The Dangers to Health Posed By Rapid Urbanisation

The Dangers to Health Posed By Rapid Urbanisation

Introduction

Over the past half a century, there has been massive migration into the cities with most of this migration taking place in the developing countries. This influx of people especially from rural areas to urban areas has led to rapid urbanisation in many developing countries and it has been estimated that by 2030 96% of all urbanisation will take place in the developing world. Considering the fact that the world’s urban population is estimated to be 3.7 billion people today and by 2050 will be double that number, developing countries have a herculean task on their hands to meet demands of this large group of people. The underdeveloped institutions and infrastructure pose a great health risk to people, especially from exposure to high levels of air and water pollution (Henderson 2002, p.89). This essay investigates the dangers to health posed by rapid urbanisation using Kenya as an example.

Urbanisation in Kenya

Kenya has experienced increased and rapid urbanisation in the recent past contributed by three significant factors; rural to urban migration, increase in population in the urban areas due to increased economic opportunities, and reclassification of previous rural areas as urban areas (Ngayu 2011, p.70). Unfortunately, as a result of population and economic pressure, urban populations are increasingly moving into areas vulnerable to natural disasters as well as health risks like slums. In most developed countries, urbanisation is associated with increased economic growth and wealth creation resulting in large cities providing great economic opportunities. However, in Kenya urban population has been increasing at a high rate while the economic growth has been in decline in the same period. After independence in 1963, the economy was growing at the rate of 7% annually in the 1960s this has been declining over the years with 1980s recording a growth rate of 4%,  1990s 2% and in 2001 a paltry 1.2%.

The dismal performance of the economy spells a gloom picture of the life of the Kenyan urban population, which the UN estimates to expand by 38 million by 2030, which will be 62.7% of the entire Kenyan population. This statistic implies then that as the rate of urbanisation increases, more and more urban population will be forced to live in informal settlements that continue to mushroom in the major urban centers in Kenya. Currently, due to minimal investments in the public utilities and infrastructure a significant portion of urban population live in informal settlements in the five major urban centers in Kenya with Nairobi being 60% of the entire population, Mombasa 80%, Kisumu 60%, Eldoret 30%, and Nakuru 40% (Ngayu 2011, p.71). If nothing is urgently done in terms of planning, Kenya faces socio-economic, environmental, health and institutional challenges of large proportion in the near future.

Health Implication of Rapid Urbanisation in Kenya

Urbanisation is accompanied by increased building of residential houses and offices and in developing country such as Kenya, most the buildings are set up especially in Nairobi without a well thought out plan. This has resulted to buildings put up on waterways and others blocking sewerage system as well as water piping system. During rainfall, the city comes to a standstill as it is flooded in every open space posing a high risk to the residents in terms of water borne diseases. The blocked sewerage systems burst and discharge the waste in to the open and can even mix with water used for consumption posing a grave health risk to many residents of Nairobi (Mutisya & Yarime 2011, pp 206). Additionally, the broken water pipes reduce the amount of water reaching the high population of Nairobi residents forcing some to depend on boreholes and rainwater, which is contaminated by filth and toxic gases in the air from the many second hand cars stranded in the long traffic jams.

The high rates of urbanisation coupled with stagnation of economies, poor planning and bad governance have resulted to mushrooming of informal settlements also referred to slums in most cities in Africa. Nairobi is a good example of a city that is heavily burdened with massive urban growth with little or no planning leading to several slums in the city with the largest being Kibera which is also the largest in Africa with a population of about 950,000 people on a 2.5 square kilometers piece of land (Mutisya & Yarime 2011, p.201). The environmental conditions of these informal settlements are dire portending grave health risks to their inhabitants. These conditions are characterized by poor environmental sanitation, housing, and health services. Studies have shown that due to these conditions, the leading causes of death among the children under the age of five years living in these settlements are diarrhea and pneumonia, which can certainly be associated with the rapid urbanisation and poor planning by the authorities (Zulu et al 2011, p.S195).

Nairobi has witnessed high urban population growth and low investment in housing units forcing families to share rooms while youths are transited into adulthood at a young age in order to create room for their siblings. The transition to adulthood means that the youth get to live independently and due to sexual immaturity coupled with low educational levels, they engage in early and unprotected sex with multiple sexual partners leading to sexual transmitted infections.  The young girls get pregnant and due to limited access to quality maternal care, some loose their lives during childbirth thereby increasing the maternal mortality rates of the urban areas (Zulu et al 2011, p.S195).

