Cities
“When infrastructure and services are lacking, urban areas lacking water infrastructure are among the world’s most life threatening environments”, says the report. According to a survey of 116 cities, urban areas in Africa are the worst served, with only 18 per cent of households connected to sewers. The connection rate in Asia is just over 40 per cent.
“The poor of these cities are the first victims of sanitation-related disease, flooding and even a rising rate of water-borne disease like malaria, which is now among the main causes of illness and death in many urban areas”, says the report. In South Asia, for example, the Anopheles stephensi mosquito has actually adapted its breeding habits around the ubiquitous rooftop water storage tankers.
“From a public health perspective”, says the report, “it is better to provide a whole city’s population with safe supplies to taps within 50 metres of their home than to provide only the richest 20 per cent of households with water piped to their home”.
The report also outlines several reasons why cities and towns should take priority over rural areas when choices must be made. First, the unit costs of the required infrastructure are lower because urban areas provide significant economies of scale and proximity. Secondly, many cities have a more prosperous economic base than rural areas, providing greater possibilities to raise revenues for water provision. Thirdly, “urban areas concentrate not only people and enterprises but also their wastes”.
“When infrastructure and services are lacking, urban areas lacking water infrastructure are among the world’s most life threatening environments”, says the report. According to a survey of 116 cities, urban areas in Africa are the worst served, with only 18 per cent of households connected to sewers. The connection rate in Asia is just over 40 per cent.
“The poor of these cities are the first victims of sanitation-related disease, flooding and even a rising rate of water-borne disease like malaria, which is now among the main causes of illness and death in many urban areas”, says the report. In South Asia, for example, the Anopheles stephensi mosquito has actually adapted its breeding habits around the ubiquitous rooftop water storage tankers.
“From a public health perspective”, says the report, “it is better to provide a whole city’s population with safe supplies to taps within 50 metres of their home than to provide only the richest 20 per cent of households with water piped to their home”.
The report also outlines several reasons why cities and towns should take priority over rural areas when choices must be made. First, the unit costs of the required infrastructure are lower because urban areas provide significant economies of scale and proximity. Secondly, many cities have a more prosperous economic base than rural areas, providing greater possibilities to raise revenues for water provision. Thirdly, “urban areas concentrate not only people and enterprises but also their wastes”.