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Liz Gilbert, Courtesy of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation

Table of Contents

• Editors' Summary
• Credits

1. An Urban Future
2. The Urban Poor
3. Pollution and Health
4. Impact on the Environment
5. Making Urban Areas Work

• Figures
• Tables
• Side-bars
• Bibliography

• Developing countries face fastest urban growth
• Why urban areas are growing
• The poor have greatest health risks
• Heavy ecological footprints
• Improving urban governance
• Assuring water and sanitation
• Mumbai cleans up

• POPLINE
• Media/Materials Clearinghouse
• Other issues
• To order copies
• CCP Home Page

Published by the Population Information Program, Center for Communication Programs, The Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, 111 Market Place, Suite 310, Baltimore, Maryland 21202, USA

Meeting the
           Urban Challenge

Every week urban areas gain another one million people. Within four years half of the world’s population will live in urban areas. How governments and communities meet the concurrent challenges of rapid urbanization, poverty, development, and protection of the natural environment will largely determine the world’s future.

In the future, nearly all population growth worldwide will take place in urban areas of developing countries. By 2015, the UN projects, there will be 21 “megacities” of at least 10 million people—all but 4 in developing countries. While big cities attract attention, most of the world’s urban population lives in smaller settlements.

Urban areas in developing countries are at the crux of the struggle to achieve better living standards. Worldwide, urban areas large and small have become engines for economic growth in the global economy as well as centers of diversity and change. Yet, facing rapid population growth, rising poverty levels, and often inadequate public institutions, many urban areas are hard pressed to provide infrastructure, housing, services, and opportunities. If they are not able to meet people’s needs, poverty and hopelessness will increase.

How can conditions improve for the growing millions of urban residents? Meeting the challenges posed by rapid urbanization will be as important to the future as addressing rapid population growth itself has been in the past half century.

The developing world as a whole has been predominantly rural but rapidly is becoming urban. In 1975 only 27% of people in the developing world lived in urban areas. In 2000 the proportion was 40%, and projections suggest that by 2030 the developing world will be 56% urban. Although the developed world is already far more urban, at an estimated 75% in 2000, urban areas of developing countries are growing much faster, and their populations are larger.

Rapid urban growth reflects migration of people to cities as well as natural population increase among urban residents. Rural areas have virtually stopped gaining population. Among regions as a whole, only in sub-Saharan Africa and Oceania will rural populations grow at all in the future.

Growing urban poverty is a major concern. About 30% of the poor now live in urban areas. By 2035 the proportion is projected to reach 50%. Most of the urban poor live in slums and squatter settlements, without adequate access to clean water, sanitation, and health care. While health and child survival rates are better in urban than rural areas on average, they often are worse for the poor than for other urban residents.

Pollution of the water and air endangers the health of urban residents, causes chronic illnesses, and kills millions. Many municipalities cannot keep up with the soaring demand for water. Where access to clean water is scarce, sanitation is poor, contributing to a variety of water-related diseases.

As urban areas grow in population, they expand outward as well as upward, often overwhelming the natural environment and destroying ecosystems. Urban areas in developed countries, where consumption levels per capita are much higher than in developing countries, have a greater impact on the environment. But rapid urban expansion, rising consumption levels, and unplanned growth of many cities in developing countries also strain the natural resource base.

Many urban settlements face a crisis. Their populations are growing so fast that local economies, public services, and infrastructures cannot keep up. Rapid population growth can make it ever harder to improve urban conditions. Thus slower growth would ease pressures and buy time to act effectively.

Better local governance is key to meeting urban challenges. Shifting authority from central governments to municipalities can help make policies, plans, and actions more responsive, especially to the urban poor. Donors and international agencies can focus more on strengthening institutional capabilities needed to meet the challenges of rapid urban growth. Urban planning can do more to address such interrelated issues as land use, slum upgrading, improved water supply, sanitation, waste management, and more efficient transportation.