Importance of Infrastructure

What makes a city, a city? The people of course;but without infrastructure will these people be in this place termed "a city"? The infrastructure makes a city more valuable, a place where progressive humans will be attracted to inhabit. The quality of infrastructure in a sense will decide whether that place is satisfactory or deficient to reside or even pursue any endeavours such as employment.

The infrastructure of a city represents the physical demeanor of the city life. Some of these are transportation, utility systems as well as the buildings of course. You can find two types of infrastructure in cities which are known as the "hard infrastructure"  as well as the "soft infrastructure". The hard infrastructure entails of a number substantial physical networks whereas soft infrastructure refers to the associations that maintain populations within a city in terms of culture, social standards, health and economic influences.

Infrastructure is very important for the citizens that occupy the city or those who visit the city. It is vital to the farmers that toll in the hot Tropical sun to know that there are paved roads to transport their goods to the city's markets as well as it is important for a mother to know that the water that their child is consuming is clean. " Failure to invest means failure to grow and develop our social and economic fabric - we  all have a stake in this."

Infrastructure more so developed and upgraded infrastructure is very important as it allows the economy of a whole country to grow. A short fall of competent infrastructure can create a barrier in the economy. An example can be the need for clean water. If a country does not provide clean portable water for its citizens then they can become ill with water borne diseases such E.coli which in turn will make sick individuals incompetent to work hence reducing the productivity of the work force. In addition the government will have to spend money into medication to help relieve the case where they can use this money to invest in another economic sector of the country if they initially started to provide clean supply of water to their nation to avoid this mishap.

In this blog post, The Twin Towers also known as Eric Williams Plaza after one of our fore fathers of Trinidad and Tobago is displayed. The reason being is it is a representation of country's development. A representation of where we are currently and where we can be if proper innovation is being done by our government and private investors. You can see how it overlooks the newly developed Water Front Project by the Hyatt Regency Hotel. Infrastructure is such a foundational piece to everything that we know of in obtaining a better quality of life. We should not take this for granted. When we wake up and turn on the tap to brush our teeth, you get water,when you turn on the lights, you consume energy. Without infrastructure this is impossible.

Twin Towers, Port of Spain
Trinidad and Tobago
Photograph: Nicola Mathura and Dianne Mahabir

References:

Threlfall, R. (2010, October 29). The importance of infrastructure investment. BBC News. Retrieved April 01, 2016, from http://www.bbc.com/news/business-11642433