If cities are not resourced then no one is

All India Institute of Local Self-Government (AIILSG), in collaboration with CityNet organised a webinar as part of a series on ‘Localising SDGs’. The webinar was organised on November 18, 2021. Abhishek Pandey, Editor, Urban Update mediated the webinar and introduced the topic of the webinar – ‘Building cities and conserving the environment with decentralised initiatives’. An esteemed panel of speakers including Jaya Dhindaw, Associate Director, World Resources Institute of India; Dr Raman V R, Head of Policy, WaterAid India; Cardelar Stevie Angel Madrinan, City Environmental Officer, City of Puerto Princessa; and Ranjan Panda, Convenor, Combat Climate Change Network, presented their views.

Processing all waste, adjusting policies with growing urbanisation, maintaining forest cover in the city, are some of the basic ways through which Puerto became a city that has a proper balance between development and environment with inclusive economic growth. The city of Puerto Princesa has a yearly celebration called ‘Feast of the Forest’ where universities plant different species of trees in watersheds and other areas which lie outside the united forest area

Introducing the theme of the webinar, Pandey said that people come to cities for job opportunities; better services in health, education, public civic services, etc. But, why do people face so many problems to access the very things that they came to cities for, he asked. Flash floods in big cities like Chennai and traffic and congestion problems in all the big cities reflect on the difficulties a man has to face to sustain himself. Overcrowded hospitals, deforestation, destruction of water bodies like wetlands and rivers highlight how the demand for cities has been creating issues for the cities as well.
The first speaker of the webinar, Dhindaw gave her presentation on how urban population growth started happening around municipal boundaries and how it is affecting the general development of a city. She quoted that about 30 square kilometres of newly built-up area are added every year into a city and that this built-up area remains messy and hidden. She showed that cities have been building on wetlands; for example in Bengaluru, 85 per cent of floodplains in the city have been encroached upon by the built-up area. As a result, very little rain causes floods and loss of productivity in the city.
India ranks 13th on the list of extremely water-stressed countries in the world, the reflection of which can be seen in cities like Chennai, Jaya added. Chennai’s four lakes are drying up at a rapid rate, and at the same time, the city keeps facing floods every year. Urban poor people remain the most exposed to these situations. She quoted that over the past two decades, Chennai’s urban settlement has increased by 90 per cent while its natural infrastructure has reduced by 62 per cent. This is often referred to as the reason behind Chennai taking the brunt of economic loss of around $ 3 billion due to floods because the natural infrastructure at the outskirts of the city was eaten up by built up.
Moreover, Dhindaw said that the urban poor are most exposed to the effects of global warming including heat risk living. This has been and continues to push marginal communities into poverty, numbers of which are expected to increase multifold in coming years due to lack of investment and actions. The fastest-growing cities in India have the least public resources available due to lack of investment in good infrastructure, good health, citizens’ well-being, etc.
Her presentation emphasised the importance of available opportunity for India to build green infrastructure. 75 per cent of urban India’s infrastructure is yet to be built by 2050, so green infrastructure being more cost-effective, resilient, flexible, and reversible, is something that cities have the opportunity to invest in. She said that when it comes to financing nature-based solutions in India, challenges lie in the form of lack of experience, governance hindering innovation in business model, focus on capital investment, etc. So, she added that when one looks at nature-based solutions and developing infrastructure for cities, it is essential to work with all the stakeholders and engage everybody in terms of policy, promoting innovation, channeling finance and bolstering actions on the ground.
Next speaker Dr Raman said that the fragmented nature of our planning for cities hinders the overall development. Preparedness and policies are in place in cities to deal with disasters and other environment-related issues but much yet needs to be done to bring preventive measures in place to a level where future issues can be avoided.
The dichotomy of the situation in our cities is that on one side, cities are facing water scarcity and on another, they are trying to tackle floods. Dr Raman took up how to integrate city planning, climate action planning, disaster mitigation planning and overall development planning with the (Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene) WASH segment. He said that engaging with the elected members of an urban body and engaging with the posted officials to raise awareness on various problems is essential to the undertaking of decentralised initiatives.
Pandey then invited Cardelar Stevie Angel Madrinan to share the city’s success story of achieving carbon neutrality. His presentation shared Puerto Princesa’s decentralised initiatives in building the city into a carbon-neutral urban space. Processing all waste, adjusting policies with growing urbanisation, maintaining forest cover in the city, are some of the basic ways through which Puerto became a city that has a proper balance between development and environment with inclusive economic growth.
The city of Puerto Princesa has a yearly celebration called ‘Feast of the Forest’ where universities plant different species of trees in watersheds and other areas which lie outside the united forest area. Moreover, every year on Valentine’s Day, the city celebrates ‘Love Affair with Nature’ with non-fruit plantings like mangroves and mass weddings. The city has introduced local programmes to bring good change from the very root of society. Pandey said that the presentation highlighted how citizen engagement is essential to inclusively develop a livable city like Puerto Princesa.
The next speaker, Ranjan Panda, started with the fact that cities today are water guzzlers and greenhouse gas emitters, whose energy requirements seldom remain limited to their geographical boundaries. At the same time, he said, cities have started trying to mould themselves into a green, livable, inclusive, and sustainable environment. Communities in cities are majorly formed by people from outside who bring a surplus amount of traditional knowledge, which if implemented after integration and directed, can help the cities attain what they are striving for, he added. Citizen engagement, as referred to in the case of Puerto Princesa, will be an important element.
Concluding the session, Pandey said that the highlight of the discussion was inculcating citizen engagement and community knowledge into planning. He said that even though India had introduced the 73rd and 74th Amendment Acts to make it easier to take initiatives at the local level for the pressing issues that cities face, most of the schemes and programmes are introduced at the national level and the local bodies become just implementing agencies. India needs to give more power for policy-making and access to financial resources to the local governments under the mission of decentralising the nation to actualise the aim of sustainable, inclusive, and green urban spaces. He said that policymakers can take a cue from the key action points discussed by the esteemed panelists in the webinar.