Rapid Urbanization

: Urbanization is causing rapid increase in population. Increase in population is cuasing stress over existing resources. When there is stress over resources the price of resources will increase. This will not have any effect on rich as they will be able to afford it, but the poor will become more deprived of resources. This will increase the gap between rich and poor.

To reduce this the poor and lower income groups must be brought into the mainstream in cities. Regulations intended to manage densities and discourage migration both limit the supply of land and require many households to consume more land than they would choose. This drives urban sprawl and pushes up the price of land and the cost of service delivery for all. High standards

The filth and infrastructural degradation that have over taken Onitsha is as a result of poor urban planning. The failure of land sub-division and servicing programmes to keep pace with rapid urban growth has led to wide spread illegal and informal developments, hence the growth of squatter settlements or slum areas, for instance, the housing clusters at Okpoko, Fegge, Woliwo, Odoapku. Etc. According to Elekwa (1991), many development projects carried out in these areas were without regard to the environment and this poses potential health problems and other hazards such as flooding, congestion, confusion etc. This has hindered the extension of not only of water, electricity and solid waste collection services, but also adequate sanitation arrangements and road networks to such areas. Related to the deficiencies in infrastructure provision and waste management, environmental problems in Onitsha also arise from the inability of public sector authorities like the Onitsha Town Planning Authority and the Onitsha Local Government councils to enforce regulations governing land development, industrial emissions etc. Onibokun (1999:7) adduced reasons for their inability to include; “poor critical assumption in population projections which have often been extremely weak, and the inability of

This has been confirmed through the works of many urban researchers like Burgess and McKenzie (1925) on American cities, particularly Chicago; Mabogunje (1968) on Lagos: Ayeni (1968) on Jos; Frishman (1977) on Kano; Olaore (1981) on Kaduna; Okpala (1981) on Enugu and Onitsha. Most of those studies show that urban areas are of enormous political, social, economic and cultural importance in numerous places in which they are