UN Population Division, Department of Economic and Social Affairs,
with support from the UN Population Fund (UNFPA)
|
| UN Population Division, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, with support from the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) |
|
*************************************************************************
The electronic version of this document is being made available by the
Population Information Network (POPIN) of the United Nations Population
Division (DESIPA), in collaboration with the United Nations Economic
Commission for Africa Population Division and the Pan African Development
Information System (PADIS). For further information please contact the
Director of the UNECA Population Division via email at: bahri.uneca@un.org
**************************************************************************
E/ECA/PSDPI.9/6
(Agenda Item 10)
Ninth Session of the Conference of
African Planners, Statisticians, and
Population and Information Specialists
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
11-16 March 1996
AN ASSESSMENT OF URBAN ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS AND POLICIES
IN SELECTED ECA MEMBER STATES
INTRODUCTION
1. The growth of urbanization in Africa is profoundly affecting
the lives of city dwellers and the economies of countries. The
expansion of, in particular, the larger cities, has resulted in a
number of problems, such as, substandard, inadequate and unreliable
infrastructure and services. Studies have shown that a growing
number of urban dwellers have limited access to acceptable and/or
adequate housing, transportation, water supply, health and
education in countries like Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone
and Somalia. In this connection, the inadequacy and
substandard nature of urban housing has spawned squatter
settlements and slums.
2. Other consequences include, an increase in poverty,
unemployment and underemployment in cities, the rapid growth in
urbanization largely unaccompanied by commensurate growth in
industrialization, the weak links between urban and rural
economies, and past urban bias policies pursued by governments
contributing to regional inequality. The economic crisis beginning
from the mid 1970s combined with high population growth have
exacerbated the above and other problems of cities like congestion
and costlier provision of infrastructure and services for larger
and spatially dispersed urban populations.
3. On the positive side, it must be mentioned that the growth of
urbanization has also conferred benefits to firms and private
individuals from locational advantages and agglomerations of
industrial and commercial activities.
4. This paper on urban environmental problems and policies is
structured around three main sections. The first section describes
the environmental and urbanization setting. The second reviews
urban environmental problems; while the third section examines
urban policies, with particular reference to those addressing
institutional and managerial issues as well as stemming urban
population growth.
ENVIRONMENTAL AND URBANIZATION SETTINGS
5. The development crisis of Africa has been portrayed as
consisting of three components: agricultural stagnation, population
explosion and environmental degradation.
6. In this context, the major environmental problems facing
African countries include enviromental degradation, depletion of
natural resources and substandard and deteriorating infrastructure
and social amenities (e.g. housing, water, sanitation, health and
education). These environmental problems are exarcebated by a
number of factors like rapid population growth, poverty, uneven
spatial distribution of the population, destruction of protective
vegetative strip alongside water bodies and urban centres,
extensive firewood foraging, land dereliction through mineral
exploitation, rapid and essentially unplanned urbanization,
inadequate and/or lax enforcement of environmental and occupational
health legislations and the economic crisis.
7. In the Sahel, for instance, the recurrent occurrence of
environmental degradation and depletion of terrestrial ecosystem
from desertification and drought, has led to the loss of millions
of acres of agricultural land.
8. Similarly, in Zimbabwe a pronounced imbalance exists between
population trends and the natural resource base, albeit, aggravated
by the imprint of European colonialization. Land holdings in
communal lands are distinguished by over-cultivation, overgrazing,
deforestation and destruction of woodland by man, (and also by soil
loss and siltation).
9. In Malawi, the major environmental problem is population
pressure on land, aggravated by the dominance of agriculture in the
economy, around 30-40 percent of GDP. Environmental degradation, in
particular, land degradation is one major consequence.
10. Environmental deterioration in urban areas, the drought-prone
soils of the south along with the coastal ecosystem are among the
principal environmental problems of Namibia.
