It is 7am sharp as my alarm goes off. Five more minutes wouldn't hurt, I tell myself. I have to be at work by 8am but I'm not too worried - a quick get ready, a few minutes on the Skytrain, and I'll be there on time. Oh how lucky I am to live in such a convenient location in this chaotic city!
I am one of those people who consider transportation, saving time and a fascinating lifestyle as my top life priorities. I know a lot of people who find it convenient to have a house in the suburbs and another in the city. These sometime urbanites enjoy the weekend at their home in the suburbs and pass the work week in town. Cruising above or below Bangkok's traffic-choked streets on the elevated and underground electric trains, they have enough time to enjoy after-work shopping or a relaxed dinner. It's no wonder why now in Bangkok you can't help but see new high-rise office building and condominium projects shooting up almost everywhere. People are increasingly moving into this urban area. According to the Real Estate Information Centre (REIC), the amount of new housing registered in Bangkok and vicinities in the past five months has risen by 14 per cent, to 35,050 units, with condominiums accounting for 55 per cent.
Unsurprisingly, the number of Bangkok residents has been growing constantly. Major companies, elite educational institutions and leading healthcare centres all can be found within the city's borders. These of course serve as a magnet for people from every corner of Thailand in search of employment and a better life, affecting the continuous shift from country to city living we know as urbanisation.
You might be surprised to learn that despite the shaky political climate during the second quarter of this year, total domestic cement consumption remained robust, recording a growth 18 per cent growth to 7 million tonnes, up from 6 million tonnes in the same period last year. In the first six months of 2010, total demand grew more than 10 per cent to 14 million tonnes, the continuity of government spending and investor confidence serving as engines of growth. By and large, urbanisation has been good for the construction industry.
This urbanised Bangkok is expanding rapidly in all directions as you can see from the new electric train routes being built: purple line to Rat Burana and light red line to Taling Chan. Hopefully soon enough these public utilities will help us save time and energy.
Urbanisation is a major change that is taking place globally. Not only Bangkok but other large cities the world over are confronted with the same problems: high population density, inadequate transportation, traffic congestion and inadequate energy infrastructure. Unplanned development and lack of basic services give rise to poor natural-hazards management, crime and air pollution in overpopulated areas.
Most Bangkokians pass by large construction sites just between home and work each day, with new high-rise office and condominium projects having become a familiar part of the urban scenery - not to mention the seemingly never-ending mass transit and other public utility developments. We celebrate the prosperity and expansion of our city, but too often it seems that we are blind to the downside of such rapid urbanisation that I mentioned above. Yet the mistakes of the past can be avoided if we can adopt proper planning, zoning and resource allocation to address demand and supply issues for health, housing demands, water supply and community waste.