United Nations Radio

Today is World Habitat Day. In a message to mark the day, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says many of the world's most pressing challenges – such as poverty, natural disasters, and escalating prices for food and fuel – have important links with rapid urbanization.

He says cities have tremendous potential to be places where balanced development prevails, where diverse people live in harmony, and where healthy living conditions coexist with low levels of energy consumption, resource-use and waste.

The Secretary-General calls on all partners and stakeholders to do their utmost to realize this potential, and to build decent living conditions for all in a way that also preserves natural heritage and promotes greener and smarter growth.

This theme of this year's World Habitat Day is "harmonious cities".

But the Secretary-General warns our rapidly urbanizing world cannot claim to be harmonious if slum dwellers do not enjoy opportunities to find jobs and improve their living conditions.

There are close to one billion slum dwellers in the world today. UN-HABITAT estimates that if current trends continue, there will be 1.4 billion by 2020.

This is Donn Bobb reporting for United Nations Radio.

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