11. In Sierra Leone, the major environmental problems are
environmental deterioration of urban areas, deforestation arising
from the intensive use of the shifting cultivation method as well
as land dereliction through bauxite, rutile and alluvial diamond
mining.
12. Environmental problems that compromise Ghana's development
efforts vary from those associated with natural disasters, e.g.,
drought, famine, floods and pests, through unsustainable land use
practices resulting in land degradation (deforestation,
desertification and soil erosion), rural poverty and population
pressure on resources pressure.
13. Nigeria's major environmental problems range from drought,
land degradation, deforestation and desertifcation, to rural
population pressure on resources and urban environmental
degradation.
14. The economic crisis beginning from the mid 1970s has
dovetailed with high population growth as well as poverty in
exacerbating the aforementioned problems. Relative to the provision
of infrastructure and social amenities, the crisis in the social
sector has resulted in underemphasis in national and international
development programmes and assistance destined to e.g. health,
family planning, housing and education.
15. With regard to urbanization, among the salient features are
the low levels of urbanization and the high rates of urban (as well
as total) population growth. By 1995 the level of urbanization was
34.4 percent. Among world's major regions, Africa's level of
urbanization is only comparable to those of South-central and
South-eastern Asia, 28.8 and 33.7 percent respectively in
1995.
16. With respect to urban population growth, the current rate
i.e., during 1990-95 is around 4.38 percent per annum, compared
with 3.43 percent for South-central Asia and 3.97 percent and
South-eastern Asia, the other two high urban growth regions.
18. Of the two components of urban growth, natural increase (i.e.
the difference between births and deaths) and migration including
the reclassification of localities, migration (i.e., urban-urban
and especially rural-urban inflows) has been shown to be the most
important component in the 1960s and 1970s in most countries.
However since the 1980s natural increase has been making a growing
contribution especially to the expansion of older and bigger
cities.
17. The number of cities with population sizes of 250,000 and
above in Africa increased from 57 in 1970 to 121 in 1990 and to 179
in 2010, with the fastest increase projected to occur in the size
classes under 1 million. The number of cities with population sizes
of 1 million increased almost five-fold between 1970 and 1990.
Between 1990 and 2010 the number is projected to almost double,from
38 to 73. In order to more clearly understand the growth of urban
localities, subregional developments are provided below.
18. Due to the early development of urbanization on the African
coastline bordering the Mediterranean, the North African sub-
region has experienced the highest growth of urban localities,
especially of the larger cities, in Africa. The period between
1970 and 1990, for instance, witnessed remarkable expansion in
urbanization, with the number of cities with population sizes of 1
million and above doubling from 4 in 1970 to 8 in 1990. The cities
include, Algiers, Alexandria, Cairo,Casablanca,Khartoum, Rabat,
Tripoli and Tunis. Cairo with an estimated population of about 9.4
million in 1994 maintained its position as Africa's most populous
city.
19. Urban growth in the West African sub-region was rapid within
the period 1970 to 1990, with the number of cities with population
sizes of 250,000 and above increasing from 13 in 1970 to 36 in
1990. The growth of bigger cities, that is, those with population
sizes of 1 million and above during the period 1970 to 1990 was
spectacular, from 1 in 1970 to 12 in 1990. Quite a few of the
growth of these bigger cities occurred in Nigeria and involved
localities such as Ibadan, Jos, Kaduna and above all Lagos. The
other cities that grew over 1 million during this period are the
capitals of some West Africa countries - Abidjan (Cote d'Ivoire),
Accra (Ghana), Conakry (Guinea) and Dakar (Senegal).
20. Addis Ababa, Nairobi, Dar es Salaam and Harare dictate the
pace of urban development in the Eastern subregion. For example,
they were the first set of millionaire cities that emerged in the
1980s in the sub-region. Other sizeable localities include Lusaka
(Zambia) and Kampala (Uganda).
21. By 1970, Kinshasa was the only urban locality in the Central
African subregion with a population size of 1 million and above.
