More water for our cities

Abstract

Millions of people in Africa live in informal areas or slums. Today, one out of every two people lives in a town or city. This year’s World Water Day, celebrated on 22 March, focused on the challenges of providing water and sanitation to urban residents. Across the world, urbanisation (meaning the growth of towns and cities) has been associated with improved human development, rising incomes and better living standards. People move to cities for all sorts of reasons: they might get better housing or better jobs, or may have access to the kind of infrastructure and education that is not available in rural areas. However, with growing cities also comes growing problems. As far as water and sanitation is concerned the greater concentration of people can make it easier to provide services, however, more people also means more pollution. Cities require large volumes of freshwater and, in turn, have a huge impact on freshwater sources. In Africa, nearly 40% of people live in towns and cities. African cities are growing faster than any other in the world.

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