Green action in all TS districts: MAUD Secretary

Hyderabad: The 33 districts in Telangana will implement a green action plan by all urban local bodies for the next 5 years. Each urban local body (ULB) should have a nursery, and earmark 10% of the budget as green budget as the first step. They should conduct water audit and reduce non-revenue water to its minimum, said Arvind Kumar, Principal Secretary, Municipal Administration and Urban Development Department. He was speaking at the 5th International Conference on 'Counter Measures: Urban Heat Islands' here on Monday.

An urban heat island is an urban area or metropolitan area that is significantly warmer than its surrounding rural areas due to human activities. The three-day conference focuses on counter measures to Urban Heat Islands (IC2UHI). Urban Heat Island is partly due to the choices of building materials, lack of vegetation, and urban design. The conference is devoted to the science, engineering and public policies to help relieve excess heat and air pollution of summers in hot cities.

Prof Vishal Garg, Head of Centre of IT in Building Sciences, IIIT-H and organising chair of the conference, said, "An urban heat island is an urban area that is significantly warmer than its surrounding rural areas due to human activities. The temperature difference is usually larger at night than during the day and is most apparent when winds are weak. This UHI leads to an increase in energy consumption, elevated emissions of air pollutants and adversely impacts human health and comfort, especially of urban poor."

The conference will provide an opportunity to showcase and discuss the initiatives in India, such as the Telangana government's, "Making Telangana a cool state - a state-wide cool roof program" with the international experts. The Telangana Cool Roofs Plan is a unique initiative building on the pioneering Telangana Energy Conservation Building Code (ECBC) to increase energy savings in buildings and contribute to reduction of the urban heat island effect. The program aims to achieve 100 sqkm cool roof area in Hyderabad by 2030.