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And the world's largest city by a wide margin is among the most successful. The Tokyo area has squeezed in 27 million people without a collapse of civil order or environmental quality. In fact, air standards have improved over the past two decades, largely because auto emissions have been curbed by the use of antipollution technology and public transportation. Much of the train service is built and operated by private companies-- an example of how Tokyo turns some city services over to free enterprise. Communities in Tokyo adopted the same strategy to encourage trash recycling, finding that private contractors often do a better job for less money than municipal departments. Although suburban sprawl is a destroyer of natural habitats, the concentration of population in central cities produces efficiencies that can reduce humanity's impact on the planet's land and other resources. The trick is to keep human congestion from becoming unbearable, and that requires more ingenuity than money. There are ways of curbing auto traffic, for example, besides building a costly subway system. So Paulo is creating 300 km of bicycle lanes, and Dhaka has slashed tariffs on bus imports. Cities are focusing more than ever on improving their livability. But while projects like Shanghai's $1 billion beautification plan--including a scheme to plant a "green belt" of trees around the city--are important, more crucial are initiatives to address threats to health. The World Bank says that the lives of 2 million children could be saved from diarrheal illnesses each year if everyone had access to clean water. Some of the most promising programs reach down to the grass-roots level. Workers with the famed Orangi Pilot Project in Karachi canvassed each household in one of the city's poorest neighborhoods to persuade people to help themselves. Lane by lane, beginning in 1980, residents invested about $40 a household to build a new sewage system. It now serves nearly 80% of the area. Such an effort encourages other progress: 90% of children in families taking part in one of the Orangi programs have been immunized against diseases. According to legend, Karachi is named for a fisherwoman, Kolachi, who bore seven sons. The youngest son couldn't walk or swim, but he saved his brothers from a crocodile by floating out to sea in a cage and slaying the beast. Karachi's citizens are showing some of that same resourcefulness today. What the Orangi Project demonstrates is that the bane of megacities--having so many people--is also their great-est hope for the future. The teeming energy that creates problems for giant cities may ultimately solve them. --Reported by Hannah Bloch/Karachi, Daniel Dombey/Mexico City, Ken Hijino/Tokyo, Farid Hossain/Dhaka, Michael Kepp/Rio de Janeiro, David Liebhold/Jakarta, Tim McGirk/ New Delhi, Maseeh Rahman/ Bombay and Mia Turner/ Beijing
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