By Kingsley Adegboye

NEW Towns Development Authority(NTDA), a parastatal of the Lagos State Government charged with the responsibility of creating satellite towns has expressed the determination of the government to arrest rural- urban drift which is caused by industrialization and modernization.

The General Manager of the Authority,.Arc. Adeyemi Isiba who made this known while receiving a delegation of the French Development Agency led by the Deputy Country Director, Mr. Villar Michelle at NTDA’s head office, Lagos last week said Lagos is one of the heavily congested cities in the world as a result of massive rural- urban migration.

He noted that Lagos State, with a land mass of 3,577 square kilometres has a population that is well over 20million and it is expected to reach 25million by 2015. He added that the Population Spatial Distribution of Lagos is put at ratio 70-30 and has 27.4% of the total urban population of the country.

The general manager Isiba said that given the present situation which has led to the growth of slum settlements there is urgent need to redistribute the population through the creation of complete satellite towns, a mixed development that will consist of industrial, commercial and residential areas.

According to him, the satellite towns will be serviced with basic infrastructure like drainage, road, potable water, electricity and other support services like open spaces, play ground, shopping complex and others.

The creation of such settlements, the general manager noted will enable a lot of people work, live and play in their neighbourhoods, reduce urban drift, congestion, environmental degradation, stress on infrastructure and public utilities and limit the need for transportation.

However, Isiba observed that the desire of the Lagos State Government to create a working and sustainable mega city is confronted by a myriad of challenges which include funding, a crucial challenge hampering sustainable development and the several years of neglect which he noted had created a wide gap between the present state of the environment and what is the ideal.