Anteing up the climate resilience

Rajlakshmi Barman

(rajlakshmibarman24@gmail.com)

Climate Change and its associated risks are not unknown to mankind when we see the irregular seasonal and annual climatic havocs in different parts of the state causing irreparable damage to mankind and their activities. As per the fifth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change "Much of key and emerging global climate risks are concentrated in urban areas. Rapid urbanization and growth of large cities in low-and middle-income countries have been accompanied by the rapid growth of highly vulnerable urban communities living in informal settlements, many of which are on land at high risk from extreme weather". The domino effect could be felt everywhere with the problems exaggerated by rapid population growth, resource shortage and unplanned urbanization.

Assam, including Jorhat, is not a stranger to the excruciating agonies of the annual floods and its accompanying complications that burden the exchequer annually through mitigation and disaster relief. Developing City Resilience Strategy concerning climate-induced risks has become imperative. In response to the above concern, Aaranyak, Purva Bharati Educational Trust, Society for Socio-Economic Awareness and Environmental Protection, Assam Academic Centre and Gorakhpur Environmental Action Group (GEAG) have jointly accomplished a detailed study of the city's vulnerability to infrastructure, community livelihood, ecosystem and basic services. These commendable findings have assessed the climate-related vulnerabilities of the city through the involvement of the community. The document "Jorhat: Climate Ready City", considered as a living document, demonstrates ways to incorporate the concerns of urban vulnerability to climate change in local developmental planning and adapt accordingly to the needs and demands of the time and the climate of the day. The whole process of the city resilience strategy of Jorhat was facilitated by GEAG under "Urban Climate Change Resilience in Eastern India" intervention sponsored by The Rockefeller Foundation, the USA to build the resilience of the city to deal with climate variability manifested in the form of recurrent floods and waterlogging.

The vulnerability assessment of Jorhat reveals that two major areas are responsible for the creation of vulnerable situations in the city, viz. (i) water-related problems and (ii) problems of amenities and services. Water-related problems are further divided into waterlogging (faced by 7 out of 19 wards), drainage issues (all 19 wards) and deteriorating natural water bodies (12 wards). This water-logging situation is linked with degradation of natural waterways, natural water storage, congestion in drains and land use interruption. Moreover, the encroachment of natural water bodies, disposal of solid waste and sewage to water bodies are the important causes of degradation of natural water bodies like the Bhogdoi and Tocklai. Basic amenities related problems that cover drinking water, Municipal Solid Waste (MSW)-related problems, traffic & public toilets related problems are faced by almost all the wards barring a few exceptions. Since Jorhat as a district suffers from an inadequate public water supply system and there is no scientific sewerage and drainage network in the city areas, access to and availability of safe drinking water remains big public health and environmental concern.

Resilient actions

While identifying required actions to build up the city's resilience, it was deduced that all levels of government and all sections of society have a responsibility to become informed and take appropriate action within their mandates to prepare for and adapt to the impact of climate change. The core strategic actions have been identified and chalked out as per the risk that has to be tackled in a definite timeframe by further categorizing their short-and long-term solutions. Promotion of energy-efficient management practices particularly in public and private institutions/organizations, especially the use of solar energy will reduce carbon footprint and exemplify wise use of energy. In the realm of MSW segregation at source and collection by developing a chain of tiny value addition units incorporating practices like vermicomposting, recycling, biogas generation etc., can be considered as good management practices. Adoption of such practices will also generate employment potential. Also, massive afforestation drives, restoration, development and promotion of forestry, a home garden at the one hand augments green coverage, nurturing biodiversity and providing alternative sources for nutrition, food and medicine. Moreover, the restoration and development of natural ecosystems also consolidate the carbon sink. Above all there is a need to strengthen health services and post COVID-19, this has been more relevant than ever. All these need to be executed through proper strategy and design, for which it is better to start with trial experimentation at a micro-scale. Furthermore, it is essential to involve all citizen group stakeholders in all phases of planning, implementation and monitoring, including in the decision making for follow-up. At the same time, there is a need for capacity building of all the stakeholders, including the individuals in management, governance and policy decisions for efficient participation in the core practices suggested above. Engagement of children and youth through institutions, enhancing understanding of public through activities proper communication are important prerequisites for making urban societies for quick rescue, recovery and response mechanisms to be in place formation of institutions like city disaster management cell with networks of ward level committees and volunteers are essential. Newly created city disaster management cell has to be linked to existing agencies like the District Disaster Management Authority (DDMA).

Implementation

An implementation framework has been developed to provide a detailed roadmap to propel adaptation opportunities into action. These are planned cyclically with five phases of action. The breakthrough phase is the initial stage of intervention to enable a community resource setup. The reinforcement phase will require regular monitoring and S&T interventions whereas the mounting phase will demand more community participation, sharing and contribution in terms of ideas and implementation. The creation of a partnership in a win-win situation among public agencies, private entities and people during the reinforcement phase will be the driving force providing momentum to the mounting phase. The action points of the Final Conditioning phase are related to the institutionalization of norms, policy and regulation for maintaining and managing resilient systems and climate-smart practices. Review, reframing and follow-up will be an impact assessment phase to identify success, failure and gap; also to design new plans and execute cyclically again.

Thus, in a nutshell, today, we must validate sensitization of the new climate reality without desperation but with maximum speed and efficiency by aiding every section of the vulnerable population through systemic interventions because we will reap whatever we sow for our future generations. After all, actions speak louder than words.