A Demand for Strategic Urban Planning for Sustainable Development: the case of Hyderabad, India By Jarvis Edmond Cubelo,

Nathaniel De Leon, Joie Alphonse Gernimo, Aaron Gabriel Santos, John Marvin Tayabas and Christian Vicedo I. Introduction The natural propensity of human beings to improve their living conditions and seek for convenience cements development as a primary objective of nations and institutions of governance. In line with this concern, we find the concept of national growth intertwined with the utilization of environmental resources. We can observe that global politics is well saturated with debates concerning the limits to growth and the growth of limits in the use of resources. The question of whether development is worth pursuing at the expense of the environment is at the forefront of various international colloquys. However, before we can proceed in answering such question it is important to identify what kind of development we are pursuing. To this question the common answer is sustainable development with inclusive growth. II. Pursuing Sustainable Development The relevance of sustainable development as an expanded concept lies in its emphasis on ecological balance and human empowerment. The centrality of human advancement in the process of shifting social, cultural, economic and political systems is recognized at the same time with the demands of environmental protection and conservation (Hyden & Mugabe, 1999). The process by which man moves forward must provide equity in the allocation of benefits gained from the environment. Moreover, Sustainable development demands the prudent utilization of natural resources under a plan that considers both short term and long term consequences of productivity in private gain, common property and the environment (Hyden & Mugabe, 1999). With respect to considerations in the long term consequence of economic activity to public welfare and the environment, the city of Hyderabad, India had fallen short. As a consequence, the government was prompted to reexamine the situation and look into environmental rehabilitation programs. The case of Hyderabad will reveal that if development is pursued with a vision for mere growth in economic production, several negative consequences are bound to arise due to inadequacy in strategic planning. A development process that lacks the proper foundations is obviously not worth pursuing at the expense of environmental degradation.

III.

The Case of Hyderabad, India The City of Hyderabad is an urban agglomeration in southern India located on the crossroads of

rivers, Krishna and Godavari in the peneplaine Telengana. It is well situated regionally near other metropolitan areas of India such as Bombay, Nagpur and Madras, interconnected through its road network. As a fast growing local economy, Hyderabad is considered to be a potential economic center of India. Service and information technology industries enabled the city to establish economic links with East Asia, Middle East, Europe and North America (HUDA, Hyderabad City Development Plan Chapter 1: Introduction, 2006)

A. Environmental Problems of Hyderabad As a developing city with a land area of 1905 sq. km and a population of 7 million, Hyderabad faces the problem of urban congestion which leads to several environmental problems. With about 1 million annual migrants, Hyderabad incurs a decadal population growth of 32%. Moreover, there had been a growth in unsustainable economic activities alongside other unresolved problems namely: improper solid waste management; traffic congestion and air pollution from vehicular sources; water pollution and contamination of lakes; uncontrolled industrial effluents; poor sanitation and inadequate water supply (HUDA, Hyderabad City Development Plan Chapter 6: Urban Environment and Heritage, 2006; UNEP, 2006)These environmental problems can be traced to the minimal effort exerted by the Hyderabad City Government in the Environmental Planning and Management Process (EPM). Specifically, analysts consider the following management failures in explaining these problems: a) failure to provide land for the urban development strategy; b) lack of co-ordination between industrial and urban development strategies; c) failure to develop an adequate system of land use control and building regulations; and d) lack of political will to enforce master and zoning plans (UNEP, 2006; Bawa).

1.

Air Pollution

One of the pressing environmental problems in Hyderabad is the air pollution caused by the large amount of emissions from vehicular sources in the heavily congested city traffic.

Figure 1.1 Increase in the number of vehicles in Hyderabad

As shown in figure 1.1 the amount of vehicles that roam Hyderabad increased almost thrice for the span of 7 years. As a consequence of the increase in the number of vehicles within Hyderabad, the amount of Total suspended particulate matter in the air went beyond the National ambient Air Quality standards of India. Based on a survey conducted in 2006 by the Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board (APPCB) of India, it is estimated that citizens of Hyderabad breathe 691 tons of air pollutants every day. Carbon Monoxide has a share of 392 tons, Hydrogen Chloride has 240 tons, Nitrogen Oxide has 44 tons and Sulfur dioxide has 6 tons of the compounds emitted (HUDA, Hyderabad City Development Plan

Chapter 6: Urban Environment and Heritage, 2006)

Figure 1.2 - Amount of Pollutant Particles on selected areas in Hyderabad

On another study conducted by the same institution to monitor the amount of pollutants present in selected areas, the amounts of harmful substances are above the National Ambient Air Quality Standards. For example, the concentration of nitrogen oxide in Abids which is 65 grams/ cubic

meter exceeds the standard concentration of nitrogen oxide in residential areas which is 60 grams/cubic meter in residential areas. Moreover, according to the Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board 60% of the load emitted into the atmosphere of Hyderabad is Carbon Monoxide which is considered as a carcinogenic substance (HUDA, Hyderabad City Development Plan Chapter 6: Urban Environment and Heritage, 2006)

2.

