Asian cities face the biggest environmental risks

Running Head: SUSTAINABLE ISSUES IN SOUTH ASIA
SUSTAINABLE ISSUES IN SOUTH ASIA
Name of the Student
Name of the University
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Newspaper
Global Village Space. (2020). Politicisation of water resources in South Asia: Impending omens
of war -I. Retrieved 10 March 2020, from
https://www.globalvillagespace.com/politicisation-of-water-resources-in-south-asia-
impending-omens-of-war-i/
Introduction
Sustainability is an issue that appeared as a global consideration from the last few years.
The effect of climate change and pressure of the scarcity of resources get traction and the
communities are improvingly pressurized for finding the effectiveness and sustainability related
solutions for the woes related to water. The crisis related to water resources emerged as a crucial
problems for regions of Southeast Asia, which is the most dynamic regions and is a home for
almost quarter of the global population. There are several high mountain ranges to separate the
north from the central Asia including the Karakorum, the Hindukush, and the Himalayas that
share an important amount of rivers with their branches. The reason behind the sustainable issues
in these regions includes the improving melt of the glacial in the plateau of Tibet along with the
changing pattern of rain crossing the South and Southeast Asia. These are the components that
continuously threatening the water issues for the millions people who depend on the rivers
originated in Tibet. On the other hand, China is an arid country where the water security has
been regarded as the important national threat observed during the past few years. The reasons
behind the issues include the continuous creation of dams, irrigation systems, and projects for
diversion, which are crucial to provide water to the 1.3 billion people with the assurance of

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political stability. Apart from China, Bangladesh and India are also observed with the same
issues related to water security.
Figure 1: Map of Southeast Asia regions
Discussion
Geographic perspective
Mokthsim & Salleh, (2014) mentioned that, Urbanization is the most crucial cause of
sustainable issues in the regions of Southeast Asia. It is the cause that is driving the entire region
to face the sustainability related issues. The reason behind this is the increasing amount of urban
people are moving to the cities and they are contributing tremendous problems comprising of
different aspects of life. According to the ancient history, cities are the reflection of extreme
socio-cultural achievements for the human civilization (Mokthsim & Salleh, 2014). The amount
of evolving political processes, extension of the national economies, and the alteration in the
environmental aspects are greatly influencing the lives of people of these regions. The

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urbanization process of Southeast Asia is unfolding against the concepts of socio-cultural,
political, and economic aspects. As mentioned by Mukherjee & Sovacool, (2014) the Southeast
Asian cities comprised of more than 47 percent of the entire regional population. The rate of
national urbanization is less than 20% in Cambodia, 53% in Indonesia, and 100% in Singapore
as mentioned by the data of United Nations. The demographic base of these cities are more than
294 million people with the rapid growth of urbanization. Comparing to the Pacific region of
Asia the growth of urbanization increased 2.7% from 1990s, whereas the growth of Southeast
Asia is 3.6% observed within the same period. Shaikh et al., (2017) mentioned some unique
definition of the features of urbanizations in this region. Firstly, the cities of the regions are
surviving with continuous process of change and growth. According to the researches, the period
between 1950 and 2014 the rate of urbanization grew 11 times more than observed within the
previous years. From 1990, the cities of this region almost added 154 million of inhabitants
comprising from places such as Brunei, Malaysia, Laos and Philippines, and Cambodia.
Secondly, the urbanization of Southeast Asia is broad based in spite of having several
metropolitan cities von (Rintelen, Arida & Häuser, 2017). According to the researches, during
the year of 2010 almost 73% of the population was dwelling in the smaller cities. They have
assumed that, the process will be continued during the end of 2030 at the time of more than
urban populations were living in the medium and broader size of the cities von (Rintelen, Arida
& Häuser, 2017). The metropolitan cities of this region comprised of more than 22% of the
Southeast Asia’s urban civilization. There are only two megacities in this region namely Manila
with 11.8 million people and Jakarta with 10 million people (Burton & Wurfel, 2016). The
researchers assumed that the growth of urbanization will be increased more than 13% by the end
of the year 2030. It will be attaining the by the achieving status of megacity by the places like

