Vietnam has been developing urban areas by crowding our country with buildings and reducing the amount of space we have for greenery, transportation and social services. We wouldn't call that "development" at all.
"The quality of urban development is getting worse as urban research, planning and management stages have all failed to allocate enough land for public works. This has been especially true in urban areas developed over the past ten years," Tran Trung Chinh from the Institute of Urban Research and Development said at a conference last Friday.
Nguyen Duc Truyen from the Institute of Sociology said in 2008 that the capital had only 17 theaters, 10 cinemas, 10 museums and 15 libraries. "This is too little social space for Hanoi's population," he said.
Chinh said public land and public construction projects faced the risk of privatization. State-owned buildings have been rented out to private firms, markets turned into supermarkets, hotels built on public parks and lakes filled for commercial purposes.
And local residents are also guilty of building on river banks and over public sidewalks.
Tran Ngoc Hung, chairman of the Vietnam Federation of Civil Engineering Association, said the overdevelopment of local city wards and even small street corners had robbed residents of their public space.
Hung blamed city authorities for licensing too many office buildings, houses and supermarkets in downtown areas.
Professor Nguyen Hong Thuc from the University of Architecture said the most frightening trend was how common it had become to build apartment buildings on farmland.
More than 700 new urban areas have been built nationwide over the past several years, but Thuc said almost none of them had allowed enough place for public markets, schools, parks, sports grounds, administrative offices, medical centers and social facilities.
People seeking these services and facilities now travel to old urban areas, causing more traffic problems.
Meanwhile, Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Hieu from the National Academy of Public Administration said public land in and around new apartment buildings was lacking.
New buildings encroaching on public land are worsening traffic jams and blocking drainage systems, adding to city flooding every time it rains.
If we don't pay more attention to securing enough public space for our populace, our lust for building will one day bring sadly into plain view the degeneracy of our "urban development" programs.
Reported by Quang Duan
