By the 1980s, the escalating environmental problems of Asia's megacities had become all too evident. Smoke-filled air, littered streets and polluted waterways were common features of urban centers, and such problems were growing unchecked. The Metropolitan Environmental Improvement Program (MEIP) was initiated in the later 1980s by the World Bank and UNDP to help urban centers in East and South Asia address these mounting environmental concerns. MEIP aimed to look at the relationship between natural environmental systems and urban areas.