Green Hills, Blue Cities

URBANISATION – WATER – ECOSYSTEMS NEXUS

There are 1 billion people in Africa of whom 400 million live in urban areas. With 40 per cent of the population living in urban areas, Africa is the least urbanised region in the world (UN-HABITAT 2010).

As centres of economic activity, innovation and development, Africa’s urban areas are expanding rapidly, growing at a world annual fastest rate of 3.5 per cent (UNEP 2006). At this growth rate the urban population doubled from 205 million in 1990 to

400 million in 2010, and is projected to triple to 1.23 billion by 2050 (UN Population revision 2009). It is expected that by 2030 the proportion of people living in Africa’s urban areas will be 50 per cent and reach 60 per cent by 2050 (UN-HABITAT 2010).

Abuja

Urban growth rate in Africa

Current and projected urban population growth for selected cities for the periods 1995-2010 and 2010-2025 Percentage

Ouagadougou

300

250

Alexandria

Niamey

Casablanca

Algiers

Khartoum

Fes

200

Kampala

Kano

Tripoli

Nairobi

Cairo

Addis Ababa

150

Mogadishu

Dakar

Bamako

Conakry

100

Harare

Lomé

Abidjan

Douala

Benin City

Kumasi

Mombasa

Yaoundé

Accra

Kinshasa

1995-2010

Lagos

Mbuji-Mayi

Dar es Salaam

Brazaville

Luanda

Ogbomosho

50

Lubumbashi

Ibadan

2010-2025

Kaduna

Antananarivo

Johannesburg

Maputo

0

Ekurhuleni Durban

Cape Town

Source: UNDESA, The World Urbanisation Prospects, The 2009 Revision , 2010.

Port Elizabeth

Pretoria

Figure 1: Africa’s urban centres are currently growing at an annual rate that is the fastest compared to other regions. The urban expansion is expected to continue, with cities like Abuja and Ouagadougou expecting very high growth in the next decade, while Cairo, Africa’s largest city, is projected to see a comparatively lower growth rate.

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