🔊 Listen to this article

Coronavirus poses a challenge like none other in our highly globalized world, especially to urban spaces and its residents. Cities in the modern world have provided better air connectivity, clean and broad roads, big parks and shopping malls. However, the onset of COVID-19 and its rapid spreading has flipped the advantages of better connectivity and mobility on their heads. The high density of cities that acts as a precondition for effective urban service provision is now a massive challenge to social distancing norms. The pandemic has also brought to focus the unequal and unstainable ways in which our cities have developed. Mumbai, Kolkata and parts of Delhi, are some of the densest cities in the world with more than 20,000 people per square kilometer. These dense built-up urban areas, especially in lower-income neighbourhoods like slums and informal settlements, face a much higher risk of the disease spreading, being unable to quarantine or maintain social distancing.

Urban Transformation

Historically, crises have often acted as catalysts for urban transformation. Housing regulations around light and air were introduced as a measure against respiratory diseases in overcrowded slums in Europe during industrialization. Nineteenth-century pandemics helped usher in developments in water and sewage systems. In the mid-nineteenth century New York City, repeated outbreaks of yellow fever and cholera resulted in the creation of a Council of Hygiene and Public Health. The setting up of the council helped streamline focus on issues of public health in line with housing, sanitation and solid waste management.

Similarly, Bombay saw the creation of the Bombay Improvement Trust under the Bombay Act IV of 1898 in response to the bubonic plague that had erupted in the city’s densely populated working-class quarters. The Bombay Improvement Trust widened roads, created public housing and undertook planning to ensure neighbourhoods in the outskirts of the city had access to amenities like public transport and parks. Looking at a more recent example, posh localities of today’s Hyderabad emerged as a result of social distancing post the outbreaks of plague, cholera and flu in the 20^th century. This gentrification was led by the city development board to completely transform and modernize the city to prevent spread of infectious diseases.

The world looks very different from what it did in the nineteenth century and the setting up of a separate board/body is now an insufficient measure. The stark inequalities in cities have to recognized and addressed to be able to overcome the current pandemic. Nowhere is this more obvious than in India, where 152-216 million people in dense informal housing, or slums. In these localities, many do not have access to piped water or toilets and have to rely on shared taps/water tankers or community toilets, further increasing the chance of getting infected. This pandemic has only highlighted the public health problem that already existed in our slums, whose residents do not have the adequate space, services or safety nets to survive. Besides water and sanitation, air pollution is a big challenge for Indian cities, having 6 out the 10 most polluted cities in the world. Air pollution causes increased risk of lung cancer and heart diseases, as well as increased susceptibility to the Coronavirus. The pollution levels going down as a result of the lockdown may help environmentalists argue in favour of curbing of human activities.

Inequalities exist not just within cities, but also between them. Historically, small cities have been unequal partners in the urbanisation process, with poor investment in infrastructure and governance. While currently small cities have fewer cases of the Coronavirus, they are also at an added disadvantage because of the spotlight on cities like Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore. With resources being redirected from smaller cities towards testing, ventilators and hospital beds for larger cities, and smaller towns and cities bursting with return migrants, they are finding it hard to cope with increased demands on their physical and social infrastructures.

Governance Will Determine the Path for Cities

Everyone agrees that cities cannot stay in lockdown forever. While in the short term, using masks, testing and contact tracing may help, in the long term we will need investment in infrastructure for water, sanitation, housing and healthcare. This is also required to keep cities humming with economic activity. Public transport, an essential underpinning of the urban ecosystem, will need to undergo change. The efficiency of public transport lies in being able to transport a large number of people, and that very paradigm is being challenged by covid-19. With the national lockdown in place, public transport systems have come to a halt. Even the local railway system in Mumbai, which transports 8 million people every day, is suspended. Although this has reduced emissions of Carbon dioxide and had a beneficial effect on air quality, it has led to a significant fall in revenue for state governments. Public transport operates with high fixed costs, and with no revenue collection the strain on the state finances is only increasing.

Along with social distancing norms, plans for restoring public transport have to guided by the dual focus of providing economic stimulus and job creation. If public transport does not adapt, the gap will be filled by more private vehicles on the street. National governments should step up efforts to transfer funds to states/city governments so that cash and other forms of social assistance may be provided to all agencies, drivers and conductors. A lot of countries in Europe are looking at cycles as the machine that gets people moving once the lockdown is lifted. Milan and the surrounding region of Lombardy, in Italy, that were worst hit by Coronavirus have decided to change the way the city works once it reopens. As the city re-opens, 35kms of streets will be transformed to support cyclists and pedestrians. They argue that cycling will keep pollution in check, maintain social distancing and keep people healthier.

The severity of the pandemic is connected fundamentally to governance. As the lockdown stretches, we are beginning to understand the impact of Coronavirus on cities better. In comparison to previous pandemics, we have access to considerably more advanced technology and science. Cities can harness the power of big data, with a focus on water, sanitation and public health to serve those areas that have remained the most under-served. A more comprehensive data system can help identify high risk locations and reduce future public health risks. Empowering cities with granular, regularly updated data will go beyond just responding to the current pandemic and will provide better evidence for decision making, long term sustainability and equity changes. We will rebuild our economic and social fabric, and it should be our decision to rebuild better.

The views expressed in this piece are those of the author, and don’t necessarily reflect the position of CBGA. You can reach Drishti Rastogi at drishti@cbgaindia.org.