Urban unfinished business

Water and sanitation services and hygiene education are crucial in preventing communicable and other diseases which daily take an enormous toll both in morbidity and mortality around the world. Diarrheal diseases are the most prevalent, affecting hundreds of millions of infants, children, and others. There is a current major demographic trend of migration to and explosive growth of low-income peri-urban settlements in and around large cities in developing nations. These settlements lack adequate and affordable water supplies and often have no sanitary facilities whatsoever. They are perfectly suited for the flourishing of water- and sanitation-related communicable and other diseases, which add considerably to the misery of abject poverty. However, working with members of these communities to provide water and sanitation services can both prevent such diseases and improve economic conditions. International assistance must be facilitative rather than interventionist. Developed nations should greatly increase their financial contribution for the facilities necessary for better water and sanitation. Initially, it is important to create an international urban information center to act as a clearinghouse of information. It would also be helpful to begin a four-decade urban sanitation planning effort along with an "Urban Watch" to promote significant developments in peri-urban settlements.