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Two-thirds of the world’s population are expected to be city-dwellers in 2050, compared with half in 2008. But while cities have many economic and social advantages, they can damage residents’ health if the right infrastructure is not in place. 

“You have to get water and food in, sewage and waste out,” says Dr Harry Rutter, senior clinical research fellow at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Cities such as London have built this infrastructure over centuries, but those expanding now have to do so in much less time, and often with little money: more than 90% of urbanisation between now and 2050 will take place in low and middle-income countries, according to the World Health Organisation

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