Africa Water, Sanitation & Hygiene Africa Water, Sanitation Jan -Feb 2014 Vol.10 No1 | Page 41
Publications
Water, food and energy security in the “Urban
Millennium”
How do we ensure towns and cities are viable places to
live?
Photo: Neil Palmer
It was around 2009
that the world changed
fundamentally: for the
first time in human
history, more than half
of all people lived in
cities.
By 2050, the number
will have risen to 70%, with some 6 billion people
calling the bright lights home. It’s been called the Urban
Millennium.
While urbanization can be a force for good, bringing
people closer to services such as education and
healthcare, others see it as a cause for concern.
Competing demands for land, water and energy are
already affecting the environment in and around cities.
Managing these effectively could make or break cities as
viable places to live.
A new book explores these issues in detail. Co-edited
by Priyanie Amerasinghe of the International Water
Management Institute (IWMI), with several chapters
contributed by IWMI scientists, The security of water,
food, energy and liveability of cities takes stock of the
trends, issues and challenges now, and those likely to
pinch in the future.
“Since the domestication of food crops and the dawn
of agriculture, there has probably never been a more
fundamental shift in the way we live, the way we
organize our lives and the way societies function,” says
Amerasinghe.
If we don’t establish effective policies and institutions to
properly manage rapid urban growth, we might look back
at the Urban Millennium as a disaster for humanity and
the environment.
The book draws on research from Ghana, India,
Bangladesh, Australia and others. As well as the impacts
of urbanization around the world, it pays particular
attention to peri-urban areas – those on the fringes
of cities – that face increasing pressure from rapid
development of agriculture, construction and extraction
of natural resources. Land in these areas is already
becoming degraded, and water supplies above and below
the ground are being overdrawn or polluted.
It also explores what sustainable cities might look like,
with chapters on solar energy, use of storm water,
wastewater reuse, decentralized wastewater management,
sanitation, and recycling.
Findings reported in the volume support the CGIAR
Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems
(WLE), which has under its Resource Recovery and Reuse
sub-program a particular focus on efficient water and land
management in peri-urban areas.
About the book
Maheshwari, B.; Purohit, R.; Malano, H.; Singh, V. P.;
Amerasinghe, P. (Eds.) 2014. The security of water,
food, energy and liveability of cities: challenges and
opportunities for peri-urban futures. Dordrecht,
Netherlands: Springer. 489p. (Water Science and
Technology Library Volume 71).
Priyanie Amerasinghe is Head, IWMI-Hyderabad and Sr.
Researcher – Bio-Medical Sciences, at the International
Water Management Institute, Hyderabad, India.
Ending Open Defecation in Rural Tanzania: Which
Factors Facilitate Latrine Adoption?
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health, 2014, 11(9), 9854-9870; doi:
10.3390/ijerph110909854
Authors: Stephen Sara and Jay Graham
Diarrheal diseases account for
7% of deat