Dr. Gayl D. Ness
Professor Emeritus, University of Michigan

Professor Ness set the larger problems of Asian urban water and sanitation in a wider historical context, comparing Asia's current processes with those that occurred in The West over the past three centuries. Using the concept of the Demographic Transition, he showed how Asia's current development is based in part on new technologies to regulate both deaths and births.

This technological development means that Asia's current demographic and urbanization transitions are occurring much faster than in the past and involve much larger numbers. For example, Europe's population grew from about 200 million in 1750 to 800 million in 1950, over 200 years. Asia's population has grown from 1.4 to 3.7 billion in just fifty years from 1950 to 2000.  Similarly, Europe’s urban population grew from about 10 million to 500 million in the two centuries from 1800 to 2000.  Asia’s urban population grew from about 200 million to 1.3 billion in the 50 years from 1950 to 2000. It is projected to grow to 2.5 billion in the next 30 years. This rapid growth of massive numbers places extremely heavy stress on the water environment: the need for protected water sources and adequate sanitation.

The good news is that the economic development and technological progress of The West’s past industrialization now make it easier to provide a safe water environment for Asia’s cities. In Europe’s past, cities were more deadly, with higher death rates, than the rural areas. The new technology means that it is easier to provide urban areas with protected water, adequate sanitation and better health services than the rural areas. Today urban death and birth rates are lower than rural rates, in large part because they are better served with protected water and adequate sanitation. These measures help contain gastrointestinal diseases, which remain major sources of death and illness in the world’s less developed regions. Simply extending water and sanitation services can dramatically reduce these diseases.

There is also bad news in modern water problems, however. This comes from the development of new chemicals from industrial processes, which seriously contaminate water supplies. Much works need to be done in the technological development of sanitation services, and more effective and aggressive policies are needed to provide both urban and rural peoples with a safer water environment.