GLOBAL CLASSROOMS LONDON MODEL UNITED NATIONS

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Water and Urbanisation

Today, one  in two people on the planet live in a city. The world’s cities  are growing at an exceptional rate and urbanisation is a continuum. The main  reason they are growing is because of natural increase in urban population, but  also due to rural-to-urban migration and reclassification of rural areas to  urban areas.
93% of the urbanisation occurs in poor or developing countries, and nearly 40% of  the world’s urban expansion is growing slums. Between 1990-2001 the world’s slums increased at a rate of 18 million people a year, and is projected to  increase to 27 million new slum citizens per year between 2005-2020

Cities are complicated to manage: different approaches are needed for different types of urban environments. But cities also  provide the best opportunity to improve livelihoods and infrastructure  development, including water and waste services.  

The big opportunity is increased recycling and reuse of water and waste - integrated management.

Adopting more efficient water treatment technologies and capturing water and wastes within the city will also minimize environmental and  downstream pollution. 

50% of the world population live in cities of 10 million people or more. Africa and Asia have the highest rates of  urbanisation, further boosted by conflicts and disasters. Urbanisation is not only centred in the rising megacities in the South, but also in the unstoppable growth in secondary cities and towns. In Latin America the majority of the population  lives in smaller urban centres

Finance 
Investments in infrastructure have not kept up with the rate of urbanisation, while water and waste services show significant underinvestment. 
 
The central problem is therefore  the management of urban water and waste. Piped water  coverage is declining in many settings, and the poor people get the worst  services, yet paying the highest water prices. 
 
Few urban authorities in developing countries have found a  sustainable solution to urban sanitation and utilities cannot afford to extend sewers to the slums, nor can they treat  the volume of sewage already collected. Solid  waste disposal is a growing threat to health and the environment. 

Climate change  
There is growing evidence that water resources will be significantly affected by  climate change, both in quantity and quality, particularly through the impact of floods, droughts, or extreme events.

The effect of climate change will also mean more complex operations, disrupted services and increased cost for water and wastewater services. In addition, climate change and disasters will result in bigger migration to urban areas, increasing the demands on urban systems

Key questions for research


What proportion of your population live in urban areas? Is this increasing?
How is water managed in your country?
What investments in infrastructure have been made (or not made)?
How can countries maximise the benefits from wastewater?
What low cost, high impact solutions could be introduced?

Research links

https://twitter.com/GCLondon2014
http://www.unesco-ihe.org/Research/Research-Themes/Urbanisation 
http://www.gwp.org/en/The-Challenge/The-Urgency-of-Water-Security/Urbanisation/
http://www.gwp.org/Press-Room/Water-and-Urbanisation/Water-and-Urbanisation-Statistics/
http://ec.europa.eu/research/water-initiative/urbanisation_en.html 
http://pacinst.org/reports/urban_water_Indore/NOAA_indore_report.pdf 
http://www.un.org/waterforlifedecade/swm_cities_zaragoza_2010/pdf/03_water_and_urbanisation.pdf 
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