Half the world now lives in cities and urban areas. Cities occupy just 2% of the Earth’s land, but concentrate 80% of all economic output; account for 60-80% of energy consumption; 75% of carbon emissions and over 75% of the world’s natural resources1.

India has seen a decadal growth of 3.35 in the urban population since 2001, with 31% of the total population (370 million) now living in towns and cities. Much of urbanisation is concentrated in small cities and towns, and the number of towns increased from 2,774 in 2001 to 7,935 in 20112. Given the trend, by 2030, 600 million strong urban populations is expected to inhabit 68 cities with a population of more than 1 million, 13 cities with more than 4 million people and six megacities with populations of 10 million or more, with Mumbai and Delhi among the world’s largest cities in the world. The populations of Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Punjab and Tamil Nadu will be predominantly urban3.

While urban poverty ratio has declined, urban service deprivation and shelter poverty continue to be pressing problems for urban India. Poor access to basic services, public health and other human development inputs perpetuates poverty in urban India1. According to a Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD) study, 23 million children below the age of 14 are at risk from poor sanitation and 8 million children from poor water supply2 in urban India.

Mckinsey Global Institute estimates that cities could generate 70% of net new jobs, producing more than 70% of GDP and drive a fourfold increase in per capita incomes across the nation by 2030. In order to fuel this growth, the country will have to build 700-900 million square metres of residential and commercial space a year to accommodate this growth, requiring an investment US$1.2 trillion to build 350-400 kilometres of metros and subway and up to 25,000 kilometres of new roads per year1.
 

A Status Snapshot: Urban Services in India

• As of 2001, almost a quarter of India’s urban population lived in slums.

• Only 64% of urban population is covered by individual connections and standposts. Duration of daily water supply ranges from 1-6 hours.

• 70% of water leakages are from pipes for consumer connection and malfunctioning of water meters.

• 4861 out of the 5161 cities/towns do not even have partial sewerage network.

• About 18% of urban households do not have access to any form of latrine facility and defecate in open.

• Of 79 sewage treatment plants under state ownership reviewed in 2007, 46 were operating under very poor conditions

• Waste collection coverage ranges from 70% to 90% in major metropolitan cities, and is less than 50% in smaller cities.

• Only 20 out of 85 cities with a population of 0.5 million or more in 2009 had a city bus service.

• Share of public transport fleet in India has decreased sharply from 11% in 1951 to 1.1 % in 2001

Source : NIUA 2011

Cities at different stages of growth and development have differential environmental impacts. It has been observed that as cities grow in size and economy, they concentrate wealth as well as resource consumption and carbon emissions. Their environmental impacts are also increasingly felt at global level2.

One of the largest pressures on resources and environment comes from constructing infrastructure. The resource footprint during the siting, construction, operation of buildings and infrastructure as well as during extraction of building materials is huge. Globally, buildings are responsible for about 30–40% of all material flows. In India too, the construction sector alone accounts for 23.6% of the national greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions3.
 

There are global and national initiatives that promote the concept of sustainable cities. A few of them are:

• ICLEI helps local governments to build more sustainable cities and communities through urban development, urban governance, Eco-City and Green City, eco-budgeting and sustainable procurement.

• The Cities Alliance is a global partnership between local and central governments, NGOs and multilateral organisations for urban poverty reduction and promotion of the role of cities in sustainable development.

• UN-HABITAT, works to promote socially and environmentally sustainable towns and cities with the goal of providing adequate shelter for all.

• The Government of India launched the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) for city modernisation focussing on efficiency in urban infrastructure and service delivery mechanisms, community participation, and accountability of ULBs/ Para-statal agencies towards citizens.

• State Governments in India are supporting sustainable transport initiatives like the Delhi Metro, Ahmedabad Bus Rapid Transit System, City Bus services for JNNURM cities, etc.

There are 7000 small and medium towns on the verge of this transformation. Services like housing energy, water, sanitation, transport, waste management need to be created. Infrastructure investments made now, will play a critical role in determining future resource intensity and affect India’s ability to decouple resource consumption from economic growth. With India just starting on urbanisation trajectory, there is an opportunity to avoid being locked into energy and resource-intensive infrastructure. Sustain-ability-oriented infrastructures need to be driven by economic demand for more viable urban infrastructures and ecological demand for more sustainable use of natural resources. A combination of resource productivity improvements, increased use of local renewable resources and ecosystem services, and re-use of waste products can promote decoupling of resources flowing through cities, and within them4. Political will and appropriate policy systems are needed to support this decoupling.

The magnitude of the challenge calls for approaches that encourage continuous learning, improvement and tapping into resources that are available to bring about change5. Jane Jacobs recognised cities as the real growth engines and generators of wealth. Cities are pools of skill and capital and centres of knowledge and innovation. The recent rise of active civil societies supported by the power of internet-based communications has resulted in emergence of energetic society: "a society of articulate citizens, with an unprecedented reaction speed, learning ability and creativity." Cities can be energetic societies comprised of potentially articulate individuals, communities and companies with actual or potential fast learning curves "...who themselves form a source of energy. It is up to the government to create right conditions to make this possible..."6. Involvement of stakeholders both state and non-state to come together to think, question, design, plan and implement is a critical component of the movement towards sustainable cities and urbanisation. Youth especially represent an untapped storehouse of energy. q

End Notes

1 Kamal-Chaoui, L. and Robert, A. (2009). Competitive cities and climate change. OECD Regional Development Working Papers 2009/2.OECD, Public Governance and Territorial Development Directorate.

2 Census of India, 2011

3 Sankhe, S., Vittal, I., Dobbs, R., Mohan, A., Gulati, A., Ablett, J., Gupta, S., Kim, A., Paul, S., Sanghvi, A., Sethy, G. (2010) ‘India’s Urban Awakening: Building Inclusive Cities, Sustaining Economic Growth’. Mckinsey Global Institute.

4 IFMR, 2011. Summary of Report on Indian Urban Infrastructure and Services (2011) – Part I

5 National Urban Sanitation Policy: A Perspective. Ministry of Urban Development, Government of India

6 ibid

7 UNEP, 2011. Cities : Investing in Energy and Resource Efficiency

8 Parikh, K. (2011) ‘Interim Report of the Expert Group on Low Carbon Strategies for Inclusive Growth’. New Delhi: Planning Commission, Government of India.

9 UNEP, IRP 2013. City-Level Decoupling Urban resource flows and the governance of infrastructure transitions

10 Hajer, M. (2011) The energetic society: in search of a governance philosophy for a clean economy. The Hague: Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, p. 31.

Back to Contents