Sustainable urban environmental management is a process of improving the urban environment and quality of life of all citizens. This means allocating urban resources fairly, ensuring civil rights of citizenship and adequate housing, and guaranteeing healthinessin the use of air or wateri n urban areas.T his, at least, is the principle. Islamabad is a capital city that has concentrated power historically, geographically and ideologically. The city was designed to promote the well-being of elite groups of Pakistan in the post colonial period. Due to this powerful status Islamabad appropriates an unequal share of resources and public wealth. This is the prestige capital of a nation where the interests of the social and political elites are served by the civil government, but where the well-being of those with no legal rights to settle are not taken into account in the management of urban resources. This position is maintained by a state-supported bureaucracy which manages urban development and virtually controls the whole process of urban development. In the wake of the UN Conference on Environment and Development, Pakistan and Islamabad have both embarked on a new agenda of what is termed sustainable environmentalm anagemente: quity in the distributiono f resources,e fficiency in the use of resources, and a more participatory form of urban governance. With the use of three case studies, on the allocation and pricing of water, on the provision of low income housing, and on the interaction of urban management and civil society groups, this research demonstrates that the sustainable urban environmental managemento bjectivesa re being ignored or reinterpretedb y the urban managemenot f Islamabad in favour of the politically supported elites, and in violation of the well-being of the poor. The conclusion of this research is that the radical and sustaining agenda of the post UNCED era is likely to be compromised in Islamabad. The process of reform has already been systematically delayed.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:267274 |
| Date | January 1998 |
| Creators | Zahidi, Tabassum Shahid |
| Publisher | University of East Anglia |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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