Healthy Cities

Nearly one-third of India’s urban population live in slums, informal settings or sidewalk tents, which are characterised by overcrowding, poor hygiene, sanitation, absence of proper civic services and fuelled by basic health infrastructure and healthcare service delivery. 

Main issues that require attention if health services for the urban poor are to be improved and made more accessible are while inadequate health facilities maybe partly responsible for the poor health status of slum dwellers the answer does not lie in simply providing more services. Although it is extremely important to invest in more services like reorienting and sensitising doctors, additional beds in government hospitals, well equipped dispensaries and maternity clinics near slums and settlements inhabited by the poorer sections; focus needs to be on accepting and understanding that although medical facilities for the urban poor are both inadequate and the poor have limited access, the poor can avail of the same in cities that are not available to them in the villages; and a demand for such services must be identified and this demand must be fulfilled keeping in mind the felt needs of the poor.

Optimal urban governance helps the health sector, in promoting and planning for hygienic living conditions; building inclusive cities that are accessible and making cities resilient to emergencies like epidemics. A synergy between the urban local bodies, state and central government is needed to engage on quality research to generate and systematise knowledge to address many existing information gaps. 

The inequities of health disaggregated by intra-urban area; the effectiveness of proactive approaches to deal with health inequity in cities; and the importance of involving all citizens in the decisions that affect their habitat and their health is crucial. Also, it is imperative to maintain this momentum of creating clean, green and healthy cities to live in. 

Urban health advocates should identify successful models to be shared as menus of policy options and models of good practice. Improvement in public health infrastructure, schemes for reaching out to the urban poor, facilitation of development of community’s negotiation capacity for increasing demand for maternal and child health services and improved access to health care are necessary. It is therefore imperative that urban health receives due attention and is accompanied by coordinated actions from all stakeholders and more importantly, a strong political commitment for addressing the growing problems of the urban poor.

Sponge city

A “sponge city” is an urban initiative that employs nature-based solutions like permeable surfaces, canals, ponds, and wetland restoration to enhance water absorption, drainage, and flood resilience. The goal is to mitigate waterlogging and urban flooding caused by rapid urbanization and impermeable surfaces.

The idea of a sponge city is to make cities more permeable so as to hold and use the water which falls upon it. Sponge cities absorb the rain water, which is then naturally filtered by the soil and allowed to reach urban aquifers.

It allows for the extraction of water from the ground through urban or peri-urban wells. This water can be treated easily and used for city water supply. In built form, this implies contiguous open green spaces, interconnected waterways, and channels and ponds across neighborhoods that can naturally detain and filter water. It implies support for urban ecosystems, bio-diversity and newer cultural and recreational opportunities.

These can all be delivered effectively through an urban mission along the lines of the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT), National Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana (HRIDAY) and Smart Cities Mission.

The shallow ends surrounding the water bodies in the cities need to be protected from encroachment. Regardless of ownership of these areas, land use on even this small scale needs to be regulated by development control.

Watershed management and emergency drainage plan should be clearly enunciated in policy and law. Urban watersheds are micro ecological drainage systems, shaped by contours of terrain.

Detailed documentation of these must be held by agencies which are not bound by municipal jurisdictions; instead, we need to consider natural boundaries such as watersheds instead of governance boundaries like electoral wards for shaping a drainage plan.

To improve the city’s capacity to absorb water, new porous materials and technologies must be encouraged or mandated across scales. Examples of these technologies are bioswales and retention systems, permeable material for roads and pavement, drainage systems which allow storm water to trickle into the ground, green roofs and harvesting systems in buildings. These not only reduce run-off and the load on infrastructure, but also help keep water in the city for later use.

Issues with the “Sponge City”:

Rapid urbanization and concrete development have compromised natural water absorption, leading to waterlogging and floods. Despite the initiative, many cities remain vulnerable to flooding. Limitations include the inability of sponge city infrastructure to handle extreme rainfall events and the need to catch up with the impacts of climate change in less-developed regions.

Data and Technology to drive Liveable Cities

 

Urban in India

Urban settlements in India consist of:  

Statutory Towns: All places with a municipality, corporation, cantonment board or notified town area committee as declared by the state law. 

Census Towns: Places which meet the following criteria: 

✓ a minimum population of 5,000; 

✓ at least 75 per cent of male main working population engaged in non-agricultural pursuits; 

✓a population density of at least 400 persons per square kilometre.

Cities: 

Urban areas: with a population of at least one 100,000 (0.1 million). The others are termed as ‘Towns’.

Metropolitan Cities: Cities with a population of at least 10 100,000 (1 million).

Urban Agglomerations (UAs): Continuous urban spreads constituting a town and its adjoining urban outgrowths (OGs) or two or more physical contiguous towns together and any adjoining urban outgrowths of such towns. A UA must consist of at least one statutory town, and its total population of all constituents put together should not be less than 20,000 as enumerated in the Census of 2001.

Size Class Classification (population):

Class I: 100,000 and more

Class II: 50,000 to 99,999

Class III: 20,000 to 49,999

Class IV: 10,000 to 19,999

Class V: 5,000 to 9,999

Class VI: Less than 5,000