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Bangkok and Ho Chi Min city. The sub-board urbanization requires some policies and strategies
to promote the balance for the sub-national development. Hence, consideration of long-term
perspective will be fruitful for the for the region to address these sustainability issues. Pomeroy
et al., (2016) and the group of the researchers mentioned that the region with competitive
advantage require competitive production in policies and economic factor. The cities of
Southeast region are highly productive. According to the study, almost 47% of the population
comprising in the urban areas produce more than 80% of the economic output. Comparing the
state of 1990 and 2012, the gross domestic production of these regions has been tripled from
$444 million to $1.3 billion (Schreinemachers et al., 2015).
Historic perspective
The region victimized an economic crisis during the year of 1997 – 1998. Along with
this, the region was also subjected to the global economic crisis during the year of 2008 – 2009.
In spite of these crises the region came back with a fruitful resilience in the sector of finance. As
an outcome, the region made a record of annual growth of 4.6% in 1990 and 5.4% in the
following years (Pye & Bhattacharya 2013). Hence, a transformative shift can be observed in the
growth story of the Southeast Asia’s economic field. With the growing rate of the economy, the
urbanization often driven by the factor of remarkable shift in the employment (Beerepoot et al.,
2013). It has been shifted from primary to the secondary and tertiary fields as mentioned in the
experiences of the Southeast Asian civilization. According to the record of 1991 to 2012 the
primary sector of employment decreased from 58% to 41%. At the same time, the secondary
sector of employment increased up to 19% from the observed 14% (Beerepoot et al., 2013).
Finally, during the tertiary sector the percentage increased from 28% to 40%. However, the field
of employment is often observed with the issues like job equality and low wages. To put it

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simply, the issue of job equality refers to biasness from the authority or practicing the concepts
of favoritism. On the other hand, low wages refer to the situation where the employees consider
that they are being paid with lower wages than their labor cost (Bauer & Thant, 2015).
According to the record of employment the workers are earning too less than their family
incomes. Hence, poverty or inequality are the other reasons of growing rate of urbanization. As
per the record of 1990 and 2011 the number of the population living on less than $1.25 earning
per day. This situation is still constant for the population of this region as 81 million people are
living below the poverty line as mentioned in the data of 2011 (Srinivasan et al., 2013). This is
the situation that is quite different from the situation of urban poverty and inequality. According
to the data of the World Bank Indonesia is the highlighted region to enlarge the problem of urban
poverty. Considering the data of 1990 and 2010 the rate of urban economic growth declined from
48% to 13 %. Comparing to this, the rural economic growth declined from 57% to 18%
(Debroux, 2014). This is the clear reflection of urbanization of the poverty as a trend within the
Asian countries. Silapajarn et al., (2016) mentioned that the design, operation, and the
development of the urban water infrastructure is relying on the sustainable development
measured by the world. This factor is affected by the issues including necessary knowledge,
skills, and practices about ensuring the sustainable development within the population. Apart
from the knowledge and skills, the other factor that affects the sustainable growth of the
Southeast Asia is environmental degradation (Retamal, 2017). This refers to the deteriorating
condition of the earth through various asset consumption comprising the aspects of air, water,
and soil. The destructive nature of the environment and the eradication of wildlife are the other
reasons of rising sustainable issues in the Southeast Asia. This situation is driven by the
continuous shift against the nature’s trait. It is a very common factor for the suffering caused by

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environmental degradation observed almost in all the parts of the world (Aritenang, 2014).
According to the international strategy of United Nation, the universe should take measure for
reducing the disaster to save the earth and save the mankind. The basic reason of sustainable
issues in these cities include damage of the land. The Southeast region of Asian continent tend to
grow weedy plants that causing a serious rupture in in the surroundings of the environment
(Masron et al., 2017). On the other hand, the growing rate of pollution is another reason
contributing for sustainable issues in the Southeast Asian region. These regions are prone to
facilitate air pollution and land pollution and urbanization. Other points need to be mentioned in
this regard is overpopulation that is again connected with the concept of urbanization. These
regions are prone to facilitate the feature of overpopulation specially within the cities which are
the activities prevailing against the nature’s law. As mentioned, there are only two megacities
situated within the Southeast region (Sing et al., 2016). More population directs to demand for
food, shelter, and clothing. The demographics need to incorporate more lands to grow crops
along with provide shelter. Growing rate of population constantly threatening the lives of the
rural people and the continuous growth of urbanization is appearing crucially for the entire
world. Rigg, (2013) mentioned that, the population of Southeast Asia is implementing various
strategies to implement the 2030 agenda of sustainable development. This agenda mentioned
some of the goals to be planned for sustainable development of the planet. Firstly, the authority
of the nation needs to take measure to derive the concept of poverty from the nation. Poverty and
urbanization are the main reasons to create sustainable issues worldwide. Secondly, the
community should act for zero hunger reduce the issues of sustainable health. It refers to
incorporating the promotion of good health and well-being for addressing sustainable issues from
the Southeast regions (Gee & Shaharudin, 2016). Hence, both the local and state governments

