last updated 22nd September 05
By 4ecotips

Even greater stress on urban infrastructures

In a world in which roughly 3 billion people (approximately half of the world's population) live in urban areas, UN-HABITAT predicts that over the next 25 years more than 2 billion new urban dwellers will add to the growing demand for housing, water supply, sanitation, and other urban infrastructure services.

UN-HABITAT's "Global Report on Human Settlements 2005: Financing Urban Shelter" examines the challenges of financing urban shelter development, focusing on the needs of the urban poor in light of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

By 2030 about 40% of the world's population will need to have housing and basic infrastructure services. This translates into completing 96,150 housing units per day, the report says.

The housing crisis is already with us. The large-scale evictions from urban areas of Zimbabwe, Mumbai, India, or Malawi are all part of a larger problem of financing urban shelter. The increasing pressure for housing finance is being felt all over the world.

The housing crisis comes at a time when the global economy has demonstrated a consistent growth of 4% in 2004, however, despite this impressive growth, poverty remains an "enduring problem" as approximately 64% of the population in Africa and South Asia still live below US$2 a day, the report says. Most critically, such low incomes prevent the poor from getting better shelter.