World Cities Day

The United Nations General Assembly has designated the 31st of October as “World Cities Day”. Under over-arching theme of Better City, Better Life, this year the focus will be on “Valuing Our Communities and Cities”.

Aim of the day is to focus international community’s attention on urbanization as a central issue for development and to promote cooperation among countries in addressing urban challenges towards building sustainable development. To commemorate the United Nations “World Cities Day”, on 29 October 2020 COMSATS Centre for Climate and Sustainability (CCCS) was jointly hosting a webinar on “Challenges of Rapid Urbanization in the Global South” in cooperation with its partner institution the Tanzania Industrial Research and Development Organization (TIRDO).

The webinar focused on key issues of urbanization facing countries in the Global South. The webinar brought together experts from the Global South to identify challenges of building sustainable urbanization and propose solutions in areas of health, access to clean drinking water, poor drainage system, air pollution, solid waste management, carbon emissions and environmental degradation. At the webinar, associate Professor of UNESCO Chair in Sustainable Development al-Farabi Kazakh National University B. Yedilbayev delivered a presentation on the topic “Issues of city transport road ecology”.