and go global”.
Speaking with the Chairman Nigeria Institute of Town Planners, Abia State Chapter, town planner Steven Chukwudi Nwazue stated that the day is also referred to as Urban October whose objective is to promote the international community interest in global urbanization and also to push forward cooperation among countries contributing to sustainable urban development around the world.
Nawaze revealed that the primary responsibility of town planners is to create a sustainable and habitable environment that will serve today and for the future.
In his words, World cities day is the celebration of cities that are well organized. Also have a good road network, good transportation and environmental planning that is void of conflicts”.
Town planner Nwazue further encouraged the government and the public to always consult town planners in developing cities because their role is to design and plan while the government is to implement a better environment.
He also explains that town planners have the role of ordering the usage of lands by citing lands where they ought to be cited without conflicting with each other.
He continued “any estate that is created without a plan will be creating serious havoc tomorrow because they don’t observe the set standard for development. He emphasized the fact that it’s wrong to have residential land use within an industrial land use because the industries will have negative effects on the health of residents”.
According to him, town planners organize cities, making sure that lands are cited where they ought to be cited without conflicting with each other.