Meeting Development Goals in Small Urban Centres: Water and Sanitation in the World's Cities 2006

Description

Half of the world's people live in urban areas, and roughly a third of these live in desperate poverty without access to basic amenities. Taking on the themes of UN-HABITAT's Water and Sanitation in the World's Cities (2003), this new volume focuses on the deficiencies in the provision of water and sanitation where most of the populations of the developing world live: in towns and small cities. Drawing on extensive unpublished research and 15 commissioned papers from experts involved in designing and implementing innovative projects around the world, this is the first major study of the problems facing the smaller urban centres that are recognized to be of enormous importance by governments, international agencies, NGOs and service providers. Tackling these problems is a crucial part of development and of good governance, and critical to meeting the Millennium Development Goals. The volume will be essential reading for all professionals and researchers in the relevant fields and a valuable resource for teachers and students of urban development.

Authored by David Satterthwaite and Gordon McGranahan at IIED on behalf of UN-HABITAT, the UN programme responsible for cities and settlements, the world's leading research organization in the field.

'I trust that this publication will help to bring a renewed awareness on the needs of small urban centres and their role in achieving the Millennium Development Goals.' Anna Kajumulo Tibaijuka, Under-Secretary-General, United Nations, and Executive Director, UN-HABITAT 'A young girl's dream in urban slums or rural areas is to marry into a household with a latrine.' A young mother from an Indian Slum, heard at the Unheard Voices of Women event at the 12th Session of the Commission on Sustainable Development, New York 'Lack of access to water for meeting basic needs such as health, hygiene and food security undermines development and inflicts enormous hardship on more than a billion members of the human family.' Kofi Annan, Secretary General, United Nations