African countries urged to move away from building "big highways

Professor Thomas Elmqvist, Natural Resource Management, Stockholm University on Wednesday advised African countries to move away from building “big” highways, arguing that it is not a smart way to development.

He said such highways lock themselves into the old type development theories.

Prof Elmqvist gave the advice during an interaction with the media in Stockholm at the sidelines of an International Conference on Environment and Sustainable City Planning.

He described big highways as resource consuming and very expensive and urged African countries to rather consider sustainable transport systems.

Prof Elmqvist urged city planners in Africa to develop cluster of residents where all residential areas were provided with all social amenities, so that they live and do business in their areas to cut down on transportation.

He also suggested the need to encourage people to either use public transport or bicycles to conserve energy and reduce traffic in the cities.

Prof Elmqvist said, sustainable transport system was the way to go now and challenged city planners to be innovative and ensure urban sustainability.

He said trees and green vegetation could be used to cool the environment so that people could walk and interact with nature.**