Last updated on November 22, 2022
The conversation on urbanization and its health risks has become imperative to discuss, especially after COVID-19. The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs reports that by 2050, 68% of the global population will live in urban areas, which will increase the risk factors for infections as developing nations may have citizens that live in overcrowded neighborhoods without access to healthcare, clean water, and sanitation. In developed countries, new megacities are being built and developed each year, which can become dangerous incubators for new epidemics. The density of these cities creates a dangerous environment in times of disease: for example, New York City has an estimated 27,000 people per square mile – more than 287 times more crowded than the average population density in America.
In a few decades, the amount of people living in urban areas is projected to increase from 55% to 68%. This rapid migration of people from rural to urban areas causes demand to exceed supply, leading to unplanned slums and informal settlements, and these settlements are often poorly ventilated and lack proper infrastructure for clean water and sanitation. One billion already live in these conditions, and this number is growing. In other words, too many are moving from rural to urban communities, especially in Africa and Asia, contributing to 90% of the urban population increase from now until 2050.
Aside from overcrowding, urbanization also causes human encroachment into isolated ecosystems that potentially contain new pathogens, which quickly jump from animals to humans. In fact, zoonotic infections are already a crisis; it accounts for 60% of reported emerging infectious diseases, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Many well-known diseases can be traced back to animals – rabies, West Nile virus, and Lyme disease. Continuing to expand into new environments only increases the number of infectious diseases.
There are considerably more consequences to rural-urban migration than examined in this article: increased house rents, increased crime rate, increased price of goods, and increased unemployment are just a few other effects. So, how can we solve this problem, and what are the root causes of this? One contributor is the lack of social amenities in rural areas, such as functional roads, electricity, quality health care, and more. Another is the lack of opportunities in higher education and the workforce. People who want to attend universities move to an urban center and stick there even after graduating for their job prospects. How can we fix this? First, the government needs to provide more social amenities to rural communities. The dense population in urban cities attracts government attention at the expense of the smaller regions, which is why many small communities do not receive enough resources to function correctly. Another solution is creating a larger industry in rural areas to give young people the same opportunities as those in cities without moving.
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