By Yero S. Bah
Rapid urbanization has now become a global issue, and according to reports, The Gambia has one of the fastest urbanization rates in Sub-Saharan Africa. The report on Sustainable Urban Development Programme 2020-2040 indicates that the Greater Banjul Area (GBA) already accounts for 68% of the total population.
Sources say this has resulted in several environmental and socio-economic problems including deforestation, soil erosion, pollution and waste generation, as well as stress on health, education and employment services.
However, despite these challenges that rural urban drift has caused, the investment climate in The Gambia is growing as it attracts many investors and is expected to improve with accelerated investments via the next prospective flagship project of the Port Expansion and the current opening of the new trans-Gambian bridge.
The Mayoress Banjul City Council, Mrs. Rohey Malick Lowe participated at the Inaugural Project Board Meeting for Great Banjul Area on the Sustainable Urban Development Plan 2020-40 organized by UNOPS at Ocean Bay Hotel, Bakau.
From this important meeting, the country’s first female city head proceeded to the UNDP Governance Program Steering Committee Meeting on the review of Annual Work plan for Governance and Human Rights Project.
After a brief presentation on the status of the 2019 Governance Annual work plan and updates of Governance Activities by UNDP Program Specialist overseeing the Governance program, Mdam Lowe dwelled on the expected challenges for the budget allocated for REFELA GAMBIA NATIONAL CHAPTER activities for the year 2020.
She further urged them to reconsider and increase the budget for more efficient and effective implementation of activities for the year 2020.
Meanwhile, the Banjul iron lady also took the opportunity to commend the efforts of UNDP towards making REFELA GAMBIA CHAPTER a reality with other development activities in country.
Studies revealed that war against terror, quality education, and employment were observed as major causes of rural-urban migration in the previous two decades.
Before migration, farming was the main occupation of about 42% of the respondents, while after migration, most of them were engaged with private jobs and some have their own businesses.
As could be deduced from The Point Newspaper article, published on June 26, 2008 and authored by journalist Nfamara Jawneh, the movement of people from the rural areas to the urban centers was another serious phenomenon posing challenges to many African countries, and The Gambia is no exception. Jawneh wrote that a good portion of the population lives in the Greater Banjul Area.
“Most of these migrants are young people. They come to the urban areas for different and many reasons,” the journalist-cum-human rights activist penned.
It is worth mentioning that a good number of young people move from the villages to the towns and city in search of good jobs, education, recreational facilities and good health care, just to name a few.
However, this phenomenon also comes with a lot of bad effects. These include an increase in the ratio of crime rates, prostitution, overcrowding, traffic congestion, a high dependency ratio and job scarcity, among others.
The issue of rural-urban drift is seen to have also contributed to the low agricultural productivity in the country as most young people prefer to settle in the urban areas as opposed to staying in the rural areas where farming and other agricultural activities are commonplace.
“If we fail to go back to the land or contribute towards agricultural development, we will continue to buy food grown by other farmers in other parts of the world at very expensive prices. Some will spend their little earnings on feeding alone,” the author noted.
