At the present time, an increasing number of people are moving from rural areas to urban areas in order to find a better life, yet meanwhile, city life has its own issues. In this essay, I will analyse some relevant problems and suggest some solutions as well.
It is obvious that issues in cities are complicated. Firstly, the large population in cities has led to housing shortages. For instance, in many big cities, a large number of people have to live in suburbs because the rent is too high in the city. As a result, these people must commute to the city to work every day, which leads to the second problem – traffic congestion. Indeed, traffic jams have become a major concern in so many cities around the world. Take Shanghai as an example. If someone wants to drive from the eastern side to the western side in Shanghai, they may spend six or seven hours on the road because of traffic congestion. The third problem is pollution. It seems that air pollution and water pollution are more severe in cities than in rural areas, and research has proved that overcrowded cities suffer from these issues even more because of the large population.
Accordingly, the solutions to the aforementioned issues should also be varied. First and foremost, the government should supply cheaper urban housing so that workers can afford to live in cities. For example, Australian cities such as Adelaide and Perth have government housing in city centres in order to support low-income families. Then, the government needs to improve transport infrastructure and manage the volume of traffic. This is due to the consideration that there are always many commuters every day. Above all, city dwellers must raise their awareness about how to protect the environment and live in a sustainable way. That means everyone has to help cities to address this problem before the damage caused by this trend becomes irreversible.
To summarise, several problems are caused by the increasing population in urban areas. I believe that we should take measures including providing affordable housing in cities, improving transport infrastructure and raising public awareness about an eco-friendly lifestyle to solve those disturbing issues.