Challenges Of Living In a Mega City

956 Words4 Pages
Describe the challenges of living in mega cities and evaluate the responses to these challenges. It is evident that developing countries have been hit hard through the globalisation period as their developing economies are under pressure to become internationally competitive which is raising unemployment and destroying their agriculture and manufacturing sectors, in these instances large numbers of the population are internally migrating to capital cities in hope for employment and a better life. In many cases this results in a mega city. A mega city is defined as a area of urban development with a population of over ten million. Mexico City has a population of 19.5 million, with an expectation of it reaching 21.6 million in 2015. Challenges occurring in mega cities due to a surplus population include discrepancies in the distribution of income and employment, inadequate water, sanity, infrastructure and housing. In mega cities which are generally situated in a developing country, individuals usually commute to a city in hope of employment, education and a better future. These individuals arrive with no skills and no wealth, generally coming from rural areas. Therefore they have limited rights when it comes to employment and their desperate nature to support themselves or their families leads them to hazardous working conditions and wages much lower then the minimum wage. In Mexico city some workers earn 20% less then the minimum wage. The poorest workers are the pepenadores or the rubbish collectors. They earn a living from selling salvaged bits of metal and plastic. There is also a huge discrepancy in the distribution of income as the poorest 40% of the population control less then 12% of the country's personal income. This acts as an injection into the vicious cycle of poverty as limited income means these people and their families are at a disadvantage
Open Document