Urban Planning for City Leaders - Cities Alliance

Urban planning for city leadersAddress water challengesUnderstand thedimensions of the waterchallengeWater is scarce and sources are far fromcities. Water plays a vital role in publichealth, economic growth and environmentalsustainability but only about 0.01 per centof the Earth’s water is usable. 66 The principalsources of water for human use, lakes, rivers,soil moisture and relatively shallow groundwaterbasins, are unevenly distributed and, in general,are far from urban areas. About 36 per cent ofthe world’s population, or 2.4 billion people, livein water-scarce regions 67 and 52 per cent willexperience severe water scarcity by 2050.Urban access to water supply is limited.In 2010, about 884 million people did nothave access to a piped water supply or toa safe water source. This is an issue thathinders the growth of cities such as Maputoin Mozambique, where almost 20 per cent ofits 1.3 million people had no access to potablewater in 2003, and megacities such as Jakarta,where about half of its 10 million inhabitantshad no access in 2007. 68The World HealthOrganization estimates thatgood health and cleanlinessrequires a daily supply ofabout 30 litres of water perperson.Water availabilityBy sub-region in 2000 (1,000m 3 per capita/year)< 1.0 catastrophically low1.0 to 2.0 very low2.0 to 5.0 low5.0 to 10.0 medium10.0 to 20.0 high> 0.0 very highSource: Compiled from UNDP, UNEP, World Bank and WRI 2000 and United Nations Population Division 200170