Understanding people’s perception of issues in Peri-urban villages of Gurgaon

The Gurgaon research team has been conducting regular field visits to the selected research sites viz. Sadhraana, Budheda, Sultanpur and Jhanjhrola Khera. These visits bring out new and interesting insights from the field. One very interesting and challenging aspect has been to understand how people perceive and understand a changing climate, falling water table, source of their daily water supply, etc. Response to questions on changing climate continues to vary depending upon an individual’s understanding. There are many who promptly speak about increasing pollution, global warming and greenhouse gases! They also speak about how afforestation can help in increasing rainfall and checking pollution level. Their general responses are – less rainfall, longer summers, shorter winters etc. The discussion becomes even more interesting when they are asked about the kind of impact this changing climate has on their lives, crops etc. People then speak about the times when a pot of water left out in the open would get frozen by the morning because of cold. This however does not happen now because winter has reduced both in duration and intensity. Winter season during this year, as per them, was confined to a period of one month; from 15^th December to 15^th January. People also speak about increased "khushki" (dryness) over the years. A recent interview revealed that increased "khushki" would mean more termites which in turn harms the crops. People also speak about how reduction in rainfall, barring the rainfall in 2010, has impeded them from growing crops such as Paddy and Sugarcane.

People also provide very interesting response when asked about the source of their water supply. For example, in Jhanjhrola Khera when people were asked about it, they simply mentioned name of another village (Iqbalpur) as their source of water! When they were further asked if HUDA (Haryana Urban Development Authority) provides them the water supply, they confused HUDA with ‘Bhupinder Singh Hooda’ – the current Chief Minister of Haryana. Their next remark was that they got water when ‘Om Prakash Chautala’ was the Chief Minister! The fluctuating water table also provides interesting responses from people. For them a reduction in water table reflects in the form of need to bore deeper in the ground or to install submersibles to be able to draw water. Opposite to this, relatively better rainfall in the year 2010, forced few tubewells to shut down. When people are asked to predict the level of groundwater, the figures mentioned by them varies a lot. For example, in Jhanjhrola Khera, people predict the water table to be at about 40 feet whereas few others predict it at about 100 feet. People also have interesting remarks about the crop production. Although they have seen an increase in productivity but they believe that the use of artificial fertilizers has also made their grains ‘weak’. When asked about what exactly ‘weakness of grain’ means they say that the food products made from these grains no longer have the same nutritional value as they used to have when produced using natural fertilizers.

Howsoever amusing these insights from people may sound, they are going to be pivotal during the course of the research. It is on these insights that one needs to work on, to be able to unravel the mysteries of water issues in the peri-urban villages. 

Field visit to Matatirtha VDC

 

Nec peri-urban research team has been actively involved in the regular field works and preparing for stakeholders meeting to be organized in near future. One of the research sites in Kathmandu, Matatirtha VDC has been working on its updated VDC profile but with diverse official priorities and multiple local governance activities, but is still under meticulous analysis and will be taking some more time before being formally published. In the mean time, the field visit has brought forward the subtle facts about existing scenario.

Ignorance or disinterest regarding water market:

Growing water market in the VDC has been a hot potato for the entire valley and a growing concern for the national and international water professionals while it has not yet been able to drag the interest of local communities, mainly the women of middle age. They are occupied with the daily homestead; there is barely any concern about the water resource extraction and the vast economy and possible power play behind the scene. The women of quite well to do families have been diverting water from the natural spring sources by constructing a basic intake like structure and laying pipes to fetch themselves water till their home. This has been more than a decade back, with no need of corporal complexities such as registration in the VDC, has been an easy process and flashback to their daily routine. With no need to make a payment for the water use in such community or locally extended water diversion system, water accessibility to considerable households has been not much impacted by the changing social dynamism and with adequate water availability till date could justify the reason behind their disinterest toward increasingly massive water extraction.

Vulnerable do exist, vulnerability matters

Bindu K.C, a local resident of Matatirtha VDC, ward number 1 is a mother of four children. Married for over three and half decades, after the passing away of her husband, she has been raising the children all alone. This period has not been quite easy for this single mother and she has not yet been able to afford to extend the pipe water distribution to her house and depends upon the traditional stone spout for her daily water needs. The water access has been quite difficult compared to those days more a decade back when a stone spout was located nearby her house. Having no clear idea behind the causes, according to her, urbanization and the increasing concrete structures and the rampant boring and growing dug wells could be culprits causing the permanent loss of her water source, the stone spout nearby her house. Moreover, she complained about the decreasing yield of the existing stone spout and a bitter truth about complete drying of the stone spout in the recent consecutive three years during the month, Chaitra (March- April). This she thinks is due to the rainfall variability which has been more prominent in the recent years. During the drying of her water source, she fulfills her water needs from the neighboring houses which have been quite generous to her, but the problem is; the neighbors themselves also face problem due to limited water supply.

“Till these long years, I had never known of the complete drying of this stone spout but it dried completely in the last three years during the month Falgun- Chaitra (March- April). Also the water yield has been decreasing in the recent years and I need to wait for longer time to fill my bucket. This year there has been good rain so I hope this year this tap won’t dry.”

