Does Great Plumbing Make Great Cities?

We live in a world of cities—half of the world’s population lives in cities today and the United Nations projects that the urban population will grow to 70 percent of the world population by 2050. Not only is the world experiencing rapid urbanization but the number of megacities (cities with more than 10 million people) is also on the rise. In 1950, there were only two megacities, New York and Tokyo. By 2005, this number had grown to 20 and is projected to increase to 22 by 2015. Seventeen of those megacities will be located in developing countries.

The growth in cities, particularly large ones, is important because we are coming to realize that the economic health of countries increasingly depends on the economic health of its major cities. Cities are significant generators of employment, wealth and productivity growth. A few more numbers: a 2011 report by McKinsey & Co. found...