Reinventing cities during COVID-19

As India touches the 2,00,000 lakh mark of total COVID-19 cases, the pandemic has clearly exposed urban fragility. By 2050, two-thirds of us will live in cities. However, our urban centres are contending with the effects of our existing take-make-waste economy. Under this linear system, cities consume over 75% of natural resources, produce over 50% of global waste and emit between 60-80% of greenhouse gases.

Firstly, strengthen urban governance. It is clear that states which had decentralised and participatory local governance faired much better amidst pandemic than others. Look at Kerala for instance, the state has since decades worked on a decentralised local governance model wherein the local government institutions have been not only empowered with funds, functions, and functionaries but have also coordinated in support with other departments on supporting health-related interventions. The experience in Kerala demonstrates the importance of local planning and mobilisation within the larger macro framework, which has ensured equity and access in mitigation efforts. There is also an urgent need to revamp our municipal infrastructure strengthening capacities of local government actors such as mayors, ward councillors etc.

Secondly, there is an urgent need to strengthen waste management services in cities. If we look at the Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) stream, household waste, particularly from quarantined households, is mixed with domestic hazardous waste such as used needles, masks, gloves, sanitary napkins, bandages, and recyclables like plastic and cardboard, all of which may be contaminated with Covid-19. Also, there are no clear estimations on the generation of domestic hazardous waste in cities with no inventorisation studies conducted in the past. Many municipalities are hard hit by the Covid-19 pandemic with high caseload and therefore, poses a serious risk to frontline sanitation workforce. This is a cause of further alarm for the sanitation workforce handling MSW, whose capacities and training for managing this new volume of bio-medical hazardous waste from households is limited. This is the time for urban departments of states and municipal actors to reinvent their existing systems of waste management with focus on segregation at source into three components: wet, dry and household hazardous waste including PPEs. Cities such as Panchgani, Ambikapur, Tiruchirapalli, Panaji, Mysuru, Thiruvananthapuram and Vijaywada have effectively addressed this.

In a post-COVID-19 world, as we unlock down, urban mobility needs to be addressed. How do we maintain safer physical distancing when our cities grapple with the burden of vehicles blocking roads and flyovers. Mass transit systems need to ensure effective physical distancing, at the same time, shift to cleaner mobility options such as electric vehicles must be highly subsidised to encourage people to switch to sustainable mobility options. Fourth, cities need to address informalities. COVID-19 saw the mass exodus of vulnerable groups, migrants, informal workers and daily wagers which clearly shows the urgency to create cities that are inclusive and support wide informalities. We need to not only work with the informal sector on skill enhancement but also encourage social enterprises, sustainable SHG models and ensure they have access to government schemes that ensure ration delivery and health support.

We must strengthen citizen-local government relations by working on models that engage NGOs, civic groups, SHGs, private sector, multilaterals and other allied stakeholders. Collaborative approaches shall not only strengthen accountability but also ensure benchmarking and monitoring of projects. This will also help in creating sustainable models in cities with emphasis on replication of best practices.

It is clear that we need to redefine urban living and design cities that are inclusive, sustainable, energy and resource-efficient, address vulnerabilities and that have policies that not only strengthen urban governance but also ensure effective compliance and implementation. This is the need of the hour.

(Swati Singh Sambyal is a Waste Management Specialist at UN-Habitat India and Parul Agarwala is the Country Programme Manager at UN-Habitat India)