Our cities & climate change

The theme of the World Habitat Day “Cities and Climate Change”, which we celebrated with much gusto, last week, sounds simple in retrospect. However, as a city planner, I am uncertain as to how relevant these concerns are for our city. For instance, to what an extent is climate change a serious issue—especially in the wake of the rude awakening to disaster risks like earthquakes a few weeks ago? Mosquito bites, lack of hygiene and sanitation often trigger epidemics, which endanger thousands of lives. In this context, is climate change more pressing a concern? Similarly, the prudency in shifting our policy focus from the fundamental issues such as alleviating poverty or providing basic services such as drinking water is questionable. Indeed, the close scrutiny is warranted because we are being besieged by several potential hazards, but national resources are scarce to cope with each of these threats. Only an in-depth understanding on the quagmires the city finds itself in, and virtuous policy choices and sincere actions, will help us to emerge successful in improving our home. This is the purpose of this article: To remind citizens and policymakers alike that our sincere engagement on the topic is necessary to enhance both our understanding and pave the way for better policy choices.     



Critical issue



According to scientists, climate change is the resultant of global warming—a phenomenon in which greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide prohibit heat from escaping into space as a result of which the temperature of earth is increased. It is this rise in temperature that scientists opine is causing melting of polar ice, glaciers and mountain snow. The resulting implications are rises in sea level and erratic climatic behavior including extreme and prolonged conditions of drought and precipitation. Predictions are rife regarding submergence of low lying islands, coastal cities and belts as well as disruptions in food production, drying of natural water sources and flooding. These scientific predictions are the reasons behind an increasing concern among the world communities about global warming and climate change.



If these predictions are true, Nepal will also be exposed to potential events of extreme dryness and precipitation and their associated effects such as drought, famine, landslides and flooding in different regions. Each of these threats has definite implications for settlements and their planning. Especially the large cities owing to greater economic opportunities may have to brace for more drought or famine-led migration—leading to parasitic urbanization without economic growth that will result in more chaos in the cities.



Water scarcity may further swell if water sources are not preserved. Water or vector borne diseases may multiply due to deluges and water logging. The above events whether occurring in isolation or in combination may further overburden the already stressed urban services or even break them. In the status-quo scenario, where preparedness and investment are lagging, some of the large cities in the country may see more physical, social and economic decline.  Therefore, cities may have to quickly embrace adaptive planning to prepare for new challenges. The Government’s adoption of National Adaptation Program of Action (NAPA) to Climate Change in 2010 should be seen as an effort in this direction.



The adaptive approach to climate change however is still reactive in the sense that it deals with the effects rather than its causation. In other words, it overlooks the question of consumptive behavior that is leading to excessive carbon emissions in the first place. The evidence incriminating building and transportation as two leading sectors responsible for a majority of carbon emission in the world are unquestionable. The carbon is being released mainly through the burning of fossil fuels like petrol or diesel, which is used to run trucks, cars and motorcycles or through burning of coal or wood that generates heat energy to produce essential building material such as steel, cement, glass or heat homes and office rooms. Carbon-dioxide release is exacerbated when plants and trees, which are nature’s gift to process, it are destroyed and felled for urban use. This worrying trend begs a critical question: How can growth be managed without slowing economic development while helping to preserve nature and mitigate carbon emission?



Cities in themselves are extremely dynamic and complex systems, which embody several sub-systems. Any intervention that looks only at part while ignoring the interlinked whole will be grossly inadequate. At present, issues such as urban poverty, governance, and resource scarcity cut across all city planning and development efforts in the country. These factors continue to affect urban service delivery as well as the city’s capability to cope with natural hazards. Our vulnerability, which was further exposed during the recent earthquake in the country, further reminds us of the host of challenges ahead. The tendency of earthquakes to affect vast geographical spaces causing scores of human casualties, massive structural damage as well as erase many decades worth of economic gains in moments is extremely depressing to the populace. Notwithstanding these, it may also trigger a chain of other hazards such as fire, landslides, submergence of buildings due to liquefaction, post-earthquake epidemics or tsunamis, as recently witnessed in Japan. The past events have amply shown that simultaneous occurrence of multiple hazards is always a possibility. However, evidences are lacking on the simultaneous occurrence or even inter-relation of earthquake and climate change-induced hazards. Regardless of this, it would be fair to assume that one event may always aggravate the scale and magnitude of destruction and stress caused to the settlements by the other. The unfolding events around the globe reveal that we would do well to prepare for it.  



When we consider such complexities, it becomes clear that the adaptive action against climate change is only part of the whole. Such isolated action is analogous to a situation where a doctor cures a patient but completely overlooks the merits of vaccination against other maladies. It would be prudent, therefore, to integrate pro-active mitigating actions that would shape our living pattern and lead to wiser use of natural resources—that results in less waste. Only the combined mitigating and adaptive capabilities of the cities that are sensitive to the poor and vulnerable will make them resilient to cope with the events of disasters and shocks. Resilience is one of the primary virtues of sustainable cities.



Way forward



The concept of sustainability is most profoundly cited but always neglected in practice. Despite Nepal’s participation in the Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, which promulgated Agenda 21 for Sustainable Development, it is only in 2007 when an earnest effort in this direction was made with the implementation of National Urban Policy. The policy (re)asserts on compact urban form as opposed to the sprawled form through preservation of peripheral agricultural land and an emphasis on public or non-motorized transport in lieu of private vehicles. These initiatives are systematically being internalized through periodic planning process of the municipalities in the country—that Department of Urban Development and Building Construction (DUDBC) started in 2004. Today, periodic planning has been initiated in all 58 municipalities barring the 41 new municipalities that were recently established. Efforts are either already complete or are in progress to improve the urban environment in at least 22 municipalities of the country through projects such as the Urban Environment Improvement Program (UEIP), Secondary Towns Integrated Urban Environment Improvement Program (STIUEIP), Integrated Urban Development Project (IUDP), and Urban Governance and Development Program (UGDP). These projects focus on development of basic facilities such as sewers, drainages and managing solid waste besides improving the institutional capabilities of the municipalities. These interventions are expected to significantly reduce the persistent deluge and water logging of many of these municipalities and improve public health conditions.



Similarly, our persistence with the enforcement of building code during building construction is intended to mitigate structural vulnerabilities and improve the household resilience against disasters. Other initiatives taken up by the Department includes eco-city programs, which aim for greener neighborhoods and restoring natural bodies. Demonstrative efforts are also being carried out comprising rain water harvesting that may help to augment the present water scarcity. These may be small steps in need of up-scaling and widespread implementation but these are important steps in the right direction. The recently enacted Urban Environment Management Guidelines of 2011 instructs adoption of green concept in building construction for the first time. The simple passive design of the buildings that rely on natural energy sources such as the sun and wind can be significantly helpful is steering us clear from fossil fuel usage. These basics of building design were instrumental to protect the traditional buildings from the environmental severity and we should be ready to embrace these principles when we contemplate modern building design. Above all, the guidelines also instruct that “polluters must pay.” It is high time we realized that nature, despite being bountiful, is not inexhaustible and that only our concerted actions will save us from dilemmas in the future.



The writer is the Director General of Department of Urban Development and Building Construction (DUDBC)

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