Green Hills, Blue Cities
URBANISATION – WATER – ECOSYSTEMS NEXUS
There are 1 billion people in Africa of whom 400 million live in urban areas. With 40 per cent of the population living in urban areas, Africa is the least urbanised region in the world (UN-HABITAT 2010).
As centres of economic activity, innovation and development, Africa’s urban areas are expanding rapidly, growing at a world annual fastest rate of 3.5 per cent (UNEP 2006). At this growth rate the urban population doubled from 205 million in 1990 to
400 million in 2010, and is projected to triple to 1.23 billion by 2050 (UN Population revision 2009). It is expected that by 2030 the proportion of people living in Africa’s urban areas will be 50 per cent and reach 60 per cent by 2050 (UN-HABITAT 2010).
Abuja
Urban growth rate in Africa
Current and projected urban population growth for selected cities for the periods 1995-2010 and 2010-2025 Percentage
Ouagadougou
300
250
Alexandria
Niamey
Casablanca
Algiers
Khartoum
Fes
200
Kampala
Kano
Tripoli
Nairobi
Cairo
Addis Ababa
150
Mogadishu
Dakar
Bamako
Conakry
100
Harare
Lomé
Abidjan
Douala
Benin City
Kumasi
Mombasa
Yaoundé
Accra
Kinshasa
1995-2010
Lagos
Mbuji-Mayi
Dar es Salaam
Brazaville
Luanda
Ogbomosho
50
Lubumbashi
Ibadan
2010-2025
Kaduna
Antananarivo
Johannesburg
Maputo
0
Ekurhuleni Durban
Cape Town
Source: UNDESA, The World Urbanisation Prospects, The 2009 Revision , 2010.
Port Elizabeth
Pretoria
Figure 1: Africa’s urban centres are currently growing at an annual rate that is the fastest compared to other regions. The urban expansion is expected to continue, with cities like Abuja and Ouagadougou expecting very high growth in the next decade, while Cairo, Africa’s largest city, is projected to see a comparatively lower growth rate.
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