Urbanisation in the developing world

In a century, a major part of the globe has moved to urban areas. From 10% to 55%, the increase has been drastic and is expected to continue. This is especially true for cities in the developing world, which will host the major part of this influx. It’s expected that 9% of the world’s population, by 2030, will be living in 41 megacities ⁴.

People living in urban areas has increased from 10% to 55% in a century

Interestingly enough there lies a correlation between the extent of urbanisation and the human development index ⁵ (HDI). Further more, highly urbanised & high-income countries also rank high on HDI, followed by middle-income and low-income countries. Needless to say, urbanisation has opened doors for a large number of people to opportunities for economic growth. What’s important is to make sure that the consequent infrastructure developments that aid growth be principled by tenets of sustainability. A sustainable or rather circular approach becomes all the more pertinent for our cities given that they produce 50% of global waste, 80% of global GDP, 60-80% of GHG emissions and consume 75% of  natural resources but occupy just 3% of global land surface ⁶.

A sustainable or rather circular approach is pertinent for our cities given that they:

• produce 50% of global waste, 80% of global GDP, 60-80% of GHG emissions;
• consume 75% of  natural resources; but
• occupy just 3% of global land surface.

Lack of appropriate infrastructure in developing world forces people to slums

Emergence of slums in Asia, the “economic centre”

~523 mn people live in urban slums in Asia
or
61% of the entire urban slum population in developing countries

In developing countries, due to the major influx of populace into urban centres and lack of appropriate infrastructure, a large proportion of people are forced to live in slums.
Roughly 523 million live in urban slums in Asia, which is 61% of the entire urban slum population in developing countries⁷.
As much as the economic centre is moving towards Asia ⁸, so is the need for basic infrastructure provisions for the cities becoming increasingly important.

Sanitary provisions… or rather lack of it
Slums may have little or no access to basic provisions of sanitation and clean drinking water. The Millennium Development Goal (MDG), set by the UN, resolved to halve by 2015 the population without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation and, by 2020 to significantly improve the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers.

Some 2.5 bn people still do not have access to toilets

However, some 2.5 billion people still do not have access to toilets ⁹. Absence of sanitation facilities (or poorly managed facilities) leads to mass defecation, which has a toll on health and the environment.

WaterHubs: A resource ATM for urban slums

Days of centralised and controlled planning are far gone now, the world is dynamic and changing quickly. This means we need to evolve the way we plan and develop cities.

WaterHubs is a circular economy

By closing the metabolic loops of material flows within a system a lot can be done in terms of resource savings and efficiency. What’s needed is an integrated approach for tackling the water-waste-energy nexus with systemic solutions.


In line with this, WaterHubs incorporates such tenets and is therefore an example of a circular economy in action. Developed at Biopolus (Hungary), WaterHubs is a modular water & sanitation infrastructure solution for urban slums. It integrates modular blocks of sanitation, water treatment & supply, organic waste processing, energy & nutrient recovery. The solution is co-created with the community and provides functions like:

• Community services (toilets, shower etc…);
• Biological sewage treatment & water recycling/reuse;
• Waste processing and electricity access; and
• Agricultural production.

WaterHubs can serve 5,ooo – 50,000 people with state of the art climate technologies
It doesn’t rely on conventional planning

There are three main differentiator of are WaterHubs:

1. Holistic: Instead of a narrow focus on solving one problem, we look at it with other problems &/or demands. Instead of installing a toilet where there is none, we install an entire infrastructure that not only offers sanitation services but also treats the waste and extracts value from it (energy, nutrients etc…).
2. Utility infrastructure: The community is able to treat the WaterHubs facility as a utility. Having a provision for community service is an essential component of our design. WaterHubs wouldn’t be a zone of filth or toilets but rather an aesthetic and pleasant space that can be used for daily activities & chores.
3. Fiscal viability: Instead of being a cost centre for the city, WaterHubs will be a revenue generator. By extracting value from supposed waste WaterHubs will pay for itself.

WaterHubs provides basic sanitation needs whilst recycling water & waste thereby also generating revenue

Overall we see great potential in WaterHubs as a solution for basic water & sanitation services for slums. At the same time there is tremendous opportunity to save and recycle resources including water and waste.
WaterHubs can be a model of integration and symbiosis between nature, technology and even society that we can show the world!