The Impact of Urbanisation on Health Security of Urban Dwellers in Nigeria

Abstract

Urban centres continue to attract people across social divides. So also is the environment, which changes with constant interactions among urban population who constantly harness environmental resources for their survival. This process comes with its attendant effects that could be either positive or negative. This process explains the rationale behind uneven population patterns among human settlements as well as the lopsided distribution of resources needed to make life worthy of living. The public utilities, health and social services continue to be largely unavailable and where they are available, they are inefficient, shoddy and collapsing. This study is therefore a novel attempt at making a modest contribution to academic discourse on urban studies. It tries to explore the impact of urbanisation on health situation and life expectancy of urban dwellers. The study made use of primary data, which was collected through telephone interviews. The participants in these interviews included scholars in urban studies, public health educators, social workers, and epidemiologists. This was complemented with data from existing literature from scholars in urban and health studies. The results from this study showed that urban environmental problems like inadequate water and sanitation, high infant mortality, lack of rubbish disposal, industrial pollution and its attendant respiratory infections and other infectious and parasitic diseases persist. This is therefore an indication of the deleterious status of socio-economic determinants of health that can hamper a healthy life expectancy.