Water Pollution

The sewerage system of Hyderabad only accommodates about 60% of its total land area. Because of this inadequacy in environmental infrastructure most of the individual and industrial wastes end up in the natural bodies of water present within Hyderabad. Of these bodies of water, the River Musi is the main disposal line. About 64 sewage outlets lead to the Musi River which resulted to a pH level above 7.5 (HUDA, Hyderabad City Development Plan Chapter 6: Urban Environment and Heritage, 2006), raising the alkalinity level of the river. This makes it less conducive to aquatic organisms and requiring more water treatment for human consumption. Moreover, the toxicity level of the river presents a threat to public health (UNEP, 2006). A more disturbing issue is the depleting condition of lakes in Hyderabad. The number of urban lakes in the city was sharply reduced from 532 to 400 as a result of rapid urbanization in the area. Lakes were reclaimed to create new residential areas for the demands of population increase (HUDA, Hyderabad City Development Plan Chapter 6: Urban Environment and Heritage, 2006). However, the decrease in the number of lakes is only a part of the problem. Similar to the condition of the River Musi, lakes are contaminated due to the discharge of industrial effluents without treatment and domestic wastes from communities near the lakes. The absence of underground sewerage system in the housing plans of communities in Hyderabad results to the direct outlet of waste materials into the lakes. This similarly creates health risks as the lakes become contaminated with microbes accompanied by the lakes foul odor. Moreover, surface water is not the sole subject of pollution; ground water had been polluted as well with significant amounts of toxic metals such as Lead, Cadmium, Zinc and Nickel discovered. The rapid industrialization in Hyderabad accompanied by the improper disposal of industrial wastes resulted to the contamination of ground water. The amount of dissolved solids that managed to infiltrate the Katedan, Sanathnagar, Patancheru, Saroornagar and Jeedimetla industrial areas far exceeded the permissible limits (HUDA, Hyderabad City Development Plan Chapter 6: Urban Environment and Heritage, 2006). Furthermore, the high concentration of calcium, magnesium, sodium and chlorides are also ever present in these areas.

This contributes to the shortage of available water supply in Hyderabad (HUDA, Hyderabad City Development Plan Chapter 6: Urban Environment and Heritage, 2006; UNEP, 2006).

3. Hazardous Bio-waste Materials As a growing city with increasing number of industries and healthcare establishments, the disposal of hazardous and bio-medical wastes had been a major problem of Hyderabad. The presence of several industrial areas like Azamabad, Musheerabad, Sanathnagar, Kavadiguda, New Bhoiguda and Lalaguda increases the amount of hazardous and bio waste produced therein. According to Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board (APPCB), out of the established industries in the city of Hyderabad, 231 are actually producing hazardous wastes (HUDA, Hyderabad City Development Plan Chapter 6: Urban Environment and Heritage, 2006)The problem, however, as mentioned earlier is not in the production of such wastes per se but on the manner of their disposal. According to APPCB, these bio-waste producing units dispose the hazardous effluents into the drains of the city without proper treatment of the wastes. Their actions can again be traced to the inadequacy of environmental infrastructures. For example, in the industrial areas of Bolaram, Jeedimetla and Patancheru, common treatment plants are only able to accommodate 20-30% of the wastes generated and the rest are disposed untreated. Moreover, as identified by APPCB, there are actually 43 dumpsites where wastes are disposed without treatment (HUDA, Hyderabad City Development Plan Chapter 6: Urban Environment and Heritage, 2006)

IV.

