Indian cities must develop climate-resilience plans
The first step in developing such a strategy is to identify weatherrelated risks and devise early warning systems
An estimated 805 million people were affected by approximately 288 weather-related disasters in India between 1995 and 2015. These figures show how critical it is for cities to be built or modified according to their topography and vulnerability. Take for example, urban floods. In the last one year, India has seen at least four major ones and one of the key reasons for this is the decades-old drainage systems have not kept pace with population growth.
To ensure that cities, which are our engines of growth, don’t go under water, the authorities must ban construction in open ground spaces and wetlands since they absorb excess rain water. Indiscriminate land use in cities has created impervious expanses of concrete that increases the risk of flooding. Urban development must include green infrastructure and rainwater harvesting. Together, they can address the water requirement and also safeguard the city against localised or riverine floods.
Green infrastructure in the form of rain gardens, bioswales — which remove silt and pollution out of surface run-off water — and water-permeable pavements can absorb rainwater and prevent it from stagnating. Rain gardens comprise native plant species, require minimal maintenance, and absorb much more water than conventional lawns. Residential and commercial buildings can cultivate rooftop gardens or green roofs to reduce the storm water run-off. These roofs can also provide the occupants of the building with water that can be stored and used for their daily needs. In earlier times, there used to be large stretches of floodplains running along the course of rivers. They served to shield the surrounding towns from floods in case the river overflowed.
Most Indian cities have not been designed for resilience. This is partly because there are no robust indicators to evaluate the success or failure of urban planning. The first step in developing a resilience strategy is to identify infrastructure and risks, and to devise early warning systems. Infrastructure for transport, water, sanitation, and power should be designed for maximum resilience. The urban design of cities should be revisited, if need be. Building codes and land-use plans should be enforced to reinforce old structures and prohibit construction work in risk-prone areas. Finally, substandard construction practices must be stopped. All this calls for a change of mindset. Instead of trying to bend nature to our will, we should try and harness it so that it aids our cause. And it starts with the essential step of giving our urban infrastructure a generous sprinkling of green. Brotin Banerjee is MD and CEO, Tata Housing The views expressed are personal