October 31 was the World Cities Day. We now have to think best urban practices as well as measures to tackle challenges, etc. Bhubaneswar continues to chase its world-class dream city after achieving the tag of India’s No. 1 Smart City.
Bhubaneswar could be a model of the world in next two decades. Such dreams must envision an urban paradigm shift. However, the reality is disheartening despite all commitments made by local Governments in past years on service delivery front. Various assessments indicate that the city suffers from a severe backlog in the provision of urban basic services of global standards and even more challenging is that, if no urgent remedial action is taken, the situation can further deteriorate due to the rapid rate at which demand for services and the cost for delivery are rising including peoples aspiration to live in Bhubaneswar.
What are challenging for Bhubaneswar now are aspirations of more and more people to live inside the city. Climate changes have resulted in a rise in heat wave, freaky monsoon, reduction in rainy days and the like. All these threaten to affect lifestyle as well productivity of Bhubaneswar. Such is the scenario that every year, some new areas are getting included as waterlogged. Warm days are going up.
Similarly more than half of cities population is currently living inside the informal settlements. Rise in personalised vehicles is a major cause of air and noise pollution, while most neighbourhoods don’t have proper water supply and sanitation system, leading to depletion of water bodies and natural streams are becoming polluted with the drainage system getting linking to them. Out of the garbage generated, around sixty per cent of them are collected and disposed of unscientifically and the remaining uncollected garbage finds their own way into either the water bodies or open space or open burning etc.
As Bhubaneswar expanded into endless peripheries with very low residential densities, the cost of meeting needs of urban sprawl increased investment as well as operational costs and in the meantime Bhubaneswar urbanisation has entered into a critical phase. The anticipated doubling of urban population size can only become a propelling factor for development if strategic measures are taken to preempt the inherent challenges such a rapid growth.
However, today in Bhubaneswar most of the actions getting implemented are of reactive policies such as interventions into waterlogging or garbage dumping or building public toilettes or installing street lights or expanding roads and creating opportunities for housing etc by real estate developers and informal builders. In most cases, their interventions are symbolic and micro and not commensurate with the magnitude of the larger urban challenges.
The city needs to develop an urban advantage policy with a view to emphasize that urbanization is a futuristic and transformative process and not only a transitional process. A policy that would acknowledge the power of urbanization to propel and guide city’s economic growth and reduce poverty and that promotes a more optimistic perspective about the city by embarking on a low-carbon growth path. Bhubaneswar can reach some of the global targets for reducing the energy and carbon intensity of its economy, and become more livable, efficient, competitive and ultimately sustainable. With Bhubaneswar set to add an estimated two million population to its land over the next two decades, the case for urgent action is strong. Industry, civil society, Government do have major role in the development of Bhubaneswar by working together in reducing poverty as well adding footprints of development within low carbon growth. However, to achieve low-carbon growth, the city needs to act on multiple fronts. Actions affecting land-use and spatial development are among the most critical because carbon footprints are closely connected to the urban forms and patterns. Spatial development has also very strong “locked-in” effects; once community grows and defines their form it is almost impossible to retrofit them because the environment is largely irreversible and very costly to modify just as some of India’s large cities are facing now-a-days. Furthermore, Bhubaneswar needs energy-efficient buildings and industrie, a transport system that offers alternatives to automobiles and a shift to efficient management of water, wastewater and solid waste. The city needs to incorporate responses to climate change in planning, investment decisions, and emergency-preparedness plans.
Therefore, five key cross-cutting actions that form the overarching framework for low-carbon path development are important.
• Set the right indicators to encourage low-carbon growth
• Complement administrative measures with market-based approaches and tools
• Break the current link between land use, financing, and growth
• Encourage more inter-sectoral and inter-jurisdictional cooperation
• Balance climate change mitigation and adaptation measures.
Therefore Bhubaneswar needs to focus actions on addressing specific sectoral challenges, particularly those related to energy, transport and other services including water and waste management services. On energy, it is important that Bhubaneswar should encourage a cleaner supply of energy including through maximising the use of renewable energy, enhancing the role of market-based methods in energy demand management including through setting prices to reflect full costs, consistently implementing building energy efficiency codes and switching to consumption-based billings for use.
On urban transport, cities should encourage walking and bicycling and enhance the quality of public transport services, integrate different modes and services of public transport, better manage auto ownership and use through taxation and fees. On solid waste management, cities should actively promote waste minimisation, segregation, composting, and recycling so as to reduce the need for incineration and landfilling.
On water management, Bhubaneswar should consider development patterns to reevaluate their water intake strategies and water treatment methods to minimise energy use and enhance demand management through appropriate pricing strategy.
(Dr Rout is an urban planner; tweet @piyushrout)