Geography: Mega Cities essay

[Potatohater]

Hey, I know there isn't a super big Geo community on here and certainly no moderators to run special essay marking for the course but if anyone does do Geo or is experienced with essay writing could you please have a look at this response to the 2003 question:

Describe the challenges of living in mega cities and evaluate the responses to these challenges.

I'm especially not sure if it is weird that I talk about multiple mega cities in each paragraph.

Spoiler

There are many challenges to living in Mega cities, the responses to which very in effectiveness. Due to the exponential population growth as a result of urbanisation, migration and a large existing base population base, the lack of governance and infrastructure has led to many widespread issues. The lack of housing, sanitation services, clean water supply and traffic infrastructure have prompted a wide range of responses which range from slightly effective to greatly effective as they attempt to solve issues in the short and long term. These responses can be assessed by determining if the underlying issue has been solved and if it is a sustainable long term solution.

The lack of housing is a common challenge faced by mega cities, with many people living in slums. These slums are makeshift houses constructed out of materials such as cardboard, corrugated iron, plastic tarpaulin and scrap pieces of wood. In the Filipino city of Manila, the Tondo slum means people live in illegally in makeshift spaces less than 5m^2, which is 7 X smaller than the average living space in more developed countries. In Mexico City, 60% of the population live in informal settlements, which are likely to collapse during the frequent earthquakes. Thus the establishment of slums and lack of adequate housing is a common issue across mega cities. The Local code of the Philippines is a local self government response in which control over urban policy making has been transferred from federal governments to local ones. This allows the people to make better decisions over their land based on their needs as well as enabling legal access to the land and its associated services. Whilst this is a long term and sustainable response that directly targets the issue, it is only moderately effective as the actions of this government can not always be enforced due to incomplete control over the area.

Another challenge of mega cities in the developing world is the lack of sanitation services. With nowhere to dispose of rubbish or recycle, trash is left covering city streets. This is a health concern as the litter serves as a breeding ground for anopheles mosquitos which are the vectors for disease transmission, spreading illnesses such as malaria. In Delhi, migrants trying to make a living often pick through the waste hunting for things to sell, the most valuable items being recyclables. This leaves them even more vulnerable to infection.This issue is common across many mega cities. In Lagos the monthly occurrence of Environment day is an attempt to resolve the issue. This government intervention response dictates that it is mandatory for everyone to help clean up the city streets, and whilst it is effective in the short term, in the long term these practices are not an ideal solution. This is because the city is only cleaned once a month and does not target the underlying issue; a lack of garbage bins and other easily accessible waste disposal methods. Due to this, the response is somewhat effective but could be improved.

Clean drinking water is a vital aspect of human survival that is hard to access in mega cities. This is due to the lack of sanitation services which cause waterways to become polluted with trash and sewage. This is especially the case in Dhaka, in which raw sewage flows into rivers and lakes, making them contaminated beyond treatment. In Mexico City, many people can not rely on the main water supply and so to solve this problem, water trucks sell clean water harvested from the rain to the community. However, this can cost citizens up to 20% of their income, and when water shortages occur protests erupt, and the water delivery people are sometimes kidnapped and the water stolen. It can also take a month to get to the city edges. Hence whist this solution is viable in the short term, it is not a sustainable practice city wide and does have its flaws. Another solution is for citizens to collect and filter their own rain water. This is much more effective than the water trucks since there is no need to buy water, allowing for money to be spent on food and other goods. This also ensures that even on the city outskirts water can be accessed throughout the year with no associated violence or protest. This solution is more sustainable in the long term and tackles the issue in a highly effective manner.

The immense size of the population also presents problems due to a lack of adequate transport infrastructure. This is evident in Mumbai in which 88% commuters catch the train, and due to the overcrowding, trains not only carry 3 times their capacity but also cause injuries and deaths on a regular basis. Measures are being put in place to solve these issues, one of which is to increase the capacity from 8 cars to 12, increase the number of trains and their frequency. However due to the 6 million travellers even this solution alone is not enough. Whilst mega cities are characterised by a lack of governance and infrastructure, the emerging Indian economy means that this may not remain the case. The government plans to construct a new transport system called the "sky bus" which will reduce the burden on trains and prevent injuries since people can not cross its tracks. The construction of a new city is also being developed, Navi Mumbai, which when completed will allow for the pressure of Mumbai's population to be relieved slightly, leading to less overcrowding on main transport routes. These infrastructure projects are highly effective as once completed they will allow commuters to travel more efficiently in a safer manner.

In the developing world, mega cities are faced with many challenges due to their over population and lack of governance and infrastructure. Issues such as a lack of housing, sanitation, clean water and transports infrastructure are common across many of these cities. The responses to these challenges vary from moderately effective community self governments and the somewhat effective environmental clean up days to the highly effective filtering of rain water and new infrastructure projects. These responses all tackle these issue in the short term but in the long term they vary in effectiveness at presenting sustainable long term solutions which tackle the problems at hand.

Thanks! 

[zofromuxo]

Is their a criteria for this essay?
I haven't done HSC Geography, but would be more then happy to help.

[Potatohater]

Is their a criteria for this essay?
I haven't done HSC Geography, but would be more then happy to help.

Since the question is so old they don't have a marking criteria but they do have notes from the marking centre which might help?

Question 22
Strengths:
Candidates understood the requirements of the directive term evaluate.
Better responses showed the relationship between challenges and responses to these
challenges, and were able to give an informed opinion as to the success or appropriateness of these responses. Many used flow diagrams or tables to relate the challenge, the response and the judgement in an organised, logical manner.
Candidates were familiar with the term mega city and were able to make reference to a variety of illustrative examples and/or statistics to support their response.
Responses were well-structured, flowed logically and used geographical terminology.

Weaknesses:
Candidates provided a general description of living in mega cities but failed to evaluate responses to challenges.
Poor, if any, examples were used.
Candidates failed to link specific responses to specific challenges.

[zofromuxo]

Here is my feedback on it. I hope this helps 

disclaimer

I haven't done HSC at all so I'm tackling this from the perspective of a Geography student. So I would get one of the mods to check the essay formatting and also someone who does Geography HSC to look at it.