By 1990, it had an estimated population of 3.5 million, by far the
largest in the sub-region. Kananga (Zaire), Luanda (Angola),
Maputo (Mozambique) and Yaounde and Douala (Cameroon) have also
been emerging among the dominant urban localities in the sub-
region.
22. In Southern Africa two cities in South Africa, Johannesburg
and Cape Town, have maintained the lead as the two most populous,
with estimated populations of 1.6 and 1.9 million in 1985
respectively. In addition there are about 8 more cities with
moderate population sizes, that is, 100,000 and above. The most
important, Durban, Pretoria and Port Elizabeth had population sizes
of 980, 820 and 650 thousand respectively in 1985. Given the small
sizes of the total populations of the other countries of the
Southern Africa subregion (Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland and
Namibia) no large urban localities have developed in them yet.
23. The urban population of Africa is projected to experience
remarkable increase within the next few decades, in view of in-
built momentum of high population growth, a result of high
fertility and high but declining mortality. From an estimated
population of 217 million in 1990, the urban population is expected
to reach 544 million in 2010 (table 3). By 2020 the urban
population is projected to increase to 783 million, an almost
fourfold increase from 1990. By 2020 half of the population of
Africa, about 54 percent, would be living in urban areas.
24. At the city level, dramatic increases in mega-cities are also
expected, with Cairo/Giza and Lagos in the forefront, whose
population sizes would surpass the 10 million mark by the turn of
the century. During this period, Alexandria and Kinshasa would also
have population sizes of around 5 million. Other cities projected
to have very large populations in the next few decades include,
Casablanca, Algiers, Abidjan and Tripoli.
25. These future expansion of the urban population and bigger
cities is bound to aggravate urban problems reviewed about unless
sensible urban policies are instituted now.
AN ASSESSMENT OF URBAN ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS
26. The types of environmental problems at home, in the workplace
and neighbourhood could be classified into the following six
categories:
a. contaminated and inadequate quantities of water;
b. inadequate provision for sanitary management and disposal
of solid and liquid wastes;
c. inadequate measures to control disease vectors;
d. poor quality and overcrowded housing;
e. inadequate health services;
f. inadequate (or lax) enforcement of environmental and
occupational health legislations.
27. A brief review of some of the major categories of the problems
follows.
Contaminated and inadequate quantities of water
28. The quality, the quantity and availability of water have an
impact on the health status of urban dwellers. In particular, the
dearth of drinking water can exacerbate the occurrence, the spread
and severity of water-related infectious diseases such as cholera,
diarrhoeal diseases, skin and eye infection. In urban as well as
rural areas, it is among the poor that these diseases are
concentrated. Accordingly, an accessible and regular supply of
potable water is indispensable for the wellbeing of households and
central to the maintenance of good hygiene and sanitation.
29. Despite this link between health status and water, a
significant proportion of African urban dwellers do not have access
to clean and dependable sources of drinking water, as the following
review of the situation in some countries indicate.
30. A 1991 sample survey of Greater Accra Metropolitan Area (GAMA)
estimated that indoor piping and private standpipe accounted for 35
and 24.3 percent of drinking water, respectively; while water
vending accounted for 28 percent. Of the three constituents of
the GAMA- Accra, Tema and Ga- 20 percent of the dwellers of Ga, the
poorest, obtained their drinking water from rainwater collection
and open waterway.
31. A classification done according to household wealth indicated
that 98 percent of wealthy households and 70 percent of medium
wealth households had access to indoor piping, while only 26
percent of all poor households had such a facility, with about 33
percent relying on water vendor as the principal drinking water
source.
32. A 1980/1981 survey of Dakar and Pikine (Senegal) estimated
that while 28 percent of households had private water connections,
68 percent relied on public standpipes and 4.2 percent on water
vendors. In Pikine, a suburb of Dakar, an average of 696 persons
used a standpipe, with 1513 in one neighbourhood.