Is she the only case of victim of water related grief or a growing indication?

Workshop on ‘Cities, Environment and Social Justice’

The workshop on ‘Cities, Environment and Social Justice’ was organised jointly by Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS) and Institute of Development Studies (IDS) from 2^nd to 4^th February 2011. It was held at India International Centre in Delhi. Two of our team members, Dr. Vishal Narain and Mr. Pranay Ranjan participated in the workshop.

This workshop marked the final event under the project, ‘The Peri-Urban Interface and Sustainability of South Asian Cities’ headed by STEPS Centre in collaboration with SARAI and Centre for Study of Regional Development. However, the workshop had much more to it than simply discuss about the project. In fact, there was only one session out of a total seven, devoted solely to peri-urban dynamics. Some of the speakers in the workshop were – Mr. Aromar Revi from Indian Institute for Human Settlements, Marie Helen from Centre de Sciences Humaines, Alankar from Sarai programme of CSDS, Kaveri Gill from IDRC and Tim Karpouzoglou from STEPS Centre. 

The presentations and ensuing discussions during the workshop very much revolved around growing cities and resulting issues, from different perspectives viz. waste generation, water pollution, climate change etc. The peri-urban perspective was highlighted by Alankar and Tim in their respective presentations. On one hand where Alankar focussed on understanding water pollution in the peri-urban region, Tim on the other hand presented a critical perspective of policy processes for monitoring water quality in peri-urban environments. Both the works derived from fieldwork in the Trans Hindon area of Ghaziabad, with focus on villages of Karhera and Arthala.

Alankar mentioned how Ghaziabad’s master plan, in reality, supplements the Delhi master plan. As a result of this, the aforementioned villages are no more called village but slums because they are now designated as urban area. Despite the change in nomenclature, the area never witnessed a change in infrastructure, especially concerning the vulnerable poor population. Whatever infrastructure was built for the supply of municipal water supply in early 1990’s, went in favour of upper caste people, leaving the lower caste vulnerable. This has continued to be the story of this region, even though currently it is designated as ‘urban’. On one hand where elite classes receive supply water from Ganga, poor and vulnerable populations have become increasingly dependent on groundwater. Alankar also went on to add how water needs in this region are conditioned by socio-economic conditions and demands. An interesting point mentioned during the presentation was to do with reversal of ‘Polluter Pays Principle’ in this region. Since the elite class has better access to water, they use it and in turn pollute it more. Poor on the other hand have limited access to good quality water and thus end up paying more in terms of expenses on health and also loss of opportunity. Among many suggestions/recommendations made during the presentation, one was to enable democratization of water issues in peri-urban regions. Tim spoke about the gap that remains in monitoring water quality because of difference in how government and individuals perceive it. The gap arises mainly because government’s definition of water quality is in terms of/based upon figures and data, whereas individuals perceive it more in terms of how they experience and understand it. Since policies are formulated based on perception of government, this gap continues to exist.  

As a value addition to our work, the workshop provided a very good platform for sharing the conceptualization and progress of our project with participants of the workshop. Some of the issues such as caste and socio-economic conditions determining access to water, need of democratization of water issues etc. are very relevant to our research sites as well. The workshop also provided an opportunity to meet and interact with people from different backgrounds and areas of expertise. It also provided an insight into recent works that have been carried out in the major urban centres across India.  

Field visit to peri-urban village Mallampet, Hyderabad – January 13, 2011

Mallampet Village (Qutubullapur Mandal)
Rangareddy District, Andhra Pradesh

Sara Ahmed (IDRC) and SaciWATERs peri-urban team visited the peri urban village of Mallampet in Hyderabad on the 13th of Jan, 2011. Several observations were made during the visit. Large quantities of ground water is being abstracted from this village and supplied to nearby industries by private tankers. This village has three bores for this purpose, out of which two have dried up and only one bore, 350 feet in depth is operational. Ground water is pumped and stored in an open tank, water from which is then pumped into the tankers, each having a capacity of 10,000 litres. For every trip that the tanker makes, the tanker company pays Rs 600 to the owner of the land with the bore. Twenty such trips are made in one day, seven trips during day time and thirteen at night. Electricity bill for each month is around Rs 16,000 borne by the land owner.

Water from this village is supplied to approximately 10 industries in the Bollaram Industrial Area located nearby mostly having boilers, iron foundries, chemical and pharmaceutical companies. Around 40 tankers operate in this area with 3-4 tankers operating in Mallampet village.

At the Panchayat office, the Sarpanch informed that drinking water from the Manjira River is supplied till Nizampet village which is 6 km far and Mallampet doesn't have a water supply. Some people in Mallampet sell Manjira water by bringing the water from any of the surrounding villages that gets the supply. The villagers, thus, depend on bore water for their drinking as well as daily needs. There are also high levels of fluoride in the groundwater because of which the panchayat has set up a water treatment plant. Groundwater is stored in a tank (locally known as samp), this is then transferred to an overhead tank from which water is supplied to taps and the filter plant. It costs Rs 2 for a can of 20l water, if collected at the plant location, home delivery costs Rs 8 for each 20l can.

