Assessments of the Urban Environment

In 1900, only one in ten people lived in cities but today half of the world population – well over 2900 million people – lives in urban areas. Already, 19 cities – 15 of them in the developing world – have populations exceeding 10 million. The result is that during the last century, the combined municipal and industrial use of water worldwide grew 24 times while agricultural use of water increased only five times. ¹