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WATERRESOURCESMANAGEMENT
OPTIONSFORSUSTAINABLECITIES
growth, changes in lifestyles and economic growth. Countries
continue to urbanise, and the search for cost effective and
sustainable water solutions is becoming more important.
Good infrastructure may facilitate accessibility to clean
water and sanitation services, but inadequate planning and
ecosystems degradation often result in a mismatch between
service delivery and demand.
Provision of safe drinking water is hampered by increasing
levels of pollution, resulting in water delivered by some cities
failing to meet the standards for potable water recommended
by the World Health Organization (WHO).
9
In order to meet international targets set out under the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) (especially goal
7 on Environmental Sustainability
10
), cities are required to
build water supply and sanitation infrastructure, as well as to
prevent current and future infrastructure from collapsing due
to inadequate institutional arrangements, insufficient cost
recovery, and poor operation and maintenance. In addition, the
water and sanitation delivery have to be sustainable, implying
the need to incorporate environmental considerations in
planning and managing urban water.
By recognising the right to safe and clean drinking water and
sanitation as a human right, the United Nations challenges
countries to not only work towards meeting water-related
targets under the MDGs, but also to ensure that the pace of
urbanisation moves in tandem with the supply of safe drinking
water and sanitation.
GLOBAL INITIATIVES SUPPORTING
URBANISATION, WATER AND ECOSYSTEMS
The demand for clean water and sanitation services is
increasing for Africa’s urban areas in response to population
Figure 10:
Improved water sources, defined as “one that is
protected from outside contamination” (WHO/UNICEF 2010),
is essential for ensuring the health of Africa’s urban dwellers.
Although an increasing number of people have access to
improved water, rapid urban population growth in the region has
equally increased the number of people without proper access.
Urban population
Population with access
to improved water sources
1990
1995
2000
2005
2008
Access to water in urban Africa
Million people
Source:WHO-UNICEF,A Snapshot of Drinking Water and Sanitation in Africa
, 2010.
100
0
200
300
400
500
9. Potability is determined by physical and chemical factors, and by the
contents of toxic substances in water. Details can be found in the WHO
monograph, International Standards for Drinking Water.
10. Goal 7 of the MDGs includes target 7c which sets out to ‘halve, by 2015, the
proportion of the population without sustainable access to safe drinking water
and basic sanitation’, and target 7d which aims to ‘by 2020, have achieved a
significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum-dwellers’.