33. In Dar-es-Salaam (Tanzania), a 1986/1987 survey of 660
households, encompassing all income groups, found that 47 percent
had no piped water supply either inside or immediately outside
their houses and 32 percent had a shared piped water supply.
34. From a 1981 household survey in Kampala (Uganda), it was
estimated that many households did not have piped water close to
their homes, and had to rely on springs, streams or wells, many
polluted.
35. The available information from the 1985 population and housing
census on urban and rural areas in Sierra Leone indicate that
access to potable water supply is unsatisfactory, with the majority
of Sierra Leoneans, 44 percent dependent on rivers and streams,
most unprotected, for their drinking water. Water wells were the
second most important source, with only 16 percent using piped
water, with Freetown and the Western Rural Areas alone had the
majority of their population using piped water, 88 percent and 53
percent respectively.
Inadequate provision for sanitary management and disposal of solid
and liquid wastes
36. The regular removal and disposal of excreta and waste water
are also essential ingredients of environmental health needs, as
irregular collection and unmanagerial disposal of solid and liquid
wastes have repercussion on human health and productivity. For
example, uncollected refuse dumps, located in public areas, and
those whose contents sip into water ways are foci for the spread of
diseases. The lack of drains and servers for the disposal of waste
water and rainwater can create waterlogged soils and stagnant pools
which can be the source of diseases like hookwarm and enteric
diseases. These sites could also be breeding grounds for
mosquitoes.
37. Most cities in Africa either lack sewerage systems or have
systems that serve only a tiny proportion of the population. In the
Accra (Ghana), an estimate in 1985 indicated that only about 30
percent of the population were connected to the central sewerage
system. Human excrement and water are usually deposited in rivers,
stream, canals, gullies and ditches.
38. In Dar-es-Salaam and Kampala surveys have documented how most
of the households, used pit latrines, with several persons sharing
each latrines. In Dar-es-Salaam, overflowin latrines are a serious
problem, in particular in the rainy season.
40. Kinshasa (Zaire) has no sewerage system, while in Khartoum
(Sudan), the municipal sewerage system serves only a 5 percent of
the population.
39. In Ethiopia, sanitary, toilet facilities were, according to
the 1984 populationand housing census, inadequate and/or very poor
in urban areas, with half of the housing units having no such
facilities. In Addis Ababa, the percentage of households without
toilet facilities was 29 percent.
40. Relative to household garbage collection, the problem relates
to inadequate or non-collection. Studies have shown that around 30
to 50 percent of solid wastes produced within urban areas are not
collected.
41. In Accra (Ghana) in recent years, the Waste Management
Department collects about two thirds of the waste generated, and
existing disposal sites are already over used. Only 10 percent of
household have home-collection services. In Dar-es-Salaam
(Tanzania) around 65 percent of solid wastes from both residential
areas and from commercial enterprises are not collected. While in
Kampala (Uganda), below 10 percent of the city's, population
benefits from a regular collection of household wastes and below 20
percent of the solid wastes produced within the city are collected.
42. In Kinshasa (Zaire) the collection of household waste is only
undertaken in few residential areas. In the rest of the city,
household waste is put out in the road, on illegal dumps or in
storm-water drains or on open sites. While in Nairobi (Kenya),
newly developed, residential estates and the informal settlements
are not served by the city's garbage collection service.
Poor Quality and Overcrowded Housing
43. One predominant feature of the homes of the urban poor in
Africa and other LDCs is crowded and damp conditions. It has been
estimated that on the average, low income residential areas in
Third World cities, house four or more persons per room, and often,
there are less than one square metre of floor space per person. In
these settings, characterized by frequency of contact and high
density where infective and susceptible people mingle, the
transmission of acute respiratory infections (eg. pneumonia and
tuberculosis) and other air borne disease are highly likely .
44. As well, in this setting the transmission of diarrhoea is high
in view of the linkages among inadequacy of water, sanitation,
flies, animals, personal hygiene and food.
