Sunday, January 15, 2012

Can We Prevent Unplanned Urban Development I?

This graphic picture is from Greenpeace, India.
Here's the link.
I used to be a fan of Tavleen Singh's columns in the eighties. Recently I’ve rediscovered her and have started following her on twitter.  One of her tweets baldly declares, "Unless we realize the vital need for planned urban development India will become the largest slum in the world. And, sooner than we think." A dire warning, if ever there was one.

Planning of cities and distributing resources has to be undertaken by the government. It cannot be left to individuals or corporate interest.  Take migration to our cities. In the eighties I remember reading something that stuck in my mind - that a thousand people migrated to Mumbai every day. That means one thousand more people used the same, unchanged resources of Mumbai daily - resources like water, electricity, land, our roads and footpaths. I don’t have the numbers for today. This is a huge burden on the city’s finite resources and there simply might not be enough to go around unless our government has plans to increase those resources. There will come a time when people will use any means simply to be able to get their hands on these fast depleting resources. Take land in our cities to build on. In the sixties and seventies there was enough for everyone. Then, as demand outgrew supply, our flats started getting smaller and more expensive.

If our builders had their way, they’d build wherever there is space. Take Gilbert Hill in Mumbai, for example. It is one of only two 65 million year old rocks on Earth. The other one is in the US and is declared a heritage site - protected and preserved by the government. The one in Mumbai is hemmed in by tall buildings and desecrated by humans, has a temple on top with a resident caretaker and builders are trying to get permission to build on it. Over 33,000 people have signed the petition to save Gilbert Hill.

What chance do the poor have to live in comfort? They simply put up shanty houses and now, we have shanty towns within our cities. They also encroach on our footpaths, railway stations and any public place – as long as they can remain in the city to eke out a living and feed their families.

Villagers come in their droves too as there is no proper infrastructure in their villages. I have written about their investing in wiring for their houses in anticipation of the government’s promise of an electricity grid. The government did not fulfil that promise in thousands of our villages. Thanks to private enterprise and having to re-invest again, they now have solar panels. (The post is here) I leave it to you to judge whether the government is short of funds or whether individuals in the government siphon off funds allocated for various noble sounding projects for the good of our villages.  And that is just one of their (the villagers’) problems. There’s the lack of pucca roads. No infrastructure and no connectivity? It is difficult to eke out a living under those circumstances. The obvious solution for many - why not migrate to our cities?

Cities like Mumbai attract the well heeled, villagers, farmers and the poor alike. Tavleen is right. Urban development in Mumbai is definitely unplanned. 

When they migrate, the well-off get assimilated more easily and their adding to the burden on the city’s resources is less visible. What problems do the poor face and how do they affect the city’s resources? Their living quarters are crowded and cramped. They either have relations in our slums or they encroach on our footpaths. They have nowhere to carry out their daily ablutions. It has to be public places. They can only afford coal or kerosene as fuel. These aren't good for the air we breathe. In crowded and cramped conditions with so many people breathing and going about their daily lives, coal lacks enough oxygen to burn efficiently. As a result, the end product is not only carbon dioxide but carbon monoxide. This is poisonous. The quality of the air they breathe suffers. Their health suffers. And to think they've had to leave their villages and farms where the air they breathe is much less poluted!


Part II discusses Garbage and what we can do. One of the most obvious outcomes of unplanned migration to our cities has been garbage.
Some known and unknown facts about this monumental problem...




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16 comments:

  1. Thanks for sharing your blogs.I thank You for the Incredible support for Geological wonder you have bestowed upon the Universe, and for the blessings that have brightened it. It is really amazing how blogging brings changes to our life, lifestyle and interests. That brings us to a new level of awareness. Thanks a Million!

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    1. Hi Shail, Welcome to the blog. I think you have made all of us aware of what's happening to this geological wonder and sincerely hope you and other Mumbai folks are able to save it. As for blogging, it makes me feel more connected to ordinary folks and their opinions. Don't have to depend on politicians and newspapers to dish out their versions and interpretations.

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  2. We love to live in chaos and there is no hope with current breed of people managing !

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    1. It is early days, Rahul. People have just started making their presence felt since last year. We will learn how to make our wishes count. Keeping informed, getting together, organising and planning before taking action will make them accountable.

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  3. India has no time for it's heritage. So blinded it is by wealth.

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    1. We haven't done our part either, Purba, by not policing and holding accountable, the ones who can make a difference. But like I said to Rahul earlier, we're learning.

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  4. aah! i am not sure if my comment went through because my system suddenly shut down. so let me rewrite it again. if it has gone thru pls ignore this comment.

    well i was saying that i liked the way you took off from a tweet & onto a full-fledged article on this issue. shows your deep concern and creates awareness for the readers. i didnt know about Gilbert hill at all. thanks for sharing that.

    by the way, the text size on ur post is really small bit difficult to read. the size in the comments section is fine, readable. i dont know if its just me though.

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    1. Thanks Sujatha, received just a portion of your earlier comment. I'll increase the font size, just for you :)

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  5. Cities are planned according to the needs of the contemporary time. You won't believe the way the city of Kochi is consturcted. Totally unplanned in today's terms. Yet it is the commercial centre of Kerala. It is bulging out into the rural areas. It is eating up the rural areas. In the process a whole lot of poor people perish. Mumbai or Delhi or Kolkatta, any city survives by eating up the poor!

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    1. I'm not surprised, Matheikal. But sad. If they gave our villages the infrastructure, if middle men gave them a fair price for their produce, who in their right mind would want to come to our cities and crowd them?

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    2. Too many ifs... but we mustn't give up if we want our young to breathe clean air and drink clean water

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  6. A very informative post. I claim to be a mumbai lover but sadly didnt know about Gilbert Hill. The unplanned devel,opment is a disgrace. Its been two years that I'm seeing the monorail construction around Parel and the progress is nowhere in sight. Slums are wiped off and buildings have been constructed in this area within a year. The [priorities and development pace disparity is a concern, if not "just a concern"

    The city needs to be planned well or else the tweet might come true sooner than we'd like it to.

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  7. Thanks Madhusha and welcome to the blog. By now, I feel your comment is depressingly familiar. When they set their minds to it they seem unstoppable. We've somehow got to make them accountable to our country and our people - not to parties. Perhaps we need to vote in some independents - not parties that seem to spend billions just to remain in power.

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    1. A word about Tavleen....Over the years she has become very aggressive and opinionated...I saw her bullying passengers at an airport once and acting as if she were gods gift to mankind.
      A curious case of misplaced priorities is visible everywhere. Everything revolves around politics.....who bothers about holistic development.

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    2. I did not appreciate her posts on Anna Hazare and team either - convenient half truths I thought. But what I've always appreciated about her is that she's never been afraid to voice her opinions and this one about our unplanned cities turning into slums resonated with me.

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  8. An article (http://escapefromindia.wordpress.com/) giving statistics on not only living conditions of Indians (as under) but also on education, economy, health, corruption

    89 percent of rural households do not own telephones; 52 percent do not have any domestic power connection. There are daily power cuts even in the nation’s capital. The average brownout in India is three hours per day during non-monsoon months, 17 hours daily during the monsoon. The average village is 2 kilometers away from an all-weather road, and 20 percent of rural habitations have partial or no access to a safe drinking-water supply. [Tarun Khanna, Yale Center for the Study of Globalization]

    According to the National Family Health Survey data (2005-06), only 45 per cent of households in the country had access to improved sanitation.

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