Water is Urbanization

Every week, one million people move into cities. 

Today, one in two people on the planet live in a city. And the world's cities are growing at an exceptional rate – 4 people moved to cities in the time it took you to read this sentence. 93% of the urbanization occurs in poor or developing countries, and nearly 40% of the world's urban expansion is growing slums. Projections show that another 2.5 billion people will move to urban centres by 2050.

The 2014 report of “World Urbanization Prospects” by UN DESA’s Population Division notes that the largest urban growth will take place in India, China and Nigeria.

“Managing urban areas has become one of the most important development challenges of the 21st century. Our success or failure in building sustainable cities will be a major factor in the success of the post-2015 UN development agenda,” said John Wilmoth, Director of UN DESA’s Population Division.

Thousands of kilometres of pipes make up each city’s water infrastructure. Many antiquated systems waste more freshwater than they deliver. In many fast-growing cities (small and medium-sized cities with populations of less than 500,000), wastewater infrastructure is non-existent, inadequate or outdated.

Water World Day 2015: Water is Urbanization