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According to the Rapid Response Assessment by the UN Environment Programme (Unep) and UN-Habitat, urban centres in Africa are growing at a faster rate than anywhere else in the world.

Today, 40% of Africa's one billion people live in urban areas, and 60% in slums, where water supplies and sanitation are severely inadequate. Africa's urban population without access to safe drinking water jumped from close to 30 million in 1990 to well over 55 million in 2008.

Over the same period, the number of people without reasonable sanitation services doubled to about 175 million, the report, launched on World Water Day, noted.

"These are the stark realities and the sobering facts that need to be addressed as nations prepare for the landmark UN Conference on Sustainable Development in 2012," said Achim Steiner, the UN's under-secretary-general and UNEP executive director.

The conference, also known as Rio+20, takes a green economy in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication as one of its two major themes.

"There is growing evidence from work on the green economy that a different path in terms of water and sanitation can begin to be realised. Indeed, public policies that re-direct over a tenth of a percent of global GDP per year can assist in not only addressing the sanitation challenge but conserve freshwater by reducing water demand by a fifth over the coming decades compared with projected trends," added Steiner.

Dr Joan Clos, executive director of UN-Habitat, said Africa was the fastest urbanising continent on the planet and the demand for water and sanitation was outstripping supply in cities.

"As cities expand, we must improve our urban planning and management in order to provide universal access to water and basic services while ensuring our cities become more resilient to the increasing effects of climate change."

The report, which underlines the growing cooperation between UN-Habitat and UNEP on such issues, provides case studies of cities in several parts of the continent where high urbanisation rates are not matched with adequate water and sanitation infrastructure.

Close to home, the report highlights Grahamstown, which is located in a dry part of SA with frequent droughts. The city has seen its population more than double from 76,000 in 2004. Inspiring water initiatives, such as the Blue Drop System, which is a regulatory tool used by the Department of Water Affairs to monitor the quality of drinking water, and rainwater harvesting has helped the city to provide adequate water services to its growing population. However, the city predicts future crises as climate change brings more droughts and water shortages.

Other cities highlighted in the report are Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia and one of the largest cities in Africa, which in the past 50 years has grown from 100,000 to 3.5 million people and is today facing severe challenges to provide its residents with enough fresh water and sanitation services.

According to the report, only 5% of the solid waste collected in Addis Ababa is recycled and the rest is often piled on open ground, banks of streams and near bridges where it is washed into the rivers.  Moreover, fears of food poisoning are worsened by the fact that 60% of the city's food consumption is supplied by urban farmers who irrigate their crops using wastewater.

The report also highlights Nairobi, Kenya's largest city, which has seen its population increase from 119,000 in 1948 to 3.1 million. Many in the more than 200 slum settlements spread across the city have limited access to safe water and sanitation. The largest slum, Kibera, receives about 20,000 cubic metres of water per day, 40% of which is unaccounted for as it is lost through leakage or dilapidated infrastructure.

But while there are solutions, much more needs to be done, according to the report, to improve access to safe drinking water and sanitation for urban areas. Moreover, it is essential that the long-term solutions make a connection between urbanisation, water and ecosystems and recognise that urban areas in Africa will continue to grow, as will the demand for water and sanitation services.