Cities must tap local wisdom to solve complex issues: Rathi

India is more than its large metropolitan cities. Developing urban India would mean tapping into the potential of over 8000 cities and towns. Aligarh, a city close to the capital of India, is known for its Aligarh Muslim University and centuries-old locks manufacturing industry. To learn about the development paradigm of Aligarh, Abhishek Pandey, Editor, Urban Update, spoke to Gaurang Rathi, Commissioner of Aligarh Municipal Corporation, as part of the magazine’s One-on-One Series. Rathiis alsothe Vice Chairman of Aligarh Development Authority and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Aligarh Smart City. Excerpts from the interview….

Aligarh is known for its locks industry and a premier university. Like every other city, Aligarh has its challenges like waste management, stormwater management, and traffic congestion. I would like to know how you envision the city’s development.

You said it right that the city of Aligarh is widely known for its locks and education. They form an essential component of its unique identity. Certain challenges are common among all the cities of Uttar Pradesh, including waste management, literacy rate, large population; so naturally, they are also present in Aligarh.
One of the most prominent challenges present in the city is waste management. To efficiently address the issue of waste management in any city, the layout plan needs to be multifaceted so that it includes all the components ranging from collection and transportation to processing. The launch of the Swachh Bharat Mission has pushed urban local bodies across the nations to prioritise the sector of waste management. As a result, Aligarh too has revised its waste management plans to meet all the necessary aspects in recent years.
We are on the verge of bringing a paradigm shift to the city’s waste management as we plan on introducing a door-to-door collection of waste from almost three lakh households, thereby catering to over 14 lakh residents. We have created a seamless plan for transportation of the waste thus collected. We have also planned on establishing intermediate transport stations and processing plants to ensure that maximum waste collected is processed. In addition, we have put together a comprehensive plan to ensure the disposal of waste in scientifically created landfills. Tenders have been released, and the project will be implemented as soon as we receive bids. We are expecting a significant shift in the reality of waste management in Aligarh city with the implementation of this plan.
Similarly, the city faces major challenges in drainage management and waterlogging. It is mainly because of the city’s geography, which is in the shape of a bowl, which exacerbates the problem. This raises the need for a well-structured, integrated, 360 degrees comprehensive plan, which was never developed before. We are currently developing such a comprehensive and integrated plan with the help of various institutions like Jal Nigam and Aligarh Smart City. A topography and Geographic Information System (GIS) study of the city has been scheduled in the coming months for the accurate development of the plan. The goal is to develop a plan that will create solutions for all the related challenges in the long run.

There is a concept of Master Plan for cities to chart out their development course. You have worked in other cities as well, so not only in terms of Aligarh, how important do you think a master plan is for the development of a city? How is the plan implemented in the time frame of 20 years?

Whatever work is done or initiatives are introduced in a city, they all are based on the city’s vision in the master plan. Master plans lay out the vision of over the land development of the city in the coming years. They define the direction and aspects of the development of a particular city. However, the services aspect of city development is a different topic altogether. Let’s take an example of a residential colonies spanning 10 hectares, which was developed as per a master plan. The master plan defined the boundaries of the residential settlement, commercial complexes, dwelling units, etc. But, after this, the services have to be provided by the urban local body in the colony, including sewerage, footpath, and waste management. Therefore, I believe that with the introduction of every master plan, the municipal corporations should ideally create a five-year or a ten-year plan which lays out the expected rate and area of development, thereby listing the list of services and challenges that will need to be catered for the efficient development. The municipal corporation’s parallel formation of a service master plan will bring to reality the vision of ease of living in the cities. I believe it will smoothen the implementation process of the city master plan and thereby its development.

People visit a city for various reasons, sometimes for a short duration. Therefore, the floating population at times adds to the service delivery issues. Does Aligarh have a floating population?

The floating population of Aligarh is average. That is so because it is not a regional centre, not an industrial centre, neither a religious centre nor service or medical centre, unlike the city of Varanasi, which has a big percentage of the floating population which it offers employment opportunities and serves as a religious centre as well.

You were born in meerut, completed your education at the indian institute of technology, delhi, worked in gurugram and sered in various cities of uttar pradesh after getting selected for the civil services. YOU HAVE VISITED FOREIGN CITIES AS WELL. What difference did you notice between these cities, especially between Indian and foreign cities?

The fundamental difference between Indian cities and foreign cities, especially those of the United States, is that the cities and their facilities were planned first and then citizens started residing in them. In India, we have not yet been able to afford such planned inhabitation of cities because of the population load. This, in turn, puts a burden on urban services. But at the same time, the commonality between all cities is that each has its own unique identity. Cities flourish when the development plan and work synchronise with its unique features, and cities die when they
are ignored.
For example, Gurugram’s identity is the abundant job opportunities it offers. But the city has its own set of challenges like drainage and lack of groundwater. Similarly, every city has its unique set of challenges, and so does Aligarh. I believe that every city has full potential to deal with those challenges if the solutions are developed comprehensively, taking into account the experiences, understandings and suggestions of its residents. Challenges can be smoothly dealt with if the solution plans receive the proper handholding and channel resources appropriately.
There are multiple examples where cities have dealt with their challenges on their own. For example, cities of the Netherlands did with some help from the government. Every city similarly has a resilient mechanism through which it can create solutions to any challenges. I believe that if local bodies tap into this, the work will be a lot easier.