Policy Initiatives for Hyderabad Environmental Problems To address the problems created by rapid urbanization, the city of Hyderabad has looked into

several environmental measures to be included in its City Development Plan of 2006. They have planned for Urban Greening, Urban Lakes Restoration and Musi River Conservation. The Urban Greening proposal aimed at incorporating reforestation in the cities development plan. Degraded wastelands were to be restored as community forest lands through multipurpose tree planting which the women sector might find useful. Agro forestry through community agricultural nurseries was similarly promoted in conjunction with livelihood objectives. The Urban Greening initiative similarly sought to plant trees along traffic roads to counter the negative effect of vehicular emissions (HUDA, Hyderabad City Development Plan Chapter 6: Urban Environment and Heritage, 2006). On 2006, the Hyderabad Urban Development Authority had protected 169 lakes from contamination and restored 8 polluted lakes and 35 less polluted lakes under the Urban Lakes Restoration Initiative. Under such initiative Hyderabad had similarly sought for the development of

sewage treatment plants, formation of neighborhood watchdog committees and private stakeholder participation. For the Musi River conservation, the Hyderabad Urban Development Authority had proposed measures such as the construction of interceptor sewers, the rehabilitation of riverbanks, and the construction of check dams to conserve water during flooding and landscapin (HUDA, Hyderabad City Development Plan Chapter 6: Urban Environment and Heritage, 2006)g. These policy initiatives of 2006 reveal the pressing environmental problems that Hyderabad faced due to the absence of strategic planning in its development process.

V.

The Importance of Strategic Urban Planning: Bangkok, Thailand and Curitiba, Brazil It had been observed in the case of Hyderabad that a development process that is not sensitive

to the negative consequences of industrialization and urbanization is ill equipped in terms of the infrastructures and systems for environmental protection. Such kind of development provides high economic activity and growth but in the long run creates threats not only to natural resources but also to the general public health and well being. As emphasized above, such kind of development is not desirable at the expense of the environment. It had also been mentioned that the failure of Hyderabad can be traces from its Urban Planning process and as such it is recognized that a strategic urban planning process is required to achieve sustainable development. But what exactly is strategic urban planning? The development cases of Bangkok, Thailand and Curitiba, Brazil will illuminate the characteristics of strategic planning. The city of Bangkok manifested that innovation in an urban and highly populated city without the degradation of its ecology is possible. Bangkok is a good example of the rapidly growing and increasingly populated mega cities, being one of the cities in the world with the numerous urban infrastructures (Denpaiboon & Kanegae). In terms of effective environmental planning and management process (EPM), Bangkok is cited as a good example by the Global Environmental Forum, a think-tank dedicated to scientific research on the environment. There are three main tools utilized by Bangkok in its sustainable development and EPM and these are 1.) effective planning and preparation, 2.) peoples

participation and 3.) public-private cooperation (Boonprasirt). The formula can be seen in Bangkoks Urban Landscape Design of which one of the key factors is the successful and sustainable urban transportation. In order to identify and adopt appropriate elements for a more environmental friendly and healthier Bangkok, projects were analyzed in terms of physical constraints and public hearings were conducted before the implementation process. These processes were all conducted for public benefit (Limpaiboon, 2010). The city of Curitiba, Brazil is another city that espoused innovative ways of ensuring the benefit of the public simultaneous with the protection of the environment. The strategic interconnection of the services provided by the Curitiba City government such as transportation, land use planning and health service is maximized for public benefit. In Curitiba communities have a high recycle rate of 70% due to the incentives provided to the public in exchange of their bags of garbage. First, individuals who participate in recycling are provided with groceries and bus tickets. Second, their social and health service programs are similarly funded by the proceeds from recycling programs, transport systems and recreational spaces. Moreover, the inexpensive and speedy transport system of Curitiba reduces the number of vehicles within its road network to reduce carbon emissions. Everyday more than 2 million citizens use the same transport system that finances their social and health programs (poverty of the urban environment). VI. Conclusion From the case of Hyderabad, India we have observed that development should not be viewed merely in terms of industrial productivity. The absence of a plan that recognizes the social and environmental implications of development may foster national growth but not sustainable growth. Moreover, because the absence of environmental considerations in an urban development process leads to serious long term consequences that put the general public at risk, such kind of development should not be desired at the expense of the environment because it promotes the utilization of natural resources without the proper foundations of sustainability. On the other hand, a development process that is strategized to promote sustainability and efficiency in the use of governmental and

environmental resources for the maximum utility of the general public should be the aim of every national and local government. As had been observed in the case Bangkok and Curitiba, elements of public participation and public service integration in the environmental planning and management process provides a win-win situation. Involving communities in the planning and implementation phases of development and providing them with incentives ensures their cooperation. As had been observed, such kind of planning secures the sustainability of development through ever active stakeholders.

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