What Next?

Sadly, today will be last post and will therefore aim to conclude the eye-opening topic of water and sanitation quality.

Many people are already aware that water distribution is uneven globally. However, many people do not know, that it is also uneven on a smaller scale, within regions. Particularly in megacities, extreme ends of the spectrum of water supply tend to mean that when an average is taken, inequality is unaccounted for.

Constative, an Internet based news and information website, claim that the following are the top ten most developed African cities:

1. Cape Town, South Africa
2. Abuja, Nigeria
3. Johannesburg, South Africa
4. Gaborone, Botswana
5. Nairobi, Kenya
6. Lagos, Nigeria
7. Addis Abba, Ethiopia
8. Tunis, Tunisia
9. Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
10. Abidjan, Ivory Coast

From my research, I know that parts of these cities, particularly, Abuja, Johannesburg, Nairobi, Lagos and Dar es Salaam, are also home to some of the most undeveloped, neglected wards of Africa.

The Population Reference Bureau (2013) predicts that by 2050, World population will be at 9.7 billion. The PRB also predicts that Africa’s population will be 2.4 billion; if this situation manifests itself, almost 25% of the entire world will be living on one continent – 30.65million km² (Shahin, 2003).

The African population has grown at an average rate of 2.55% per annum for the past 5 years. With this insurmountably increasing population, more megacities are bound to begin to pop up. Whilst naturally, a higher population leads to greater wealth and thus can lead to greater investment, it also creates an increasing emergence of unplanned settlements. These slums are often the construction of the poor, who have little money to invest in even the most basic of services such as water and sanitation.

Industrialisation is a product of the development of cities. However, due to lack of regulation, industrial chemicals and waste tend to contaminate the water supply through dumping. Variables such as climate change, are also affecting the natural physical freshwater supply globally. All of this, compounded with an exponentially increasing population to distribute water amongst, means less water for everybody. Unfortunately, it will be the poor, in the slums, who are affected most, as their economic position also inhibits their ability to access clean, safe, potable drinking water. Perhaps virtual water trading is the true solution; who knows? We’ll just have to wait and see how we manage this population-attributed problem! I hope this blog has been as intriguing for you as it has for me. Thank you for joining me on this wonderful journey.

Amber

Megacities: A Population Problem

In this post I will look at the water and sanitation inequalities within some other potential megacities. The population of the 3 cities I will be discussing are as follows:

• Accra, Ghana – 2.573 million (2010 Census; CIA World Factbook)

• Dar es Salaam, Tanzania 4.364 million (2012 Census; United Republic of Tanzania, 2013)

• Nairobi, Kenya – 3.138 million (UNdata 2009)

The following graph from the United Nations Human Settlements (2003) highlights the inequality in Accra, Jakarta and Sao Paolo. It also implies that this is not only an African problem; this is more a megacity problem, in which cities struggle to meet the needs of an exponentially expanding population.

However, the Progressive Digital Media Water Treatment News (2014) announced that the Ghanaian parliament has agreed to invest $48.1 million to supply potable drinking water to 250,000 residents of Greater Accra. This Urban Water Project will aim to provide safe drinking water to increase the quantity of low-income households with links to Accra’s piped water system. Nonetheless, the problem of inequality still remains such that some people cannot afford access to water; Osumanu et al. (2010) reveal that the poverty in Greater Accra doubled from 5.2% in 1999 to 11.8% in 2006.

Collignon and Vézina (2000) illustrate that roughly 65% of the population in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, have water supply coverage via a standpipe which tend to give rise to long queues and lead to the purchase of unsafe water. Smiley (2013) further posits that whilst many households have access to water on paper, in reality, water is often riddled with salt and sewerage, leading to various health issues. Whilst projects such as the Dar es Salaam water and sanitation supply project (UN-HABITAT, 2004) exist, they tend to focus on water access and not water quality. 

In Nairobi, authorities have had a great deal of trouble providing water to the whole population, due to its sheer size. Thus, when deciding whom to provide water to, authorities tend to prioritise wealthier individuals, who can pay more. Rodriguez-Torres (2006) exemplifies the struggle of access to water for the poor in Nairobi in the following table.

In addition, Cruz et al. (2006) assert that Nairobi’s only river is contaminated with human waste, mainly sourced from slums. Unfortunately, unless a robust infrastructure system is implemented, the supply of water and sanitation services will only continue to deteriorate as the populations of these cities grow exponentially, approaching megacity status.