Pathways for sustainable urban waste management and reduced environmental health risks in India: winners, losers and alternatives to Waste to Energy in Delhi

This paper examines the shift toward centralized waste-to-energy (WTE) as a singular solution to Delhi's solid waste crisis and describes a transdisciplinary research process that sought to understand how and why this dominant waste management pathway emerged. It also sought to engage with and facilitate debate on the potential for alternative waste management pathways, which may better address combined environmental and social justice concerns. We explain the emergence of a transforming narrative that reframed waste from a risk to a resource, reflecting and reinforcing the dominant trajectory of socio-technical-ecological change in urban development, and reconfiguring waste related infrastructure to involve public private participation and WTE technology. Drawing on empirical studies, involving local residents, wastepickers associations, NGOs, and government officials, we discuss implications of WTE projects in Delhi. We argue that the current WTE focused approach, without modification, may simply displace health hazards across time, space and social groups and exacerbate social justice concerns. The dominant narrative on waste management priorities appear to make certain health risks protected and recognized whilst others are made invisible. We make the case for possible alternative waste management scenarios, institutional and regulatory arrangements that may better address environmental health and social justice concerns. These are summarized under eight principles for reframing urban waste management policy challenges in the context of sustainable urban development. These principles include a reframing of waste management through a sustainability lens that links currently divergent initiatives on environmental health and social justice. It involves an appreciation of complex socio-material flows of waste, the need to move beyond perspectives of waste management as an environmental policy issue alone, appreciation in policy development that the informal sector will remain a key player despite attempts to formalize waste management and the need to provide incentives for diverse waste management strategies that move beyond the private

On the Edge of Sustainability: Perspectives on Peri-urban Dynamics

This paper examines some of the many ways in which the peri-urban has been theorised, considering, in particular, the implications for a normative research agenda towards improved environmental and social justice. The paper discusses the value of different notions of sustainability in the context of the peri-urban, challenging the view that ‘sustainability’ is not an appropriate goal in relation to cities which are seen, by some urban theorists, as inherently ‘unsustainable’. Drawing on examples, largely from south Asia, in health service provision, water management and agriculture and food systems, the particular challenges posed by the peri-urban situation in relation to environmental integrity and social justice are reviewed (in line with the STEPS definition of Sustainability which emphases that the objects being sustained are increasing levels of social justice and enhancing environmental integrity). The contribution of both peri-urban theoretical conceptualisations and empirical research to date in the context of Sustainability goals are reviewed, offering suggestions for complementary approaches and progression. Drawing on a notion of pathways (as self reinforcing trajectories of change – both existing and potential), alternative perspectives in planning and management of the peri-urban are considered through examples from policy and practice across sectors; initiatives to increase participation in urban planning processes; citizen action to mobilise access to key resources for the poor, and the engagement of poor and marginalised groups.ESR

Local environmentalism in peri-urban Ghaziabad: emergent ecological democracy?

This paper explores the potential of a range of peri-urban environmentalisms to come together in support of sustainable urbanisation. The present-day ‘urban,’ along with the dominant planning visions of urbanisation, lack in inclusivity, deliberative democracy, grassroots innovations, and bottom-up processes of knowledge generation. To sustainably transform this scenario, there is a need for the participation of various sections of citizens, who should be seen not just as subjects of planning, but as creators of a planning framework that emerges from both contestations and innovations in everyday living. Our earlier research on a peri-urban village situated between Delhi city and Ghaziabad town suggested that there is little support for continuation of agriculture in such areas, despite its strategic importance for sustainable urban development. Agriculture could contribute to the greening of urban spaces while enhancing the livelihoods of the poor, recycling urban waste and producing perishable food items for the urban populations. However, we found that present-day government schemes, as they unfold–often under the banner of sustainability–tend to exacerbate peri-urban inequalities. Having observed local citizen environmental action in Ghaziabad, we wanted to understand the potential role it could play in dealing with the environmental crises facing the district and region. During the course of our research we came across a distinctive peri-urban civil society activism, which cannot be viewed in binaries and reflects a pluralist spectrum that allows for alliance building. This environmentalism in Ghaziabad is distinct from the ‘environmentalism of the poor’ practiced by rural and forest dwelling groups; from the dominant elite urban ‘green development’ practices and discourses of ‘bourgeois environmentalism’; and from the urban politics of the poor. It reflects the possibility of creating bridges across sectional interests–rural and urban, red and green ideological streams– and across classes

Local Environmentalism in Peri-Urban Spaces in India: Emergent Ecological Democracy?

