Healthy Cities in Africa for Healthy Cities in Africa

Share on Twitter Share on Facebook Share on LinkedIn Compartment in Google Plus By José María Mella Marques, professor emeritus and member of . Alliance of European Universities, Autonomous University of Madrid) Recently, I have been invited to participate in a meeting on Healthy Cities in Africa (University of Lubumbashi. Democratic Republic of the Congo. The purpose of my participation focused on the management of urban solid waste, urban mobility and air quality, as well as urban environmental policies. Nowadays they are authentic challenges for cities, even more so if we consider that in the. African context there is an extraordinarily expansive urbanization process.

In this article we will deal with

The first three aspects of the problem and we will leave the policies for a future occasion. Certainly. Africa presents an accelerated urbanization process, although it is still one of the least urbanized continents in the world. This urban expansion is accompanied by an enormous challenge: diffuse and chaotic Iran Phone Number Data  urban growth, without the provision of sufficient infrastructure.  Equipment and economic activities. The population is forced to travel long distances to access services and jobs. Mobility becomes expensive and greenhouse gas emissions, air pollution, noise, traffic congestion and accident risks are its secondary effects. To the above we must add the problems of sanitation, waste disposal and water supply. In the inhabitant in African cities is still relatively small, as is their collection capacity.

Inappropriate dumping or discharge

Methods, open incineration  recovery. The proper management of MSW could be an important pole for job creation in African cities. But for this it is Qatar Phone Number List  necessary to have national and local MSW treatment plans with clear priorities based on prevention, improvement of public health.  Citizen participation and the use of digital technologies. Urban mobility, conditioned by a problem of diffusion and dispersion of growth.  Which generates additional costs so that unit fuel consumption per trip is much higher. in the periphery than in the center. In turn, the loss of time and  total costs.