Infrastructure Coverage and the Poor: A Global Perspective. Kristin Komives, Dale Whittington, and Xun Wu, University of North Carolina. International Conference: Infrastructure for Development: Private Solutions and the Poor, May 31 - June 2, 2000, London, United Kingdom. (pdf download available)

Man’s Struggle for Shelter in an Urbanizing World. Abrams, Charles. 1964. Cambridge, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Republished in 1966 as Housing in the Modern World. London: Faber and Faber.

Priceless: A Survey of Water. The Economist. July 19th - 25th 2003.

Third World Cities: Housing, Infrastructure and Servicing. Gilbert, A. 1992. Urban Studies 29 (3/4)

Water for People, Water for Life: The United Nations World Water Development Report. UNESCO Publishing. 2003. (To order)

This Report offers a global overview of the state of the world's freshwater resources, based on the collective inputs of 23 United Nations agencies and convention secretariats. It is part of an on-going assessment process to measure progress towards achieving sustainable use of water resources, and to influence how policy for doing so may be better formulated and implemented.

Water and Sanitation in the World's Cities: Local Action for Global Goals. David Satterthwaite and Gordon McGranahan. United Nations Settlements Program. 320 pages. (To order). May also be ordered from UN-Habitat web site, which also advertises a softcover html download.

Contents: Provision of Water and Sanitation in Cities; The Impacts of Deficient Provision; Explaining Deficiencies in Urban Water and Sanitation Provision; Increasing Water Stress and Its Impact; Changing Perspectives and Roles: Privatization and Beyond; Improving Provision Through Integrated Water Resource Management; Governance for Good Provision: Getting the Best from Public, Private and Community Organizations; Bibliography

The report warns that it will not be possible to meet the UN Millennium Goal of halving the number of people without adequate water and sanitation by the year 2020 without a major review of urban sanitation. Current official national statistics often disguise the real problem of the poor in cities and towns because most surveys assume that the urban poor are better served than the rural poor with "improved" provision of water and sanitation. The report examines in detail problem areas in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and includes personal accounts of distress from poor areas around the world.