**2. Situations in developing countries compared to other countries**

Developed and developing world are facing sustainable housing and urbanization challenges in different ways but the developing countries are moving slowly or

#### *Sustainable Housing in Developing Countries: A Reality or a Mirage DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.99060*

even on a negative direction towards adopting feasible sustainable strategies [13]. Developing countries are those countries whose standard of living, income, economic and industrial development remains more or less below average. According to the IMF, there are 52 developing countries with current population of 6.53 billion, which is a considerable proportion (85.09%) of the world's population [14]. It includes the whole of Africa, central and South America, almost all of Asia countries and numerous other island states [14]. Due to low standard of living, income, among others, decent and safe housing remains a dream for a majority of the population in most developing countries, yet housing development in itself create amplified carbon footprint and negative impact on the environment if it's not sustainable [8]. The government even considers sustainable housing as merely social burden, while the so called pro-poor housing programs provide accommodation of poor standards in remote locations with little consideration to the residents' lifestyle and livelihood strategies [8]. Neglecting the fact that, it is through sustainable solutions that the tensions between the sporadic urban growth, climate change, access to clean energy and environmental conditions alongside other issues can be alleviated, while the potential of improved economic prosperity and social development can be further unlocked [8].

There is indeed no doubt in the magnitude of housing problems in developing countries compared to developed countries with good standard of living and industrial development [15]. Urbanization in developing countries is in sharp contrast to that of western industrial urbanization. According to the UN-Habitat 2008b, in developing countries, 1 out of 4 households live in poverty, 40% in African cities. 25–50% of people in developing cities live in informal settlement, while not further than 35% of cities in the developing countries have their waste water treated; 2.5billion people have no sanitation and 1.2 billion do not have access to clean water [16, 17]. Half of the urban population in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean suffer from one or more diseases associated with adequate water and sanitation [18]. Whereas between one third and one half of the solid waste generated within most cities are not collected, and less than half of the cities have urban environmental plan [16]. This has in turn made slum dwellers constitute 36.5% of the urban population in developing countries, with percentage being as high as 62% in Sub-Saharan and 43% in Southern Asia [17]. This has led to increasing urban poverty from rapid rural–urban rush, alongside inability to access sustainable and affordable housing. In developed countries there is high emission of CO2, in terms of energy consumption, 60% of the world's electricity is consumed by residential and commercial building. Space heating accounts for 60% of residential energy consumption and water heating for 18%, but different strategies are relentlessly developed to alleviate these issues [13].
