World Habitat Day being marked today

Kathmandu, Oct 7: The World Habitat Day is being celebrated today by organizing various programmes.

Since 1986, the Day has been celebrated on the first Monday of October at the call of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN Habitat).

It started to be observed throughout the world with the aim of ensuring suitable housing for everyone while promoting sustainable urban development. 

In Nepal, the government and non-government sectors have started celebrating this day since 2001, said the Department of Urban Development and Building Construction. 

According to the World Habitat Day 2081 BS main celebration committee, this year's World Habitat Day is going to be celebrated with the slogan, 'Working Youth: Prosperous City'. On the occasion, it is said that a programme will be held today under the joint aegis of the Ministry of Urban Development, the Department of Urban Development and Building Construction and UN Habitat. 

The Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 1.1 aims to achieve inclusive and sustainable urbanization.

Taking sustainable urbanization and prosperous economy as the main goal, ministries and departments have been implementing social and economic infrastructure development programmes at various local levels through intensive urban development programmes, regional urban development projects, urban corridor projects, and new city projects. 

At the same time, this year's slogan has brought forward the issue of making active young people aware of building a prosperous city. On the occasion of the day, the department said that a workshop has been organized today where experts in this field will present working papers.

On the occasion, Housing Company Limited, UN Habitat, Urban Development Fund, various municipalities have organized various programmes according to the main celebration committee. 

Based on this year's slogan, a technical session and discussion programme on various aspects of the urban economy will be organized. 

According to the National Census-2078 BS, the population of Nepal's municipalities is 66.17 percent and the contribution of this sector to the overall economy is 76.1 percent. (RSS)