UN-Habitat to help Mérida with urban sprawl and contamination

MÉRIDA — Mayor Mauricio Vila led an event in which UN-Habitat presented to Mérida the City Prosperity Initiative (CPI), a global initiative that enables city authorities to identify opportunities and potential areas of intervention for their cities to become more prosperous. The initiative is based on a multidimensional and scientific measurement divided in six dimensions: Productivity; Infrastructure; Quality of Life; Equity and Inclusion; Environmental Sustainability, and Governance and Legislation.

This achievement is the result of an agreement made in November 2016 between the Municipality of Mérida with ONU-Habitat, through the Municipal Institute of Urban Planning (IMPLAN). This instrument makes it possible to understand, analyze, plan, take action and observe the effects of public policies on Merida, as well as measuring the sustainable development of cities, and allow municipal authorities and other stakeholders to identify improvement opportunities and create new public policies.

Pablo Vaggione, UN-HABITAT Coordinator for Mexico and Cuba, stated that Mérida is the first city in the country where this diagnosis is being developed in its extended version as a tool to measure urban reality. Likewise, he presented a numerical data compilation and mentioned that these actions reflect a genuine interest in Merida’s future.

The information provided by the CPI indicated that urban sprawl and groundwater contamination are areas that need to be urgently addressed. He emphasized that the IMPLAN should play a fundamental role in mitigating the urban sprawl model and, that in order to meet the Municipal Development Plan’s objectives, an operational plan is required. “Measurement is a starting point to generate a policy dialogue,” he stated, adding that the CPI is not a ranking.

Vaggione said that the next step after the introduction of the City Prosperity Initiative, is a concrete operational plan presentation in November 2017, which will definitely have a positive impact on the city. At the same time, Luis Herrera Favela, UN-Habitat Coordinator of projects in Mexico, considered that the way in which the City Council integrates its Urban Development Planning was adequate, since in order to debate all the projects for Mérida’s future, it takes into account the different sectors of the citizenship.

SOURCE: Reporteros Hoy