A REVIEW OF URBAN ENVIRONMENTAL POLICIES
45. As the determinants of urban environmental problems are
diverse, policies to tackle them should encompass a number of
dimensions- demographic, institutional, health, political and
managerial, among others. In this paper attention is paid to three
components: institutional, managerial and population policies.
Institutional and Management Policies
46. The administration of African cities and the provision of
urban services and infrastructure are occurring in a difficult
socio-economic environment, namely: rapid total and urban
population growth alongside sluggish economic growth. The result,
is that the pace and intensity of the urbanization process has
exceeded management capacity, financial resources and information
on the urbanization process itself.
47. For example, between the late 1970s and the mid 1980s, the
expenditure per capita of Nairobi dropped an average of around 2
percent in real terms. In neighbouring Tanzania's Dar es Salaam,
between 1978 and 1987, organizations involved with the city's
development decreased per capita expenditure by roughly 11 percent.
48. Against this background, the challenges confronting municipal
authorities include the following: arresting environmental
degradation, improving deteriorating services and infrastructure,
enhancing the revenue base, undertaking training and raising the
level of local expertise. In this connection the following
suggestions have been put forward to assist in addressing
aforementioned problems, namely: to forge a balance in the
relationship between public and private sector initiatives, between
local responsibility and central control, and between international
standards and indigenous requirements. Each of these
initiatives should pay greater attention to the needs of the poor
and the wider community.
Forging a balance between public and private sector initiatives,
along with local responsibility and central control
49. Two types of urban local government systems could be
identified in African countries: a centralised system in French-
speaking countries, and a combination of centralised and
decentralised systems in English-speaking countries. Since
independence the trend towards centralization has become pronounced
even in the latter set of countries. This trend in centralization,
coupled with urban administration straddling a number of
jurisdictions, have exarcebated the poor functioning of urban local
governments.
50. Just as in the case of urban local government, two types of
structures could be identified with respect to urban local finance:
the commune system in mainly French-speaking countries; and the
representative government system in mainly English-speaking
countries. The differences between the two structures are that
under the former, municipal authorities administer fewer services
and the councils are more closely supervised by the central
governments compared with those in the latter. In spite of these
differences, the financial situation in both- but especially the
representative councils- started experiencing declines by the mid
1980s.
51. Broadly, the following reasons have been invoked to explain
the poor functioning of municipal governments and their
deteriorating financial situation: stifling centralization,
declining and/or stagnant contribution by central governments to
their budgets over the years; rapid population growth along with
spatial expansion of cities; lax financial control and political
interference in their running, especially in representative
councils.
52. By the early 1970s national and international efforts have
attempted to address the problems of urban environmental
degradation and lack of access of infrastructure and social
amenities by sizeable portions of urban dwellers, among other
issues, through low-cost investment projects in shelter, water
supply, sanitation and transport. The objectives of, for example,
projects on sites-and-services and slum-upgrading were twofold: to
exhibit replicable approaches and to recover costs. While these
projects succeeded in fulfilling their physical objectives, they
failed in nurturing local and national institutions as well as
bolstering policy changes. Moreover, in their planning,
implementation, monitoring and evaluation, private and community
initiatives were rarely mobilised.
53. As a result of this poor record, another approach is being
advocated, namely: focussing on institution building. It is
proposed that the focus of thinking about and planning for cities
should shift from central government control and the international
realm to local personnel and institutions concerned with urban
issues who should be given a greater say in decision-making and
policy implementation. Towards this end, a balance between public
and private sector initiatives, along with local responsibility and
central control should be forged.
54. In this connection, the Programme of Action of the
International Conference on Population and Development urge
Governments to create an enabling context for local development,
including the provision of services by considering decentralizing
their administrative systems. Giving responsibility for expenditure
and the right to raise revenue to regional, district and local
authorities were identified as integral components of this
strategy.
