It’s same tale across India

Far away in Paris, the world may be discussing the climate change in all its seriousness and India may have taken a moralistic stand on many issues and demanding its pie, boldly arguing against the developed nations for their climate crimes.

But the urban planners and the rulers owe an explanation to the people back home - in cities like Chennai, Mumbai, Srinagar and New Delhi. Or for that matter, even in case of Uttarakhand where devastating floods a couple of years ago swallowed more than 5,000 lives.

Whether it is Chennai or New Delhi, the disasters are man-made basically. Whatever may be the merits of our argument in Paris, we should note that we are one of the major polluters of the world.

New Delhi and Chennai metropolis are hogging all the limelight now-a-days and for all the wrong reasons. If the country's capital is in the news for its plummeting air quality and civic apathy, the Southern queen is reaping the disastrous consequences of criminal apathy towards urban development.

Far away in Paris, the world may be discussing the climate change in all its seriousness and India may have taken a moralistic stand on many issues and demanding its pie, boldly arguing against the developed nations for their climate crimes. But the urban planners and the rulers owe an explanation to the people back home - in cities like Chennai, Mumbai, Srinagar and New Delhi. Or for that matter, even in case of Uttarakhand where devastating floods a couple of years ago swallowed more than 5,000 lives.

Let us talk Chennai first as it is in the news now. Urban flooding is a serious and growing development challenge. Yes, it is a global phenomenon which causes widespread devastation, loss to human lives and animals and a huge economic damage too. Like in Chennai, the occurrence of floods is the most frequent among all natural disasters globally.

In 2010 alone, 178 million people were affected by floods. The total losses in exceptional years such as 1998 and 2010 exceeded $40 billion, according to a report of the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recover (GFDRR). Countries are waking up to this reality everywhere to take remedial measures, except we in India. Integrated Urban Flood Risk Management is essential in all cities irrespective of the rain falls recorded previously in the present conditions.

The total rainfall could be the same or more and if it falls over a month or two of the monsoon season, there may not be much damage. But, a major consequence of the climate change could be seen in heavy to very heavy downpours in short durations nowadays and it is here that we will be caught woefully lacking in mechanisms that could tackle the problem.

Hence, the focus must be on whether we do have the strategic approach in which appropriate risk management measures are assessed, selected and integrated in a process that both informs and involves the full range of stakeholders.

An integrated strategy usually requires the use of both structural and non-structural measures. Structural measures range from heavily-engineered interventions, such as flood-ways and reservoirs, to more natural approaches like wetlands and greening measures. They cover water management at the catchment and urban level pretty well as GFDRR suggests.

Heavily-engineered structural measures can be highly effective when used appropriately, but they share one characteristic: that they tend to transfer flood risk from one location only to increase it in another. In some circumstances this is acceptable and appropriate, while in others it may not be.

Much has been written about how bad or callous our planning is in the creation of the urban centres. The moot question is why are we not following the modern management principles in creating our smart cities?

How many seasons more do we like to see our urbanites living on the houses instead of in the houses due to flooding? Now let us get back to the national Capital. When the Delhi High Court the other day likened the life in the city to "life in a gas chamber" it was no exaggeration. The honourable court was zeroing on the emission by vehicles and construction related particulates which are key pollutants in New Delhi.

The Court observed "the levels of PM2.5 has crossed the level of 60, still the Government has not done anything" and dismissed the Delhi Government and Environmental Ministry plans as "non-comprehensive". Delhi's woes begin soon after the monsoons and before the onset of winters.

With the farmers in Punjab and Haryana burning their fields to clear the same for the next sowing season, thick smog floats over to Delhi and combined with the burning of garbage and leaves in the city and adjoining areas, it takes the air quality levels to the worst levels. Several directives have been given and many warnings sounded, yet, there is none to implement any of the orders.

The result is seen the increasing number of patients in hospitals with lung related problems. This season the doctors have found that even the younger and stronger people have fallen seriously ill with various ailments for longer durations. Earlier, normal intake of medicines helped the patients, but this year all the emergency wards were chock-a-block with teaming patients.

An assessment report of Beijing-based Greenpeace East Asia proves that between August 2014-15, Delhi's levels of PM2.5 (fine respirable pollution particles) were far higher than those in Beijing. Making use of the Delhi Pollution Control Committee data and comparing it with the Beijing Municipal Environmental Monitoring Centre stations in Beijing, the organization concluded that the Chinese monthly averages ranged between 100 micrograms to 200 micrograms whereas Delhi's monthly averages for October, November, December and January were above 200 micrograms.

The reason for Beijing's air quality getting improved is its aggressive anti-pollution drive and policies. China could effectively manage this by significantly reducing its coal consumption. When it launched its action plan called Air Ten in 2013, there was skepticism all around. But aiming to improve quality of life by 2017, it shut down four coal based power plants located in and and around Beijing and plans to do with with the one left now soon. Coal based industry contributed 60 per cent to China's poor air quality.

Just as in case of Dengue, the Delhi government apathy is extremely annoying now in case of pollution too. People are forced to spend thousands on respiratory diseases flocking to the hospitals. Reputed hospitals like Fortis are reporting a minimum of 40 per cent spurt in patients with respiratory ailments. The sale of air purifiers has gone up vastly in the city so much so that just as RO water purifiers, nowadays many homes have these purifiers.

Whether it is Chennai or New Delhi, the disasters are man-made basically. Whatever may be the merits of our argument in Paris, we should note that we are one of the major polluters of the world. Narendra Modi could be right in accusing the West of being responsible for the present situation but we must bear in mind that we are no less culprits. Maneka Gandhi was quick to pin-point this in her interview to a news channel wherein she stated "it is question of putting the blame always....the West did it. They may have done it a hundred years ago. India is one of the main players destroying the climate". She went on

to add that we are among the largest producers of methane which 26 per cent more powerful than carbon dioxide in creating climate change. She firmly rejected the government claims that India had lowered her emissions of CO2 to add that "over the next 10 years incidents like what is happening in Chennai will be more frequent".

Chennai is a climate-related issue. Fine. But underneath it is the apathy of the planners. Delhi is also witnessing torrential rains for the last five years and flooding along Yamuna banks has become common. If floods have taken lives in Chennai now, it is dirt, squalor and poor air quality that are sucking away lives in Delhi.Well, are we listening to the tale that the two cities are telling us?