ENVIRONMENT, POVERTY, AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIAN CITIES

Abstract

Perhaps one of the most urgent problems confronting African cities today is how :>est to plan and manage the environment.Social and economic crises and the crises of governance exacerbate this problem.Urban poverty and relative ignorance further complicate the environmental problems in these centers.Urbanization accelerated phenomenally in the less developed countries particularly since World War II.In 1950, the less developed regions had an urbanization level of 17%.This rose to 3 7.1 % in 1990,41.2% in 1995 and is expected to reach 61.2% by the year 2025.Nigeria is not an exception to this trend, with an urbanization level of 10.1% in 1950, it attained an estimated level of 39.3% in 1995 and may reach 61.6% by the year 2025 (N'Dow 1995).The average annual growth rate in the level of urbanization in Nigeria was 5.9% between 1950 and 1955.This rose to 6.3% between 1960 and 1980.It was estimated to have declined by an average of 5.7% between 1980 and 1995 and is projected to 4.9% between 1995 and 2005 (United Nations 1991).Some cities have had a much faster growth rate at different periods.For example, Lagos was estimated to have experienced a growth rate of 14% per annum in the first decade of independence.This has now slowed down to about 4.5% per annum.The Institute of Town Planners highlighted the problem of accelerated growth in urbanization in Nigeria.The Institute emphasized that while Nigerian cities are growing at an alarming rate, with adverse consequences to the quality of life, little is being done by the policy-makers on the population at large to ensure a sustainable, sane, and healthy development of the cities (The Guardian January 20, 1997). Cities and the EnvironmentCities have played major roles in human civilization and also function as the focus of a wide variety of economic, social, and cultural opportunities.They are also the milieux of environmental drama.The population of cities exhibits a variety of consumption patterns as between the densely populated neighbourhoods and the low-density areas.These together with the demands placed on natural resources by city-based activities and improper waste disposal all suggest that the major environmental problems of the future will be city problems.The United Nations Centre for Human Settlement (1995) noted thus: The city will also be the place, as it already is, where compelling social issues

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