Forging a balance between international standards and indigenous
requirements
55. With reference to international standards and indigenous
requirements, municipal authorities and national governments have
found it difficult to introduce or expand services and
infrastructure for poorer urban households and neighbourhoods using
technologies based on European or North American standards because
of their high costs and the requirement of a sophisticated
management to efficiently maintain them. It has, therefore, been
suggested that African and other Third World municipal and city
governments should experiment with alternative, cheaper systems
which also meet environmental standards.
56. With respect to sewers and treatment plants, the strategy
adopted in the past by African municipal authorities and national
governments focussed on improving the conventional technologies for
the collection, transportation and disposal of solid wastes. This
approach concentrated on two initiatives: higher technology and
privatization. Recently, a planning strategy which also promotes
non-conventional technologies, recycling and local participation
has been advocated.
57. For example, the following alternative sewer systems suitable
for poor urban households have been developed and tested: shallow
sewer, small bore sewer schemes and ventilated latrines. These
alternatives, research have shown, are much cheaper than
conventional structures and are improvements in terms of hygiene
and efficiency over pit and bucket latrines or defecating in open
spaces.
58. Relative to improvements in the quality and availability of
water, low cost alternatives are also available for poorer city
households and neighbourhoods. One example is the installation of
a piped-water system that could satisfy similar needs to those that
used to be catered for by water vendors at the same or lower cost,
but for a larger, safer and more convenient supply. Alternatively,
a scheme could be introduced to make water vendors more efficient
and their operations more efficient in situations where the
financial cost of extending piped-water systems to poorer areas is
exhobitant.
59. A third option available which in the past has been applied to
rural areas is to construct protected communal wells in peripheral
urban neighbourhoods that depend on rivers, streams and unprotected
private wells for their water supply.
60. In the area of waste collection and management, in order to
match waste management and local needs account should be taken of
a number of factors such as the magnitude and types of waste
generated; the ability of the residents in various low income
neighbourhoods to pay for the services for collecting their wastes;
the potentials for recycling; types of vehicles to use; traffic
condition and available of land sites for refuse, among others.
61. In this connection, experience from Third World cities,
including Cairo, have shown how the recovery, recycling or re-use
of materials from city refuse are a source of employment and income
for a sizeable number of poor city dwellers.
62. In making a decision on what low cost alternatives to adopt,
it is necessary to review the local situation and make an
evaluation of the options that are suitable to the particular low
income household and neighbourhood.
Population Policies
63. On the demographic front, policies addressed to decreasing the
rapid growth of cities must feature among urban environmental
policies. Such policies should focus on the two sources of urban
population growth - migration and natural increase. As noted
earlier, of the two components of urban growth, natural increase
(i.e. the difference between births and deaths) and migration
including the reclassification of localities, migration (i.e.,
urban-urban and especially rural-urban inflows) has been shown to
be the most important component in the 1960s and 1970s in most
countries. However since the 1980s natural increase has been
making a growing contribution especially to the expansion of older
and bigger cities.
64. Urban migration policies that have been experimented with in
the post by African governments include:
restriction of migration to metropolitan centres by
persuasive (and sometimes coercive) methods;
slowing rural outmigration by improving the socio-
economic situation of rural dwellers, e.g. through:
rural development programmes;
closing the rural-urban income gap.
redirecting outmigration from the rural areas to unsettled or
frontier areas, growth poles, alternative cities of immediate
size or by the development of new towns.
65. A review of these policies follow.
a) Restriction of migration to metropolitan centres by persuasive
and sometime coercive measures
66. A number of measures have been utilized by African governments
to control the number of migrants in rapidly expanding cities.
These include the demolition of squatter and slum settlements (eg.
in Lagos, Nigeria); the harassment of migrants by the passing of
various repressive laws (e.g. the pre-independent South African
Government's internal passport system geared towards the
restriction of Blacks into the cities.)
