Dr. Arvind Kumar*
Like all developing countries India is urbanizing rapidly. By 2036, its towns and cities will be home to 600 million people, or 40 percent of the population, up from 31 percent in 2011, with urban areas contributing almost 70 percent to GDP. Unplanned urbanization is the new normal for most Indian cities and most Global South countries. It has taken the form of large, dense, unplanned informal settlements and slums. The report on urban competitiveness on a global scale highlighted that many urban regions struggle to access clean water, adequate sanitation, healthcare facilities, and educational opportunities. The more the number of people the more pressure is exerted on the resources and infrastructure in a city. Delhi has so many pockets which are an open call for disaster. Everything here is unplanned, extremely narrow streets, no parking, roads always broken, gutters and sewage leaking. Rapid urbanization, unplanned construction, population blast and climate change act as threat multipliers. They amplify existing risks and create new risks for natural and human systems. Most of the world’s largest cities are now in developing countries, and they are growing to sizes never before experienced. The urban population is growing several times as fast as in the rural areas, either through natural growth or through migration from rural areas. The UN’s principal population projection suggests that the world population will grow to nearly ten billion by the middle of this century; already it has gone above 8 billion.
The high density of population and a large number of high-rises make it all the riskier. As per the ministry of Earth Sciences Delhi NCR falls in seismic Zone IV and fall under “severe” to “very severe” categories respectively. Most places along the Yamuna and its flood plain, including highly populated residential colonies in east Delhi, will be among the worst-hit during an earthquake, according to a report on ‘seismic hazard microzonation’ of Delhi brought out by the Ministry of Earth Sciences. Similarly, every year during monsoon a spell of heavy rain bring parts of Delhi and Mumbai to a standstill. It would not be wrong to say that flooding and water-logging have now become a part and parcel of Delhi and Mumbai monsoons.
Disasters pose a major threat to cities’ development. Consequently, a lot of attention has been put into increasing urban capacity to withstand, adapt and grow no matter what kind of catastrophic event they go through. Why?
Which authority should be accountable for allowing multistory buildings mushrooming in unauthorized colonies and slums?
The Accountability Paradox
Disasters are the combination of hazards and vulnerable conditions, and vulnerabilities are increased by excessive physical growth, settlement forms and livelihood patterns. The increased vulnerabilities further escalate the actual impacts of hazards and limit an area’s ability to absorb the impacts. While the authorities look the other way, slums slowly mushroom. Illegal settlements arise without approval often found near city drains, railway tracks, low-lying areas prone to flooding, or on agricultural land and green belts surrounding the city. The emergence of congested, unplanned settlements is not due to inherent flaws in urban planning. Instead, it is the result of the political economy of urban land as a limited commercial resource, compounded by factors such as rural unemployment and migration, which drive urbanization. All activities in a city that involve construction are governed by zoning regulations and building by-laws, also called Development Control Regulations (DCRs).
It is not unheard of that such activities have led to tragic consequences such as fires and the collapse of a building, leading to loss of human lives and property. For instance, in 2019, Delhi recorded 150 deaths due to fires—the city’s highest toll in five years. Across different cities, there have been extraordinary examples of how regulations on construction are flouted in a brazen manner. On a larger scale, such corrupt practices have a cascading effect on governance ecosystems and weaken the fabric of good societal behaviour. These unlawful constructions have proliferated on fragile lands such as unbuildable slopes and hills, in flood zones, or lands encroached from water bodies such as creeks, river embankments, mangroves, salt pan lands, public open spaces, and green spaces. Rivers, lakes, and ponds have either disappeared or have dried up in the process of being readied for residential or commercial construction. There are consequences for the families that occupy such lands as their lives are under constant threat of floods and landslides. The city, overall, is compromised in terms of water egress in case of heavy rains and floods. As global warming and climate change are posing a huge challenge in Indian cities, witnessed in the form of more frequent and severe urban floodings and rising heat events, illegal constructions only worsen the impacts of such events.
Way Ahead
India needs to articulate a policy that would disincentivize demographic density beyond a limit based on the tripod of economic, environmental, and social sustainability. The question of livelihood, largely answered by mainstreaming them in the planning process, would only leave unlawful constructions that are the outcome of greed rather than necessity. Together, plugging the policy gaps, tightening laws, and imparting robustness to governance would enable cities to address unlawful constructions with greater success. It is important to note urbanization is an inevitable process and urban areas will continue to grow demographically and spatially. The collateral damage emerging out of these expanding cities is the result of a breakdown in natural systems. Open spaces and water bodies should not be made victims of ‘planned’ encroachments. Urban streams and water bodies should not be compromised for urban land uses. Identify vulnerable and high-risk areas and prepare monsoon action plans for those areas, based on context. To minimize the loss due to disasters we need a multi-faceted approach for effective mitigation. Climate resilient strategies strongly rooted in a pro-people approach and accountability from governing bodies is a must to ensure that we make our cities resilient, liveable, and safer.
*Editor, Focus Global Reporter