You mentioned the importance of using local wisdom to deal with challenges. Currently, climate change and sustainable development have emerged as critical topics worldwide. Several development goals are up and coming, including the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals, New Urban Agenda, Paris Accord, and COP 26 to reach net-zero emissions. However, our local bodies are not well versed with the impacts of climate change on local urban services. How well do you think the urban local bodies, especially in Uttar Pradesh, are prepared to deal with the challenges of attaining such goals? How do you think local bodies can work in the localisation of sustainable development goals?

The sustainable development goals list all those things that a nation’s resident expects its government, city, and village to provide them with. The large population growth of India naturally results in a resource crunch. Therefore, the equal distribution of resources poses the biggest challenge in our nation. To attain SDGs by 2030, the Government of India has created a separate platform whereby the progress is monitored regularly. Different mission and development projects implemented by urban local bodies, I believe, always keeps in check the sustainable aspect of it. There’s always an assessment of how a project addresses the SDGs. Let us take the example of establishing the Aligarh Habitat Centre in the city. The project is in the final stages and will be completed in the next six months. The ACC bricks have been used for the construction of the centre. Unlike the conventional bricks, these bricks are Confedration of Real Estate Developers’ Association of India (CREHAI) approved and are made out of fly ash. It is a small initiative, but it reflects the importance of sustainable practices and SDGs in the sphere of a Smart City. We also try to bring sustainable practices into our everyday activities such as building, travel, and usage of water.

Cities suffered the most during the pandemic as 70-80 per cent of cases in the early phases of the pandemic were reported from cities. You were the municipal commissioner of Varanasi at the time. How was your experience in handling the pandemic?

A pandemic like COVID-19 is the kind of challenge that presents itself once in a century. For unforeseeable events like the COVID-19 pandemic, it becomes essential for cities to remain prepared. During the first and second pandemic waves, the primary focus was on information dissemination in the city. With the help of speaker systems in waste collecting vehicles, apps, and digital and print media, we tried to disseminate as much correct information as possible to the people. The focus was on the accurate information dissemination regarding the lockdown measures, medicines, hospitals, helpline numbers, etc. This was essential for the information about the disease kept changing and evolving through the waves. In the second wave, the focus was on providing services to the people during the pandemic. We tried to create a system where a COVID-19 patient could access help in the fastest possible time. That chain was managed 24*7. Special care was given to ensure the safety and mental health of personnel or stakeholders working in the service area. We did this with the help of centralised process management set up at Kashi COVID and Control Centre. This ensured seamless transactions between police personnel, ambulances and hospitals.
The third aspect of the COVID-19 control and management was the proper cremation of dead bodies in the city. Even though it is not important numerically, it forms an important aspect emotionally in people’s lives. Maintaining seamless service of waste collection, management, and sanitation was also an important part of dealing with the pandemic while simultaneously ensuring sanitation workers’ safety. I believe that the local body of Varanasi did satisfactory work managing the pandemic, and the same was the opinion of the residents.

Do you think our cities are resilient?

Cities, as I mentioned before, are always resilient. I believe resilience to be an essential attribute of a city. Can our cities overcome challenges and tragedies like the COVID-19 pandemic? I believe yes. Our cities can face and overcome even bigger challenges than this. The more the cities are prepared at the governance level to face such challenges, the fewer causalities or collateral damage will be reported. Cities have been surviving on their own and will continue to do so.

I mean resilient to challenges like major disasters or pandemicsfor administering and managing health services. For example, we saw the collapse of the health infrastructure of multiple cities across the world during the COVID-19 pandemic. How do you think cities can prepare their systems for such disasters?

Developing such resilience is an ever-evolving developmental aspiration. Things like having one medical practitioner and one paramedic facility to ten people are aspirations that each nation tries to achieve. An appropriate budget is allocated, or an adequate workforce is trained. Saying that the pandemic crumbled our health infrastructure will be a little too harsh on our cities. We saw that virus remained one step ahead of our dealing methods and treatments. This led to the creation of a no specific treatment path for the virus. I believe that our health infrastructure was resilient despite all that. There were certain instances like oxygen cylinder crunch in the second wave where the system failed to rise, but that only highlighted specific gaps in the system to fill. This helped the cities’ health infrastructure to find ways to manage the supply chain of such things. The other issues that came to light during the pandemic will be incorporated into the system by taking a cue from the experiences preparing them for future challenges.

Here’s hoping that no new mutations come in the new year of 2022. So what will be your aspiration for Aligarh for the year 2022?

As I mentioned before, waste and drainage management in Aligarh are major challenges right now because of its geography. The gestation period of both issues is long. I will aim to lay a strong foundation for drainage and waste management in the city this year. This way, 2022 will become a landmark year as it will pave the way for the smooth and rapid development of the city.