(iv) How do city dwellers get water?
Answers
Answer:Half of humanity now lives in cities, and within two decades, nearly 60 per cent of the world's people will be urban dwellers. Urban growth is most rapid in the developing world, where cities gain an average of 5 million residents every month. The exploding urban population growth creates unprecedented challenges, among which provision for water and sanitation have been the most pressing and painfully felt when lacking.
Two main challenges related to water are affecting the sustainability of human urban settlements: the lack of access to safe water and sanitation, and increasing water-related disasters such as floods and droughts. These problems have enormous consequences on human health and well-being, safety, the environment, economic growth and development. The lack of adequate water and sanitation facilities leads to health issues such as diarrhoea, malaria and cholera outbreaks. Though water supply and sanitation coverage increased between 1990 and 2008, the growth of the world's urban populations jeopardizes those results. While between 1990 and 2008 1052 million urban dwellers gained access to improved drinking water and 813 million to improved sanitation, the urban population in that period grew by 1089 million people.
An estimated 96 per cent of the urban population globally used an improved water supply source in 2010, compared to 81 per cent of the rural population. This means that 653 million rural dwellers lacked improved sources of drinking water.
Globally, 79 per cent of the urban population used an improved sanitation facility in 2010, compared to 47 per cent of the rural population.