Urban environmental services in developing countries

Abstract

This paper focuses on urban environmental services in developing countries. The rapid growth of many cities in the developing world poses a threat to the environmental condition of the population. Efforts to provide basic environmental services to the residents have rarely been successful. As a result the poor residents in the urban areas are deprived of very essential services especially water sewage and solid waste collection. There are several underlying reasons for this problem. A lack of will in this respect is partly caused by the conflicting attitude towards city growth and the feeling that urban migration is too much. Another reason could be budgetary constraints. While funding problems are exacerbated by foolish pricing policies and cost inefficiencies the provision of environmental services to all urban communities may not be feasible for developing countries. This paper discusses alternative low-cost technologies which can be used in order to deliver the necessary environmental services to the less fortunate population groups especially the urban residents in developing countries.