It is time to undertake without further delay the identification of emerging cities, design plans and execute projects aimed at developing cities to make them more comfortable, humane and attractive. We must take action to be able to face and mitigate the effects of global warming and greenhouse gases.
CITIES AND THEIR UNCERTAIN DESTINATIONS
Nature awarded Latin America with immense natural resources for the enjoyment and well-being of its citizens, but unfortunately we Citizens have not been responsible enough to preserve future generations worthy and attractive cities to live.
Many cities in our Latin American countries have grown in a disorderly way, without planning and without a vision of the future that leads citizens and especially governments to focus on creating the necessary projects to develop, condition, beautify and convert the Safe cities to live in, with spaces for the enjoyment and sharing of its citizens, with better quality of air, soil and public services that contribute to the best quality of life.
For a long time we have been blind, deaf and dumb in the face of this reality, our grandchildren and great-grandchildren and future generations, if we follow this trend, we will be giving them unlivable cities, with deficiencies and many social, urban and environmental problems. It is urgent that we become aware of and begin to reverse this trend of indifference, carefreeness and apathy, build the city of the future that we want to leave behind the legacy of generations to come and contribute to the improvement of cities and the quality of life of citizens..
YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE
Citizen participation in the development, improvement and sustainable maintenance of the Quality of life of cities is fundamental and essential, and demands their prompt action to correct and reverse the effects that citizens have consciously or unconsciously been causing to the environment and therefore deteriorating the current and future quality of the cities.
The quality of life of cities has to do fundamentally with the quality of their environment (coverage of the distribution and supply of drinking water, disposal of solid waste, quality of water bodies such as rivers and lagoons, quality of soils, air quality and the control of greenhouse gas emissions produced by motor vehicles, factories and industries), the quality of public spaces for recreation and sharing of its citizens, with citizen security, quality of streets and pedestrian areas, and with the capacity of municipalities and parishes to invest in city improvement projects.
Every citizen can make a difference in their municipalities, parishes and cities through their participation in community organizations, professionals and NGOs to:
- Promote studies and projects aimed at diagnosing, identifying and correcting the environmental, urban and fiscal problems that cities present. Participate in the formulation of Plans to Improve the quality of life of cities through the presentation of projects. Exercise citizen control through surveillance and auditing of city improvement projects to ensure projects are successfully executed. Promote the continuous maintenance of the works resulting from the projects to ensure sustainability.
However, there is a very important factor where each of the citizens plays a fundamental role regardless of their social and economic condition, and which greatly affects the quality of the cities.
This factor has to do with the cultural, attitudinal and educational patterns that define citizen behavior. Caring for and maintaining the city, its clean and conserved spaces depends on the behavior and attitude of the citizens.
The principles and values associated with the preservation of the city in schools and homes need to be strengthened day by day to contribute to having better citizens. It is not enough that there are crews continuously maintaining parks, forests, streets, etc. if citizens throw garbage on the streets, rivers and lagoons.
The companies and industries have a great social responsibility that they must assume immediately through the contribution to reduce greenhouse gases produced by factories and industries.
By assuming our individual citizen responsibility and participating actively in environmental conservation, promoting city improvement projects, and exercising citizen control in project auditing, we can make a valuable difference that contributes to a better quality of life and develop sustainable cities.