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need to address the sustainable issues from the Southeast Asian regions. Especially considering
the countries like Singapore and Cambodia should be taken into consideration in this regard.
Along with this, the government needs to make the population aware about sustainable
development by providing quality education to them (Firman, 2017). Every school curriculum
needs to incorporate sustainable education within the curriculum of schools and in the university
level. The activities of urbanization are associated with numerous populations shift from the rural
areas to the urban areas. Hence, proper education is required to make the people aware the
concept of sustainable development (Browne, 2014). It is worth mentioning in this regard, the
concept of industrialization has a close connection with the term urbanization. To put it simply, it
can be said that, the term industrialization leads to urbanization (Dahiya, 2015). The term
industrialization caters to urbanization through generating economic growth and generating more
job opportunities to attract people from different locations and from the urban places also. It is
the outcome of establishing various factories and creating various job opportunities for local as
well as distant people (Bauer & Thant, 2015). Along with this, urbanization is also observed
within the place near water bodies as mentioned in the different histories of human civilization.
Hence, industrialization is intently connected with the term urbanization. Other group of
researchers mentioned that there should be cultural change to address the issues of sustainable
development. Jung & Threlfall (2016) mentioned the importance of cultural change for restoring
sustainable development among the community. Apart from this, the increasing rate of
industrialization is giving birth to establishment of various industries and organization. Hence, it
should be a mandatory factor for the organization to incorporate the corporate responsibility with
due regards to sustainable development. Similarly, the researchers should plan for environmental
research for addressing the sustainable issues (Browne, 2014). This study also pays more

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attention to making the people educated with the concept of sustainable development. The
corporation and the other administrative bodies of the cities must incorporate the sustainable or
corporate responsibilities with the organizational value and culture. Moreover, the general reason
behind the sustainable issues in Southeast Asia is the geographical and geophysical setting of the
place (Pye & Bhattacharya, 2013). According to the study, the place occupies more than 4.5
million square kilometer land. It is a homeland of more than 1.6 billion people. It is almost more
than fifth portion of the worldly population. It is also should be recognized that the population is
increasing highly almost 1.5% to 1.8% annually (Browne, 2014).
Geophysical perspective
The geophysical characteristics of Southeast Asia includes variety forms of lands
including islands, wetlands, lakes, deserts or dry-lands and coastline also. The climate of this
region also keeps on changing with the occupational role of the native people. The agricultural
background of the Southeast Asia’s innate environment is worth to be mentioned in this regard
(Schreinemachers et al., 2015). Hence, the natural resource of the place becoming poor due to
the increasing number of growth in the population of these places. All these factors are
contributing to the unsustainable share including 90 – 95 % water consumption due to
agricultural program, manufacturing program, and wasteful methods of irrigation. There are
certain exceptions for example, Nepal and Bhutan are the places where water can be available
sufficiently according to the requirement of the population (Bauer & Thant, 2015). Apart from
the water resources, there are other losses observed due to the cause of overpopulation. It also
includes the reduction or elimination of bio-diversity. South Asia is the place that hosts
enormous amount of biodiversity and it is the home of more than 25,000 kinds of plants and
animals (Schreinemachers et al., 2015). Hence, the growing rate of population is becoming one

9SUSTAINABLE ISSUES IN SOUTH ASIA
of the reason of loss in bio-diversity. The countries of Southeast Asia need to frame
comprehensive amount of biodiversity to reduce these kind of problems.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it must be said that, the sustainable issues are common issues observed
more or less within the entire world not only within the Southeast part of Asia. Especially these
are the region to give birth of sustainable issues due to various reasons. The paper has already
highlighted some of the reasons behind sustainable issues in the previous section. The main point
highlighted in this discussion is the reason of urbanization for giving birth to sustainable issues
in the regions of Southeast Asia. The paper has skillfully portrayed the picture of the countries
and the comparison with the early 1990s and the picture of 2014. The comparison helps to
understand how the term urbanization affecting the population of the cities of Southeast Asia.
The region is comprised of only two megacities with huge population. It is a known fact that,
overpopulation is also a cause that gives birth to sustainable issues including poverty and hunger.
It also gives birth to the issues of unemployment and other related issues. The thorough
discussion opened up a room for discussing the term industrialization. The term has its own pros
and cons. It opens up various job opportunities on the other hand serve to enrich the concept of
urbanization and indirectly serving to the concept of sustainable issues. On the other hand, there
should be proper measure to address the sustainable issues for avoiding any obstacles. The
government needs to establish full-fledged ministry to save the environment. Along with this,
they need to prepare proper policies and strategies and required action plans related to the topic
of sustainability and environment. They should take into consideration about the following topics
including the ozone layer, pollution, desertification, hazardous waste, marine protection and
others.

10SUSTAINABLE ISSUES IN SOUTH ASIA

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