The poor planning and weak health institutions will continue to pose danger to health in most developing countries. The high population concentrated in the urban areas is a threat to the social and economic stability of these countries. Recently there was an Ebola outbreak in West Africa that affected largely Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone bringing those countries’ health system to almost total collapse. Disease outbreaks spread fast in areas having large populations and one can only imagine if an Ebola outbreak in the magnitude of what took place in West Africa was to happen in an informal settlement like Kibera in the capital city of Kenya, Nairobi. Considering the number of people located in that small section of land coupled by poor sanitation and poor quality of health services, the disaster would be of high proportion unimaginable. It is due to such threats and other prevailing health risk factors that appropriate and urgent intervention measures are required to salvage the situation.

Solutions to the health risks posed by rapid urbanisation in Kenya

Kenya has two rainy seasons, the long rains that take place between March and May and the short rains that normally take place between October and November (Marshall 2011, p.38). These rainy seasons are accompanied with floods in several urban areas in the country due to poor drainage and construction of buildings along the waterways. The floods are a health risk to the residents of these areas through water-borne diseases like cholera because of water contamination. The relevant authorities therefore should start with the easier and more realistic task of clearing the blocked drainages in order to ensure that water flows smoothly in the city, which ultimately reduces significantly the likelihood of floods taking place. In terms of waterways, the relevant authorities should ensure that buildings constructed along the waterways are demolished in order to ensure that water get the necessary pathways. This measure will be hampered by legal challenges as the affected people move to court to seek legal redress.

Contamination of water through broken pipes and open sewerages is a big problem for urban dwellers in Kenya (Mutisya & Yarime 2011, pp 206). The government should ensure that the broken pipes are either replaced or repaired and ensure that there are no open sewerages that could contaminate water used for consumption by the urban dwellers. This very easy and realistic solution does not require a lot of finances or lengthy timeframe. The urban areas planners should come up with a comprehensive planning that will guide the cities and urban centers, which all buildings will be required to abide by. Unfortunately, the last solution is easier on paper than implementing as may of the officials who are mandated to enforce these guidelines are corrupt and inefficient making it difficult to implement the policies and guidelines formulated by policy makers.

Nairobi has experienced a large increase in the number of cars driven on the roads with the large percentage being second hand cars from Japan and China. These cars pollute the air through the fuel fumes they discharge to the environment. The toxic air from these pollutants exposes the children and the elderly to respiratory infections like pneumonia and asthma. The government should put a cap on the number of second hand cars that can imported into the country during a specific period. Alternatively, the government should cap the maximum number of years a particular car should have been in use before being imported into the country. This solution requires cooperation of the regulatory agencies, importer, clearing agents, and the legislative bodies in Kenya.

Conclusion

Developing countries have experienced rapid urbanisation in the recent past as many people move from the rural areas to urban areas in search of economic opportunities. However, the large influx of people moving into the urban centers is not commensurate with the rate and magnitude of investment into social amenities and infrastructure that can handle that kind of population. This ultimately has exposed a large section of urban dwellers especially those living in informal settlements to health risks. The health risks include those associated with floods, contamination of water for consumption, respiratory infections, maternal deaths, and sexually transmitted infections. These health risks require urgent interventions from the relevant authorities to prevent an apocalypse in these urban centers in future. The interventions range from the easier ones like clearing of the drainages to the complicated ones like legislations limiting the number of second hand cars imported into the country.

Bibliography

Henderson, V 2002, “Urbanisation in Developing Countries,” World Bank Research Observer, vol.17, no.1, pp.89-112

Marshall, S 2011, “The Water Crisis in Kenya: Causes, Effects and Solutions,” Global Majority E-Journal, vol.2, no.1, pp. 31-45

Mutisya, E & Yarime, M 2011, “Understanding the Grassroots Dynamics of Slums in Nairobi: The Dilemma of Kibera Informal Settlements,” International Transaction Journal of Engineering, Management, & Applied Sciences & Technologies, vol.2, no.2, pp.197-113

Ngayu, MN 2011, “Sustainable Urban Communities: Challenges and Opportunities in Kenya’s Urban Sector,” International Journal of Humanities and Social Science, vol.1, no.4, pp 70-76

Zulu, et al 2011, “Overview of migration, poverty and health dynamics in Nairobi City’s slum settlements,” Journal of Urban Health: Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine, vol.88, suppl.2, pp.S185-S199