A flood of apathy

Every time Chennai sneezes, Bengaluru catches a cold! True to this statement, even as Chennai is being battered by rains throwing life out of gear, the city too had its share of ordeals. The current Chennai crisis is being linked to global warming by experts and in the years to come, the effect could become a regular phenomenon even as global leaders sweat it out in Paris to arrest global warming. But in the Indian context, as the union government gears up for putting up Smart Cities as a flagship project, wouldn’t sustainable cities serve the purpose? Chandrashekar G. and Shrinivasa M. take a close look at the issue.

Watching the rains batter Chennai and southern Andhra Pradesh the last month, many other cities are asking themselves, "could this happen in our city?" The answer is, almost certainly, yes. Not only can natural disasters strike in a variety of ways, we are uniformly unprepared to deal with them. Naturally, therefore, every part of the country could find itself reeling from the kind of trouble that is now ravaging the south-east coast.

Ironically, all this is happening at the very moment that the world's leaders have gathered in Paris to discuss what should be done to ensure the livability of the planet in the future too. The plain fact is, we have been over-exploiting the earth, and that is leading to increasingly harsher weather patterns around the world. We humans have been telling ourselves that something must be done about this, but in 25 years of doing that we have made very little actual progress.

The result is that we now get routine reminders of our inaction. For the moment, however, a lot of this is only temporary. People wring their hands in anguish at the time of a calamity, but can't remember any of it a week later. Until the next storm strikes.

It remains to be seen whether we will ever muster the responsibility to do something about this, but in the meanwhile we should at least give ourselves the capacity to cope with the challenges that are coming our way. For this, we must build resilience - the ability to endure disasters and recover from them - even as we continue to look for the more lasting solutions.

For a very long time we have been willfully blind to the risks we take when we don't prepare our cities for resilience. We now exist at different stages of denial - nothing will happen; even if something happens, it won't happen to us; and even if it happens to us, there won't be any significant loss or damage. None of this is true, but since don't acknowledge that, we continue to see lives lost, properties destroyed, and businesses crushed by calamities.

Resilience requires foresight. Not just political power, but administrative preparedness, and the capacity to build links of support between state, market, and society, and to be able to marshal all three together when bad things happen. A sarkar that believes that it must be privileged above society and market will inevitably find that it shares much of the blame too. This is the kind of needless suffering that we could have diminished greatly by now, if our governments were more purposeful about problem-solving.

So, when the storm passes, I hope that we will sit down to discuss how to build resilient cities, and then set about the long, arduous, but necessary task of doing that. Other cities around the world have done this, and are much stronger as a result. We need to learn from them.

(By Ashwin Mahesh. The writer is urban expert)

‘Rs 1,000 crore earmarked to revive lakes’

The rampant encroachment of lakes and drains and disfiguring the topography of the city, has had an impact on the sustainability of the city. With the world debating on global warming for damage control and to bring back the natural glory the Bengaluru Development Minister K.J. George says that the Lake Development Authority (LDA) has been formed to rejuvenate the lakes and to have sustainability.

What are the plans to revive encroached lakes?

The government has formed LDA to give fresh lease of life to lakes across the city. But, BDA, BBMP and LDA have been entrusted with the responsibility of rejuvenating lakes across the city. Besides, sewerage treatment plants will be set up to treat water before letting into lakes. Plans are afoot and '1,000 crore has been earmarked to fill lakes at Hoskote, Kolar and Anekal with treated water.

Will the government evict encroachers of lakes and drains?

It is sad that some of the lakes which have lost its features and have become concrete jungle cannot be reclaimed. Lively lakes will be restored. Encroachment of raja kaluves is a disaster and the government cannot tolerate. Stern action will be initiated against them to evict drain encroachment. Greenery across the city has been dwindling due to infrastructure projects like Metro and road widening. How can the green loss be recouped?

Certain infrastructure projects are essential and unavoidable. But the loss of greenery is being recuperated by planning more saplings. Government is planning to reclaim vacant forest land to convert them into tree parks and quarries will be reclaimed to turn into lung space.

Encroachments on lakes should be evicted mercilessly

Has Bengaluru lost its sustainability? If so, blame it on the erratic and poor planning by damaging the natural topography of the city for the growth of the city, said environmentalist Suresh Heblikar.

The undulated landscape made Bengaluru develop water bodies. The vegetation on the hills or elevated areas of Bengaluru and surrounding areas like Tumakuru, Kolar, Devanahalli and green canopy at Bannerghatta and Mysore region nurtured the water holding and filtering into the earth. This helped enhance the ground water table for the sustainability of the city.

Unfortunately, politicians and technocrats allowed the growth mindlessly and without taking into account the natural topography, while allowing the growth of the city while building structures, drains and roads. The lack of road map has lead to chaos in the city.

It is very difficult or impossible to bring back the natural ecological wealth and assets once it has been destroyed recklessly. Mindless allowing of industries, housing complexes and commercial activities has slaughtered the natural wealth.

Allowing industries around Peenya, Dasarahalli and right upto Nelamangala has resulted into reckless discharge of hazardous effluents into the natural streams and valleys. These steams and lakes such as Tippagondanahalli, Arkavathy and Kumudavathi have been contaminated beyond repair, he added.   

The government gave emphasis only for growth rather than sustainable growth and development in sync with the ecological system, said Mr. Heblikar. Priority should be given for sustainable development rather than unplanned growth, he felt.

Although it is difficult to bring back natural glory, creating artificial tanks and allowing them to hold clean water may help to some extent. Besides, encroachments on drains and lakes should be evicted mercilessly, he added.

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