Resource information
Most of the world's population now
lives in urban areas, and in developing regions the
proportion living in cities and towns has risen from 35
percent in 1990 to 45 percent in 2010, from 1.4 billion to
2.5 billion people (Jacobsen et al. 2012). A 2008 World Bank
analysis estimated that a third of people living on less
than US$2 per day reside in urban areas, and United Nation
or UN-habitat estimates that just under 40 percent of urban
dwellers live in slums, a number that is growing by more
than 20 million per year (Baker 2008). These disparities
highlight a pressing need to address the urban sanitation
challenge comprehensively, with emphasis on including slum
dwellers and poor communities that have typically been
neglected. Without concerted intervention, the prospects of
cholera, diarrhea, and worm infections will increase,
jeopardizing education, productivity, and the quality of
life for all urban dwellers. Although this overview of urban
sanitation has shown that the current situation is far from
ideal, and that widespread improvements will not occur at
the present rate of progress, it also identifies initiatives
that have potential for wider replication. There is no
'silver bullet' that will deliver improved
sanitation to the developing world's burgeoning cities,
and some key technical issues remain to be resolved, but
much can be achieved by applying what is already known and
proven in practice.