67. In the 1970s, the governments of Kenya and Tanzania instituted
urban barriers to migration. In Kenya, they consisted of a housing
regulation which specifically barred the shanties of newly arrived
migrants; while in Tanzania, it was a legislation that required
urban workers to possess official identity cards which attest to
their employment status. In spite of their bureaucratic costs and
questions about their ethics, these and other measures did not lead
to the stemming of urbanward migration.
68. In this connection, it has been argued that rather than use
coercive measures, African governments should experiment with the
introduction of incentives that influence mobility along with
providing would-be migrants with information and services that
would assist them in making more rational decision pertaining to
movements to cities. This is because it has been found that urban
migrants perceive that movements to towns confer benefits - eg.
better schools, hospitals and prospects to earn higher incomes -
for the migrant or members of his or her family. Therefore,
migrants are willing to endure inconveniences such as spells of
unemployment or living in overcrowded housing with the hope of
partaking in the above-mentioned benefits.
Slowing rural out-migration by improving the socio-economic
situation in rural areas
69. Past studies on migration in African have underlined the
importance of enhancing the rural environment by the improvement of
socio-economic infrastructure and amenities and by improving the
income position through the creative of jobs. As well, governments
have been urged to introduce programmes and strategies to close the
rural-urban income gap, a result of their past urban bias policies.
70. A favourite strategy in this connection was the introduction
of integrated rural development programmes. Among the reasons,
African governments have given for rural development programmes is
the reduction of rural-to-urban migration. Studies have identified
the following factors for the failure of these programmes in a
number of countries to achieve this objective: capital intensive
integrated rural development programmes (IRDPs) benefiting mainly
rich farmers; flaws in their design and implementation; and
producing both intended and unintended migration consequences.
71. Minimum wage legislation and payment of attractive
agricultural producer prices have been other strategies that have
been used unsuccessfully to slow down rural-out-migration.
Redirection of migration
72. Another set of strategies that have been employed to reduce
migration pressure on the bigger cities in Africa are the
redirection of migration from rural areas, away from the big
localities, towards unsettled or frontier areas, growth poles,and
alternative cities of intermediate size, along with the development
of new capitals.
73. Three recent examples of the development of new capitals are
the re-locations of capital cities: from Lagos to Abuja in Nigeria;
from Abidjan to Yamassoukro in Cote d'Ivoire; from Dar es Salaam to
Dodoma in Tanzania. These projects are taking a long time to
achieve most of their objectives, even in the case of Nigeria,
which had the benefit oil revenue at the start of the project.
Family planning and birth spacing
74. Against the finding that natural increase is making a
significant contribution towards recent population growth of urban
localities, especially older cities like Lagos, Abidjan, Addis
Ababa and Nairobi, it has been suggested that family planning and
birth spacing programmes should be included in comprehensive
population policies for African cities.
CONCLUSIONS
75. The challenge facing administrators of African cities from now
to the next century are manifold. They include arresting
environmental degradation, improving deteriorating services and
infrastructure, enhancing the revenue base, undertaking training to
raise local expertise.
76. Policies to address the problems of urban environmental
degradation should take into account the following factors, namely:
the rapid pace and intensity of the urbanization process; sluggish
economic growth; urban administration straddling a number of
jurisdictions (e.g. political and economical); and, weak managerial
structures. The growing severity of these problems argue for a
fresh approach to urban environmental issues.
77. One ingredient of this new approach consists of a shift in the
focus of thinking about and planning for cities from centralization
to decentralization, by giving local personnel and institutions
concerned with urban issues a greater say in decision making and
policy implementation.
78. A second ingredient of the approach is to urge African
municipal authorities to assess the uses of non-conventional as
opposed to high technologies based on European and North American
standards in providing low income households and neighbourhood with
e.g. safe drinking water, along with sanitary garbage collection
and disposal.
79. A third ingredient is the generation of more information on
the environmental profiles of African cities to facilitate rational
and efficient formulation, implementation, monitoring and
evaluation of urban programmes, plans and policies. One way by
which this objective could be fulfilled is by the fuller
exploitation of existing data sources than had been the practice in
the past, by the processing, tabulation and publication of data
from population censuses and administrative records. Gaps in data
could be filled in by the uses of demographic sample surveys and
rapid assessment.
