Delhi health crisis linked to urbanisation
As the city expands, the state’s provision of infrastructure and basic services lags behind
India’s capital city, Delhi, often hits the headlines. The United Nations reckons it is expanding by 100 people an hour, or 3% a year, making it the world’s fastest-growing city. Delhi is expected to overtake Tokyo and become the world’s largest metropolis by 2028.
On a recent research visit to the city, I discovered flaws in the government’s handling of this process. Delhi’s experience is a warning to many African countries experiencing rapid urbanisation.
Cities that don’t prepare for the population influx risk falling so far behind the curve that they become overwhelmed. It then becomes impossible to catch up with people’s needs for housing, transport, jobs and basic services.
For too long, Delhi has neglected the requirements of its poor communities for decent and dignified living conditions. A catalogue of chronic public health problems now faces local residents. Too many have been left behind while privileged groups benefit from government largesse.
Photo: Cathal Mcnaughton/reuters
Engaging communities in building a sound evidence base creates legitimate and compelling demands for service improvement. Citizens learn about their rights and what they can reasonably expect the government to deliver. They are empowered by understanding that the problems they face are collective rather than individual.
Close involvement in monitoring local conditions also gives rise to constructive proposals for how things might be done differently. Informed citizens are better equipped to hold decision-makers to account. They are taken more seriously and are more likely to elicit a positive response from the authorities. In short, neighbourhoods can be turned from zones of poverty and exclusion into domains of mobilisation.
Given the extraordinary costs and complexity of organising centralised systems of waste disposal and sewage treatment in a city the size of Delhi, there are many opportunities to introduce devolved solutions at district or neighbourhood level.
By advocating local solutions to local problems, Pria promotes the creation of local jobs and incomes, while improving service provision in deprived communities. Decentralised, off-grid systems are also likely to be less expensive, more resilient and more environmentally sustainable than highly capitalintensive projects.
Summing up, visiting Delhi sparked mixed reactions — surprise at the stark poverty and institutionalised inequality, but also optimism stemming from insights into ways of disrupting the inertia and stimulating social change. Better resourced municipalities working hand-inhand with local communities could do much to improve the basic conditions of life.