African Water Development Report 2006 - United Nations Economic ...

Setback: Most water supply networks in Africaare still not digitized to take advantage of fast,computer-oriented analyses on the state andfunction of the systems.The intricate Situation of Urban SlumsTarget 11 of Millennium Development Goal 7 – to“significantly improve” the lives of at least 100 millionslum dwellers by the year 2020The world’s slums are growing, with the numberof people living in such dire conditions now atthe 1 billion mark – making up 32 per cent ofthe global urban population. A report publishedin September, 2005 entitled, “The Challenge ofSlums” (Habitat Debate, Sept. 2005), says thecrisis is such that the world will see this figuredouble in the next 30 years unless a concertedeffort is undertaken to alleviate the situation.“The locus of global poverty is moving to cities,a process now recognized as the urbanisation ofpoverty,” says United Nations Secretary-GeneralKofi Annan, in a Foreword to the Report.“Without concerted action on the part of themunicipal authorities, national Governments,civil society actors and the international community,the number of slum dwellers is likely toincrease in most developing countries. And ifno serious action is taken, the number of slumdwellers worldwide is projected to rise over thenext 30 years to about 2 billion.” In developingregions, slum dwellers account for 43 per cent ofthe population in contrast to about 6 per cent inWATER AND URBAN ENVIRONMENTSTable 7.8 Urbanization and urban poverty in AfricaCountry/SubregionPercentage of the population below Urbanizationrate inthe national poverty lineNORTH AFRICA Year Total Rural Urban year 2005Algeria 1998 12.2 16.6 7.3 50.4Egypt 1996 22.9 23.3 22.5 60.0Mauritania 2000 46.3 61.2 25.4 64.3Morocco 1999 19 27.2 12 58.8Tunisia 1995 7.6 13.9 3.6 64.4WEST AFRICABurkina Faso 1998 45.3 51 16.5 18.6Gambia 1998 .. 61 48 26.1Ghana 1998 39.5 49.9 18.6 46.3Mali 1998 63.8 75.9 30.1 33.7Niger 1993 63 66 52 23,3Nigeria 1993 34.1 36.4 30.4 48.3CENTRAL AFRICACameroon 2001 40.2 49.9 22.10 52.9Chad 1996 64 67 63 25.8EAST AFRICAEthiopia 2000 44.2 45 37 16.2Kenya 1997 52 53 49 41.6Madagascar 1999 71.3 76.7 52.1 27.0SOUTHERN AFRICAMozambique 1997 69.4 71.3 62 38.0Zambia 1998 72.9 83.1 56 36.5Zimbabwe 1996 34.9 48 7.9 35.9Source: Hassan Y., 2005 (World Bank Africa Database 2004)175