• Half of humanity now lives in cities and, within two decades, nearly 60% of the world’s population -5 billion people- will be urban dwellers.
• Urban growth is most rapid in the developing world, where cities gain an average of 5 million residents every month.
• The exploding urban population growth creates unprecedented challenges, among which provision for water and sanitation have been the most pressing and painfully felt when lacking.
• The relationship between water and cities is crucial. Cities require a very large input of freshwater and in turn have a huge impact on freshwater systems.
• Cities cannot be sustainable without ensuring reliable access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation.

The section “Did You Know…?” is taken from the UN-Water Decade Programme on Advocacy and Communication (UNW-DPAC) publication “Water and Cities: Facts and Figures“.