Rush from villages to Yangon poses fresh challenge to urban planning, EU official says

Isabel Faria de Almeida, head of cooperation at the delegation, said the EU was seeing these challenges firsthand in four outer townships where it has been operating pilot projects to build the capacity of local governmental agencies to work with civil society and communities on environmental protection and waste management.

She made the comments yesterday at a workshop in Hlaingthaya Township, one of the four townships the pilot project has been operating in since last year. The other three are: Hlegu, North Okkalapa and Shwepyithar.

De Almeida said Yangon faced numerous development challenges and that the EU was providing technical assistance as well as helping support collaboration between local government bodies, such as ward and township officials, and communities.

She said the EU was also working with the Yangon City Development Committee (YCDC) to built its capacity for collaboration and increase its ability to successfully design and implement urban planning projects.

It had committed US$3 million to the pilot projects in the four townships. Although initial plans had called for them to end next year, the projects will be extended to fiscal year 2016-2017, de Almeida said.

Waste disposal management is one component of them. The EU is working with officials and non-governmental organisations to implement community-based approaches that have environmental safeguards embedded in the process, it has said.

The EU also recently agreed to work with the YCDC to help address the city’s escalating traffic congestion.

Its pilot projects are based on surveys of public needs. Community members have identified several major problems, including poor roads, insufficient waste disposal, lack of sewage water disposal, insufficient access to safe drinking water, lack of electricity, lack of housing, unemployment, and lack of health services in the four townships.

Yangon’s outer townships are home to about 20 economic zones whose factories are drawing tens of thousands of families from rural areas seeking year-round employment. Unaccustomed to living in urban areas, the former village residents often build village-style huts on vacant land near the economic zones, as most factories do not offer housing to their employees.