Making water-excreta accounts

As per our observation earlier here is an article reproduced from the online journal.....(anticipated thanks to editor..)

Editorial by Sunita Narain,

(published in Down to Earth, Centre for Science and Environment, New Delhi)

How will India supply drinking water in cities? Many argue the problem is not inadequate water. The problem is the lack of investment in building infrastructure in cities and the lack of managerial capacities to operate the systems, once created. This line of thought then leads logically to policy reform, to invite private investment and hand over public water utilities to private parties to operate.As a result, private-public partnerships have become the buzzword in water management circles. The problem is that this strategy assumes too much, knows too little. It has no clue about the political economy of water or sewage in India (and other similar countries). It, therefore, makes a simple assumption that if water is ‘correctly’ priced - what is known as full cost pricing - it would facilitate investment from the private sector and provide a solution to the water crisis facing vast regions of the developing world.As a result, municipal water reforms have become synonymous with the World Bank promoted scheme of 24x7 - supply of constant water so that pressure in water pipes will reduce leakage from adjoining sewage pipes and reduce the enormous health burden caused by dirty and polluted water. In the 24x7 water distribution scheme, governments hive off parts of the city water distribution to private contractors. The key presumption is the contractor will reduce water distribution losses - currently estimated to be between 40-50 per cent of water supplied in our cities.The reasoning is impeccable, except that it forgets the cost of the system has to be affordable, so that it can be sustainable. In India, few municipalities rarely compile water and sewage accounts. But our recent research in compiling city-level data shows a pattern difficult to miss.Almost all cities - of the 72 we surveyed - are struggling to balance their accounts and failing. The one expense that is killing them is the cost of electricity - to pump water from long distances to the city and then to pump water to each house and to pump the waste from the house to the sewage treatment plant. Bhubaneswar, for instance, brings its water from the river Mahanadi, some 30 km from the city, and spends 56 per cent of costs on electricity. Pune, which has invested in creating a citywide water distribution network, spends roughly Rs 25 crore annually to pump roughly 800 million litres daily of water it supplies to its people.Thus, when cities search for new sources of water, they rarely consider what it will cost them to bring the water to the city. The plan is sold as an infrastructure project. The costs are paid for as capital expenditure. But what are not considered are how the project and the length of the pipeline - or canal - will impact the city’s finances, and indeed if the city can spend, month after month, on its electricity bill to pump the water. What is also not considered is how the city, which spends higher and higher costs of electricity, will spend on the repair and maintenance of the pipeline. And, if it cannot, will it be able to supply water to all. In other words, can it afford to subsidize all and not just the water-rich.But this is yet half of the sum. The other half involves not water, but the waste the water will create. The agency will have to price the cost of taking back the waste - the more the water supplied, the more the waste generated - conveying it and then treating. More costs.Even this is not the full story. If the agency cannot pay for the sewage disposal system, its waste will pollute more water - either the water of its downstream city or its own groundwater. Remember, also, we all live downstream. The cost of pollution makes water economics more difficult. For instance Agra, located downstream of Delhi and Mathura, spends huge amounts of its water budget on buying chlorine to clean water. Now it wants to get another source of water - how long will that stay ‘clean’ is another question.The fact is no municipality can do what economists preach - raise prices to reflect the full costs. Instead, they spend money on supply and as costs go up, they have to increase the subsidy to the users or supply less to most. On an average, Indian cities charge between Rs 2-3 per kilolitre (kl), when they should be charging Rs 8-10/kl. And if their distribution losses are taken into account, charge between Rs 10-14/kl. If we add sewage costs, then the bill increases by roughly 5 times the cost of water supply. In this case, the family, which pays Rs 2-3/kl will have to pay Rs 40-50/kl. How feasible is this?But such pricing of water and waste is incomplete without its political economy. For, who gets the water and how much? In answering that, you will learn the political economy of water and excreta where the rich, and not the poor, are subsidized in urban India.

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Urban Planning : Mismanagement in Indian Cities

Once we leave our metropolitan cities which has seen huge investments in infrastructure, we may concentrate on the metros and medium towns of India. Its poor hygenic conditions including the water logging, ever increasing solid waste, disposal of caracasses, poor drainage infrastructure and poor housing condition makes us stand apart in achieving the MDG goals set for 2020. We are far behind in planning for the suitable infrastructure, our cities are at best could manage to supply some water to citizens, but would be lacking in suitable planning and management skills. We lack sense of urgency, may be we have left the cities to mend for themselves, the peoples representatives (political persons), administratiion and civic machinery has made mess of city systems.

Somehow urban planners takes pat on their back on seeing mamonth growth of large metropolitans but no body takes responsibilities of the smallers cities. We do not know when and how this would happen. Either the cities themselves lacks the will or the professionals are not inclined to listen to the warnings. We may look outwards on the issues, like climate change, sustainability, gender etc., as beating points of our workshops and agendas but who would dare to correct the basics. Even the amount of expenditure done at these 'other' cities are huge but not enough to call it suitable for the 21st century. Growth of cities has been huge, cities expanded at the cost of sourroundings agricultural fields, bunglows, villas, tenaments, and apartments are being constructed no matter whether the civic authorities have capacity and willingness to provide the services. Quality of urban life in the metros or medium cities in India is steadfastly declined, owning largely to inefficiency and colousness attitude of those who are incharge of managing.

whether these are eyeopener to urban planners and infrastructure developers, can'nt say unless we have totally thinking of new towns (as this has been happening in Gujarat, Maharashtra and Haryana). Forget these old and stinking towns the new urban dwellers are invited to newers settlements closer to airports and green field projects (SEZ, SIA, DMIC etc). When the systems would adhere to needs of people? We do not have answers at Green Eminent, we may look for some...