80. A fourth ingredient pertaining to slowing metropolitan growth
addressed to urban planners exhorts them to concentrate on both
migration and natural increase in designing population, programmes,
plans and policies on cities. With respect to the contribution of
natural increase to the growth of cities, in particular older ones,
the role of family planning and birth spacing programmes deserves
more attention than has been in the past.
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
Adepoju, A., (1986) Population and the planning of large cities in
Africa. Paper presented to the International Conference on
Population and the Urban Future, Barcelona, Spain,May 1986
Adewuyi, A.A., and Feyisetan, B.J., (1985) Correlates of infant
mortality: empirical evidence from Ile-Ife. 169p. Research
report submitted to IDRC no. 3-P-81-
Antoine, P., and Herry, C., (1984) A mortalit infantile et
juvenile Abidjan (1978-1979). Cahiers de 1'ORSTOM - Srie
Sciences Humaines, 20(2), 141-155
Bradley, D. et al. (1991) A Review of Environmental Health Impacts
in Developing Country Cities, Urban Management Program
Discussion Paper No 6, World Bank-UNDP-UNCHS (Habitat).
Briscoe, John, (1987) A Role for Water Supply and Sanitation in the
Child Survival Revolution. Bulletin of the Pan American Health
Organization 21 (2):92-105.
Brown, L.R. and J.L. Jacobson, (1987) The Future of Urbanization:
Facing the Ecological and Economic Constraints, Worldwatch
Paper No. 77 Washington D.C.: World Watch Institute.
Cairncross, Sandy and J. Cliff (1986) Water and Health in Mueda,
Mozambique. Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical
Medicine and Hygiene. London.
Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) (1989)Patterns, Causes and
Consequences of Urbanization in African Countries.Addis Ababa
Egunjobi, L. (1989) Perception of urban Environment problems:
A Pilot summary centered on the city of Ibadan,
Nigeria, African Urban Quarterly Vol. 2 Nos 1 and 2
January and May: 59-68.
Esrey, Steven A., James B. Potash, Leslie Roberts, and Clive Shiff.
(1991) Effects of Improved Water Supply and Sanitation on
Ascariasis,Diarrhoea, Dracunculiasis, Hookworm Infection ,
Schistosomiasis and Trachoma. Bulletin of the World Health
Organization 69 (5):609-21.
Gesler, W.M.; and Webb, J.L. (1983) Patterns of mortality in
Freetown, Sierra Leone. Singapore Journal of Tropical
Geography. 4(2):99-118.
Guingnido, G.K., (1991) Croissance urbaine et population au Benin.
Programme de Petites Subventions Pour Recherhe en Population
Developpement et les Politiques Urbain. Communication, No.4.
Dakar: CODESIRA
Harpham, T. Vaughan P and Lusty T. eds. (1988) In the Shadow of
the City:Community Health and the Urban Poor. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Kelley, A. (1991) African urbanization and city growth. Paper
presented to the International Conference on Development and
Rapid Population Growth: A New Look to the Future.
Paris,September 1991
Onibokun, A.,(1989) Urban growth and urban management in Nigeria.
In Stren, R.E. and R.R.White (eds.)
Stren, R.E., (1991) Helping African cities, Journal of Public
Administration and Development, Vol.11, no.:3, May
Stren, R.E., and R.R.White (eds.), (1989) African Cities in Crisis:
Managing Rapid Urban Growth. Boulder: Westview Press
UNFPA, (1991). Population, Resources and the Environment: The
Critical Challenges.New York
White, R.R., (1983) Third World urbanization and environmental
crisis, Environment and Planning A15, No. 12: 1567-1569.
White, R.R., (1989) The Influence of environmental and economic
factors on the urban Crisis. In Stren,R.E. and R.R White
(eds.):1-19.