ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY STRATEGY FOR REDUCING HEALTH RISKS IN URBAN AREAS
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1Â Â Â Â Background of Study
Today, there is no doubt that the world has increasingly become urban and the 20 century witnessed rapid and unprecedented urbanization of the world’s population. The global urban population increased from 13% in 1900 to 29% in 1950, 49% in 2005 and it is estimated that by 2030, 60% of the population will live in the cities. This trend is a reflection of the growth of urban population that increased from 220 million in 1900 to 732 million in 1950 and is expected that there will be 4.9 billion urban dwellers by 2030 (annual urban growth rate of 1.8%). Almost all of this growth will be in lower income regions of Africa and Asia where urban population is likely to triple and in Asia will more than double. Of all the regions of the world, Asia and Africa are urbanizing faster and are projected to become 56% and 64% urban, respectively by 2050. Three countries; Nigeria, India, and China combined are expected to account for 37% of the projected growth of the world population between 2014 and 2050. At the beginning of the 20 century, just 16 cities in the world (mostly in developing nations) contained a million people or more. Today, more than 400 cities have a population of a million or more, about 70% of them are found in developing countries. For the first time in history, in 2007, more people live in cities and towns than will be living in rural areas and by 2017, the developing nation is likely to have become more urban in character than rural. While, there is no universal definition of what constitutes urban settlement, the criteria for classifying an area as urban may be based on one or a combination of characteristics as human population threshold, population density, proportion employed in non-agricultural sectors, presence of infrastructures such as paved roads, electricity, piped water or services, and presence of education and health services. On the other hand, urbanization denotes a process whereby a society changes from a rural to urban way of life or redistribution of populations to urban settlements associated with development and civilization. For millennia, urban areas have been centres and drivers of commercial, scientific, political and cultural life, having a major influence on the whole countries and regions. The Nigerian society is undergoing both demographic transition (people are living longer) and epidemiological transition (change in population health due to changes in lifestyle) mainly as a result of urbanization. The country is undergoing rapid urbanization with a rapidly growing population. At current growth rate of about 2.8%–3% a year, Nigeria’s urban population will double in the next two decades.
The pattern, trend, and characteristics of urbanization in Nigeria have been alarming. The towns and cities have grown phenomenally with pace of urbanization in Nigeria showing extraordinary high rates of 5%–10% per annum. Consequently, there has been rapid expansion of Nigerian cities’ area up to 10-fold their initial point of growth and the fact that the growth has been largely unplanned and uncontrolled. Several studies have shown that inadequate planning of urban land uses in Nigeria and great intensity of use has exacerbated urban problems.
In 1995, there were 7 cities with a population of over 1 million, 18 cities with over 500,000 population, 36 with over 200,000, and 78 with over 100,000. By 2020, it is projected that the number of cities with a population of 500,000 and 200,000, respectively will be 36 and 680 assuming annual urban growth rate of 5%. Over the decades, the population of most major cities/towns has increased by many fold. Lagos, Kano, Port Harcourt, Maiduguri, Kaduna, Ilorin, and Jos all had more than 1000% increase over the past 5 decades. For instance, Kano’s population rose from 5,810,470 in 1991 to 9,383,682 in 2006. Enugu had 174,000 in 1965, 464,514 in 1991, and 712,291 in 2006 while over the same period; Lagos had a population of less than a million, 4 million, and over 10 million, respectively. Lagos is a mega city where inadequate infrastructure and services, housing shortage, traffic congestion, crime, street violence, and other social vices are well pronounced. These population increases account in part, for the rapid physical expansion of these cities and consequent creation of urban slums and urban villages. In 1950, only 10.1% of population was urban in Nigeria, this rose to 20.0% by 1970, 43.3% in 2000, and it is expected to reach 58.3% by 2020.