Regional Planning : Misunderstood??

We are in the era of regional dissatisfaction throwing numerous issues to our planners developing nations. Regional systems are less understood in context of planning. Rather its administrative systems that has taken care of planning in India and developing nations. We are made to believe that administrative boundries are apt for the planning, so is district planning has been evolved and practiced in India. Now, with limited natural resources and quality of human being, inter-exchange between the regions have become important, thus resulting in migration of human beings and transfer of goods inbetween regions. You may call it districts attracting or repelling its resources and manpower to the neighbouring regions pulling the resources.

Urban centres have been major source of regional development resulting in its growth or decline. These centres whether small, medium or big cities or metro have affected the aggregated regional characterstics, this may trans district or block or taluka. In this context we are yet to undertake a serious excercise in assessment of situation. Regional plans are limited in scope in urban areas more so not instrumental in targetting the region, as a whole these are more of servicing the city or urban centres. Villages or Panchayat have limited role in making such plans. Whether we have cared for such regions which during our various plan periods we might have identified? Can'nt say for sure, we are not servicing the region or thinking about resource balancing or assessment. Then how and when we should talk about climate change, sustainable development and socio-economic development. Rather thought are limited to few academicians, and decision makers, we need to be seriously thinking about it. What do you say?

Public-Private-Public: City Dwellers

The world is going ga ga over the virtues of public-private partnerships in urban projects. But we have kept thinking about the public (aam aadmi) or Private (Big Industry) or Public (government) or private (who?). The notion seems to be clear after seeing the kind of partnerships that has come about in our urban affairs. Some of the examples can be

(a) Road Management - Give to business guys, who can maintain the dividers and junctions. (Oh! he get stake in claiming the circle/Junctions). But why not we go ahead and name the roads by name of industrial houses. Unofficially most of the roads at least in Gujarat is known to public by these names (Reliance, L&T, Ambani, GAIL etc).

Do not talk of Toll roads (on NH/SH) , these are easy venue for the taxing the commuters ever after in the name of development, What not the ideals of PP would have been?

(b) Garden and Public Parks: Yet again a good start for the some cities, but these privates have made party plots, golf courses and corporate maidan in name of servicing the public spaces. (What can we do our corporations did not have money to maitain?).

(c) Solid Waste: Public-Private ; an easy way to get away with regular workers. Pay them and forget that they exist in the city. Urban areas have been mess these days...an overloaded concept of SWM. Guys you would not find nothing apt to see it as rat race in urban India. May be this is the case in developing countries.

(d) Water Bodies Management: Alas! the most attractive PP for the realestate guys has been to take care for the development of water bodies, instead it pays heavily to invest in beautification of these forgotton waterscapes in urban areas. We are not backin up while covering the rivers like Yamuna, Sabarmati, Gomti etc and now even Ganga with Urban structures..damaging and creating rut in the system. What would CPCB and State pollution control people would do?

Sit idle guys the 'public' , i.e. the government and people both are being nearly robbed of quasi-legal private system, endangering cities in the hands of industries who are prone to see profits. Say. Whats harm? We must pay for the inefficiency of public systems and our city governance.

For Urban Citizens

Its hard to find event, dealing with too much pampering of urban regimes within the our current social setup. We the citizens of the cities are bound to act only when pushed to corner in the event of disaster (natural or man mase) for the benefit of larger masses. Otherwise its always 'We' and 'They' while defining the relationship between citizens and administration. We are not in talking terms with citizens neither citizens like to interact with us in saying what they desire. On the event of public private programmes it becomes difficult to manage and take clue from the people on the streets. Moreover the governence has never been closer to citizens in the present context. Its upto the citizens to write their greviences in a peice of paper the post or mail to nearest office to get it resolved. How we are going to improve further the level of interaction in order to assure to improved quality of services from city administration?

An encounter with Idea of Naxalism in Gujarat state...

We have been now fed with the news that Gujarat state in India, is likely to be developing as new naxal hot bed in country. On the one hand there is speculation that assertation of basic right to living, for land and choosen occupation by the tribals is way forward to naxals. Though there has been discontent with the state and central governments towards not stopping the violence by state in the name of 'development'. The state has repeatdly sidelined the tribals and other backward communities in the state for the want of industrial space. The common property resources have now turned open for the state to invite the industry, say targetting nearly 30 to 40 thousand hectares of land in last two years. The promised land were supposed to be governments owned...so on what pretext government kept it open during last 60 years of its existence. Its apathy of state to target the voiceless in the name of development. The landless and poor do not have space to generate the livelihood and the state is extravagent on giving so called surplus land to industrial sector. Thus, not only creating poverty for masses but also showing its inability to tackle food insecurity.

People in Gujarat may not take arms as it had happned in state of AP, Jhakhand, MP and Chattisgarh, but this discontent would prove costlier for the state in terms of political instability, increase in crime and social unrest. The idea of 'India' to become super power cannot be done by running over the poor peasents. This would call for Gujarat opening its ground for naxal ideologies to be accepted in eastern belt, as popularised by mass media. Land acquisition and massive displacement has sown the seeds of dissatisfaction from the state functionaries and would call for near change in the system of governence to give majority the power to decide (if this does not come with current format of democracy). Would it not be right to call it our encounter with Idea of Naxalism in Gujarat?