There are 3 lakes (known as cheruvu locally) in the village which are getting polluted by the industrial effluents as well as household wastewater. Construction of the outer ring road is being carried out adjacent to one of the lakes called Khatwa cheruvu, A portion of this lake is being filled up in order to construct the outer ring road. This is a very large lake and relatively not as polluted, but is lined by industries on one side as well as bore wells along the lake periphery. Another lake, Chennangi cheruvu on the other hand, is very polluted primarily because of the waste water released by a number of households nearby. A lot of plastic materials, garbage as well as dead fishes were spotted on the banks of the lake during the field visit. 

Field visit by Dr. Sara Ahmed and SaciWATERs team to peri-urban village Mallampet, Hyderabad.

Few pictures of the field visit by Sara Ahmed (IDRC) with the SaciWATERs team to Mallampet village in peri urban Hyderabad. Large quantities of ground water is abstracted from this village and supplied to nearby industries by private tankers.


Pictures courtesy - Sara Ahmed 

 Ground water being pumped out and stored in an open tank 

Water from tank is pumped into the tanker. Each tanker has a capacity of 10,000 litres. 

For every trip that the tanker makes, the tanker company pays Rs 600 to owner of the land with the bore

Borewell on ‘Khatwa lake’ in the village. A portion of this lake is being filled up in order to construct the outer ring road. 

 

 Chennangi lake - polluted primarily because of the waste water released by a number of households nearby. A lot of plastic materials, garbage, as well as dead fish were spotted on the banks of the lake during the field visit.

 

Presentation at the National Consultation on Urban Drinking Water and Sanitation for the 12th Plan

The National Consultation on Urban Drinking Water and Sanitation, for the Planning Commission of Government of India, to provide input into the approach paper to the 12th Five Year Plan was held on December 15, 2010 at New Delhi. A submission pertaining to peri-urban areas which have emerged over the last six months during the scoping study phase of the Peri-Urban Water Security Project was made by Dr. Vishal Narain and Ms. Sreoshi Singh having the following points: 

Mainstreaming Periurban Issues in Policy and Planning 

As urbanization proceeds, the distinction between ‘rural’ and ‘urban’ tends to get blurred, and more of the intermediary, periurban zone becomes visible. Periurban issues need better reflection in policy and planning.

1. There is a need for rigorous studies of the carrying capacity of cities. Urban expansion plans need to be based on the carrying capacity of cities. Otherwise, the ecological foot-print of cities continues to spill over the peripheral areas, engulfing the land and water resources of the peripheral villages, depriving locals their access to land, water and other natural resources. This breeds a pattern of urbanization that is inequitable and unsustainable. Urban development policies need to revisit and revise the existing building by-laws in peri-urban areas, which often ignore the negative consequences of urban expansion for the socially and economically marginalized communities who are affected by the development enclaves leading to reduced access to clean and safe water sources as well as other natural resources.

2. Increasingly, we need to devise ways of breaking the rural and urban dichotomy in planning. The focus of urban authorities on urban expansion and rural authorities on rural areas often implies that the relationships across ‘rural’ and ‘urban’ go unaddressed. Even if the peri-urban areas fall within a development zone, the focus tends to be largely urban-centric with little efforts to integrate rural development with the activities undertaken. The 74^th Amendment to the Constitution of India provides for the creation of DPCs (District Planning Committees) to integrate planning at a district level. There is a need for such committees to be set up and similar other institutions as well to better integrate planning across rural and urban areas.

3. There is a need to better recognize flows of water across rural and urban areas. The dichotomy between ‘rural’ and ‘urban’ water supply is superficial and overlooks the flows of water between rural and urban areas – that will become more visible with ongoing processes of urbanization. Often expansion of urban water supply is at the expense of rural water supply, as peri-urban residents give away their land and water to allow canals to pass through to quench urban thirst, or allow water to be transported from their villages to the city in tankers.

4. There is a need for policies to conserve natural resources in peri-urban areas through local community initiatives, instead of giving them away on lease to development enclaves, to serve their water needs for recreational purposes. They are often a source of livelihoods for the landless as well as for the resource poor farmers.

Project presentation at IDRC- SARO

On November 8, 2010, Vishal Narain made a project presentation at the IDRC - SARO in New Delhi. The purpose of the presentation was to share the project conceptualization, objectives and methodology as well as emerging insights from the field. Present at the presentation were Mark Attwood, Programme Leader, Climate Change and Water, Marco Rondon, Senior Programme Specialist, Climate Change and Water, Sara Ahmed and other colleagues from IDRC and Marie-Helene Zerah,  Senior Researcher Fellow, Centre de Sciences Humaines, New Delhi. Surabhi Mehrotra from Jagori shared results from their UPE/CCW project  Women's Rights and Access to Water and Sanitation in Asian Cities, based in two urban resettlement colonies in Delhi.

The presentation by Vishal was followed by a round of discussion on a number of issues such as the project conceptualization, similarities or variations across the research sites, the dynamics of land acqusition in the research location, and how the team would address issues of equity and vulnerability in the research sites , as well as the interaction of stressors from climate change and urbanization.