Land Use, Urbanization, and Urban Sprawl

http://www.citylab.com/politics/2016/02/zika-virus-urbanization-globalization/462366/

A major cause for which the Zika virus is spreading is due to urbanization. In this article, the author talks about how in the past years the world has been growing in population leading to a growth in urbanization and globalization. All these factors contribute to the Zika virus in different ways. Because urbanization is increasing, this means that more slums or neighborhoods that are less economically advanced have poor health systems and their water system is unclean. Also, mosquitoes love to be near and lay their eggs around a place where there are many people. So because of their preference in living, urbanization is a perfect reason for the increase in mosquitoes which leads to an increase in the Zika virus. The slums seem to have the most effect from the virus because of their poorly maintained neighborhoods. I feel like the government should increase regulations to keep all neighborhoods clean and have a clean water system because mosquitoes like to be around water. With the help of the government and the residents to make sure that the areas are clean, the mosquito population will decrease leading to a decrease in Zika virus and people with the virus. Because urbanization is not able to be stopped by anyone due to the population growing each year, this plan seems to be a great plan to execute to lead to a decrease of the virus spread. When reading this article, I had a few questions concerning the water supply people in the slums have. If the government knows that the slums or poorer parts of the city do not have adequate water supply, then why are they not trying to help them? Is it really no one of their concerns? An example of slums with this issue is in Brazil and the people here have to collect their water in jars, which is another preferable home for mosquitoes, and this will result in an increase in the Zika virus. Although some slums are dangerous like the ones in Brazil, it still does not mean that their health is of no concern. Also if one person in the population gets infected, the infection can spread to other so it is convenient for the government to help. Urbanization is good for the economy because it means more jobs, more production due to more demand, and more money, however, in the case of the Zika virus, urbanization is not good.