The Covid-19 pandemic has affected our lives in many ways, and just like the rest of the world, social and economic sectors in Kuwait suffered greatly. A tremendous impact on individuals and institutions has been seen as a result.
While the world is adapting gradually to the pandemic and we have started the gradual reopening of the economy and returning to our previous way of life, we must pause and analyze the experience that we have been through since February 2020, and draw a new trajectory for the future.
Our urban paradigm is one of the most critical aspects that needs to be reviewed and given careful consideration. We need to realize that the identification of a new urban model is crucial for ensuring future prosperity and sustainability. This Post-Pandemic Urban Paradigm should be built on seven fundamental pillars:
Leadership and administration:
The sudden occurrence of the pandemic and the measures that followed have to provide us a lesson in the importance of selecting leaders and managers based on their merit and qualifications. In times of difficulty, the state can only face challenges with a strong team of qualified, experienced, and wise leaders.
We have to put emergency plans in place, ready for implementation, and support them logistically in a way that allows our cities to face disasters of all kinds. Following the path of leading cities around the world, we have to be crisis-ready and prepared for the worst. It seems that the world is moving into a period of instability, where constant change will be the new norm.
Priority setting:
High oil revenues that we have enjoyed since our independence allowed us to follow a specific developmental path. This path formulated the urban environment in Kuwait and contributed to the creation of certain consumption habits and ways of life that have characterized the Kuwaiti and GCC citizens.
However, the pandemic and its consequences must force us to rearrange our development priorities and re-evaluate our lifestyles as individuals. The government has a more significant role in identifying a smarter spending scheme and addressing the following:
- Spending wisely and paying more attention to the long-term cost of megaprojects.
- It is time to bring the environment to the forefront of our priorities. We must address the environmental impact of urban projects and realize the high cost of urban sprawl and its consequent effects on transport and the side costs of infrastructure, energy, and water. We need to be aware of the adverse effects that this leaves on our natural environment (seas and desert) and their condition for future generations.
- Perhaps we must consider focusing on the development of existing mismanaged urban land and find better ways to wisely utilize it, rather than moving toward continued urban sprawl. It is more economically and environmentally feasible to repurpose existing neighborhoods and to additionally rehabilitate old buildings and structures to serve our emerging needs in the post-pandemic era.
Smart systems:
The pandemic has illustrated that cities that employed smart systems before the crisis benefited from these technologies to collect and analyze data and manage procedures. Thus, we must take firm steps toward equipping our urban environment with smart systems that empower our cities to utilize the latest technologies. These would manage security, public transport, emergency services, entertainment, and other services while taking into consideration the legal aspects to protect an individual’s rights and privacy.
Modern technologies and tools can improve the quality of life in cities and contribute to protecting the public during emergencies, such as:
- Provide open access sharing platforms that allow citizens to submit information that may serve decision-makers.
- Solicit community efforts to participate in solving local challenges.
- Support the digital economy as a central component, especially during the pandemic.
- Activate social media platforms to create a positive public domain, to compensate for the diminishing public spaces.
Population density and composition:
The pandemic has brought with it feelings of fear of high population densities in urban areas. Citizens have expressed concerns over a lack of resources and health services. They are increasingly worried about shanty town housing in places like Jleeb, Farwaniya, and other areas.
There have been calls for a decrease in population size and applying pressure to ex-pat workers, all the while acknowledging a real problem within the population and a high percentage of exploited unorganized workers and the spread of the illegal work contracts trade. The problem is complex and requires careful study and a proper plan that achieves high social and economic returns. Thus, we should seek to fix the quality of the population rather than merely its quantity.
The quality of homes and residential neighborhoods:
Houses and residential neighborhoods are the main components of any city; thus, they demand special attention. During the Covid-19 pandemic and the various levels of lockdown, cities should review their design and pay more attention to the quality of residential neighborhoods to ensure the welfare of its residents. It is time to focus on urban design and implement small interventions to improve local environments, such as:
- Develop local parks, children’s playgrounds, and youth sports fields.
- Build upon the success of the walking tracks within residential neighborhoods, and develop a model of linear parks that raises the quality of the tracks and the overall environment.
- To support the efforts of the Cooperative Societies, which played a critical role during the pandemic, and provided valuable services to local communities. Coops must be enabled to be engaged more in the provision of various social, commercial, and urban services, to create local independence and sufficiency within residential neighborhoods. Thus, lowering the need for travel.
Public transport:
The pandemic shocked the basis of urban services and caused significant doubt in the role of cities, high-density urban areas, and public transport.
Before the pandemic, Kuwait was suffering from severe traffic problems and a high dependency on private vehicles. The average Kuwaiti spends at least one hour a day commuting to work, and the state spends billions of dollars in road improvement and expansions, and tens of millions on annual road maintenance.
After the pandemic, it will be time to review our planning model and seek feasible alternatives. World cities are transforming and redesigning their road networks to create a better urban milieu:
- More emphasis must be given to pedestrian networks, to encourage walking, observe social distancing, and to provide the highest levels of comfort and safety for all.
- Redesign our roads to provide adequate bicycle lanes, achieve safety and comfort to encourage more use.
- Allocate special lanes for public transport (buses and taxis), to increase efficiency and encourage more use.
- Increase spending on public transport to improve their quality and fulfill health and safety requirements to attract more users of all ages and economic backgrounds.
- Encourage working from home and plan for a diversity of uses to decrease the need for travel, thus reducing traffic congestion.
Health and hygiene:
The pandemic illustrated the importance of urban health and hygiene. Kuwait Municipality spends enormously on waste collection contracts, which employs tens of thousands of laborers to keep our neighborhoods clean. However, the pandemic and its consequences must lead us to find better ways to manage waste and keep our cities clean. Aspects we should consider:
- Change of personal habits and adopting wiser practices to lower our waste and increase recycling.
- Increase fines for environmental pollution and waste.
- Encourage individuals and establishments to participate in efforts to manage waste and allocate central locations within neighborhoods and blocks to dispose of waste, which will decrease the need for laborers and trash collection trucks. This decrease will also lower the cost of waste management contracts.
- It is time to equip new neighborhoods with automated waste collection systems, which will lower the dependency on laborers and trucks while reducing the visual pollution that results from the distribution of garbage containers.
While the Covid-19 pandemic has affected almost every aspect of life, it is vital to learn lessons from it when planning for the future. The identification of a new urban model for this Post-Pandemic Urban Paradigm has been outlined in this article through seven fundamental pillars. From ensuring competent leadership to rearranging our priorities, the implementation of smart systems and fixing issues inherent to our population, ensuring the quality of our homes and residential neighborhoods, and finally providing urban health and hygiene, we can be crisis-ready during periods of instability.
