Question

Directions (Q. Nos. 111-115) : The popular view of towns and cities in developing countries of the urbanisat process is that the emergence of cities connotes environmental degradation, generation slums and squatters, urban, poverty, unemployment, crimes, lawlessness, traffic, chaos etc. But what is the reality? Given the unprecedented increase in urban population over the last 50 years from 30 million in 1950 to 2 billion in 2000 in developing countries, the wonder really is how well the world has copped quality of life has improved in terms of availability of water and sanitation, power, health and education, communication and transport. By way of illustration, a large number of urban residents have been provided with improved water in urban areas in Asia's largest countries such as China, India, Indonesia and Philippines. Despite that, the access to improved water in terms of percentage of total urban population seems to have declined during the last decade of 20th century, though in absolute numbers, millions of additional urbanites have been provided improved services. These countries have made significant progress in provision of Sanitation services too, together, providing for an additional population of more than 293 million citizens within a decade (1990-2000). These improvements must be viewed against the backdrop of rapidly increasing urban population, fiscal crunch and strained human resources and efficient and quality-oriented public management. The average annual increase in the number of urbanites in developing countries, from AD 1950 to 2000 was close to :

• A. 4 million
• B. 3 million
• C. 10 million
• D. More than one of the above
• E. None of the above

Answer 1

Answer: (E)

According to the given passage, the average annual increase in the number of urbanites in developing countries from AD 1950 to 2000 was close to 3 million and beyond that. Hence, option (e) is correct.