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

African Water Development Report 2006more developed regions. The proportion of urbanresidents in slums is highest in sub-Saharan Africaand estimated at 71.9 per cent. The world’srural population has reached its peak, and almostall further population growth will be absorbedby urban settlements – a critical situation recognizedby very few Governments, cities and otheragencies. (UN-HABITAT’s Global Report onHuman Settlements 2003).The impact of rapid urbanization on housingin Africa is manifested in increasing demandfor decent shelter. The inability to meet this demandis reflected in the spreading of slums insideand in the vicinity of cities. According to theUN-HABITAT (2003) about 188 million slumdwellers lived in African cities in 2001. The greatmajority of them (166 million) lived in sub-SaharanAfrica. As a percentage of the urban population,slum dwellers constituted about 72 percent in SSA and 28 per cent in northern Africain 2001. Slums in Africa grew at an annual rateof about 4.5 per cent during 1990-2001. Withsuch a high rate, and unless action is taken, Africancities will experience slums’ population explosion(Hassan Y., 2005).More than half of the urban inhabitants in Mozambique,Chad, Zambia, the Niger and Madagascarare living below the national poverty line(table 7.8). This suggests that poverty is higher inthe cities of sub-Saharan Africa than in NorthernAfrica. In view of rapid urbanization andlow income levels, urban poverty might actuallybe much higher than the rates shown in table7.8. Therefore, addressing the urban challenges,such as developing urban-based social services,including health, education, electricity, water andtransport, and upgrading slums is important forpoverty alleviation in Africa (Hassan Y., 2005;Saches et al 2004).The Global Urban Observatory of UN-HABI-TAT estimates that unless radical action is takenby Governments in sub-Saran Africa, the urbanslum population would be doubled from about199 million in 2005 to 393 million in 2020(Habitat Debate, Sept 2005). Table 7.9 showsthe estimated urban slum population growth invarious regions of the developing world.The problem of water supply and sanitation facilitiesfor the urban poor is very complex. Firstand foremost, a distinction must be made betweenurban centres with declining water distributionsystems due to inadequate, aging andoverloaded networks and the issue of peri-urbandwellers. There is an obvious connection betweenthe two. It is precisely the lack of such socialamenities as water and electricity that drives thepoor urban and rural youth to the larger, relativelyprosperous urban centres for illusive jobopportunities and better living conditions. At itsinitial stages, Governments, in an attempt to discouragesuch influx of people, either disregardedthe phenomenon or intentionally refused to caterfor their needs. These urban settlements aretherefore devoid of any planning schemes. It is inthis unplanned physical environment that waterservice providers are being called upon to supplywater and sanitation amenities. For such anexercise not to fall into the usual trap of ad hocinterventions, there should be the political willto recognise these areas as part of the urban setup and hence initiate urgently needed physicaland urban planning arrangements.The level of unaccounted-for-water in most ofthe water supply distribution systems is veryhigh in almost all urban centres in Africa, at bestaround 50 per cent. This loss has two components:the physical water losses and the non-revenuelosses. The service providers can thereforeextend services to the outlying peripheries wheremost of the urban poor reside by recovering theunaccounted for water and revenue. This task hasbecome arduous in many countries due to lackof capital investment for modernization of thedistribution network and for an effective meteringsystem.The urban poor population must not be consideredas a static homogeneous social entity since itcomprises people of different social groups. What176