This paper explores the potential of a range of peri-urban environmentalisms to come together in support of sustainable urbanisation. The present-day ‘urban,’ along with the dominant planning visions of urbanisation, lack in inclusivity, deliberative democracy, grassroots innovations, and bottom-up processes of knowledge generation. To sustainably transform this scenario, there is a need for the participation of various sections of citizens, who should be seen not just as subjects of planning, but as creators of a planning framework that emerges from both contestations and innovations in everyday living. Our earlier research on a peri-urban village situated between Delhi city and Ghaziabad town suggested that there is little support for continuation of agriculture in such areas, despite its strategic importance for sustainable urban development. Agriculture could contribute to the greening of urban spaces while enhancing the livelihoods of the poor, recycling urban waste and producing perishable food items for the urban populations. However, we found that present-day government schemes, as they unfold–often under the banner of sustainability–tend to exacerbate peri-urban inequalities. Having observed local citizen environmental action in Ghaziabad, we wanted to understand the potential role it could play in dealing with the environmental crises facing the district and region. During the course of our research we came across a distinctive peri-urban civil society activism, which cannot be viewed in binaries and reflects a pluralist spectrum that allows for alliance building. This environmentalism in Ghaziabad is distinct from the ‘environmentalism of the poor’ practiced by rural and forest dwelling groups; from the dominant elite urban ‘green development’ practices and discourses of ‘bourgeois environmentalism’; and from the urban politics of the poor. It reflects the possibility of creating bridges across sectional interests–rural and urban, red and green ideological streams– and across classes.ESRCEcosystem Services and Poverty Alleviation (ESPA) Programm

Ecosystem Services and poverty alleviation in urbanising contexts

The impacts of urbanisation on ecosystems and the dependence of urban populations on ecosystem services are widely acknowledged but poorly understood. In the Global South, rural–urban linkages are increasingly shaped and transformed by the processes of peri-urbanisation, through which rural areas become increasingly enmeshed in a mosaic of rural and urban land use and juxtaposed rural and urban livelihoods and overlapping institutions. Peri-urban areas are frontiers of sustainability transformations, where deep and sustained engagement with communities of the poor, and enhanced understanding of dynamic ecosystem service-poverty alleviation interactions, can reveal possibilities to improve the health and livelihoods of both urban and peri-urban residents, whilst also supporting more effective, efficient and equitable management of environmental resources. We demonstrate this through an example of peri-urban food systems in the outskirts of Delhi, India

India’s peri-urban frontier: rural-urban transformations and food security

In India, peri-urban areas are too often neglected. Many people live in poverty and face increasing marginalisation and food insecurity. Yet peri-urban agriculture could be a major contributor to poverty alleviation and food security. This working paper examines rural-urban transformations in India in relation to changes in food production, access, consumption, nutritional quality and safety. To improve health and nutrition, a more holistic, food security-based perspective is needed. Policy and planning must support those fragile communities engaged in peri-urban agriculture while protecting the environmental services on which they depend. It also discusses examples of specific policies and programmes and considers knowledge gaps, governance challenges and mechanisms that might help facilitate pro-poor food security developments on the ground

A note on treatment of hyperthermia in crossbred cattle

Objective: To evaluate effect of iodized oil in crossbred cattle suffering from hyperthermia (heat intolerance syndrome) in Punjab, India. Methods: The present study was conducted in 85 clinical cases of summer hyperthermia in exotic and crossbred cows with rectal temperature of ≥40.56 °C. Haematological examinations of the affected cows (55) showed relatively low haemoglobin, normal differential and total leucocytic count. All the affected cows (85) were treated with three doses of iodized oil (750 mg elemental iodine per dose, 5mL) given at 24 h interval by subcutaneous route in brisket region. Results: Seventy seven (90.58%) cases showed remarkable clinical improvement with temperature coming to normal (38.33 to 38.88 °C) within 5 d of start of treatment. The appetite and milk production was restored by 10th day post treatment. Conclusions: The findings of this study substantiate that subcutaneous administration of three doses of iodized oil given at 24 h interval is effective in decreasing rectal temperature of hyperthermic cattle

IFAD Research Series 71: Urbanizing food systems: exploring opportunities for rural transformation

Urbanization is transforming food systems across sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Increases in economic inequality, combined with growing urban populations, are expected to pose a risk to future food security. This paper shows that while anticipated increases in food demand by 2050 can largely be met regionally, potential yield increases or diversification will not contribute automatically to inclusive rural transformation. Instead, urbanization may potentially increase rural inequality and poverty. Smallholder farmers located close to expanding cities risk losing their land to urbanization, while people living in rural areas far from growing urban food markets who lack access to inputs, information, and markets are at risk of losing out. For all rural food system actors to profit from growing urban markets, the patterns of urbanization, the quality of rural-urban linkages, and the functionality of secondary towns are crucial. Physical and communicative proximity to urban markets means better access to finance, inputs, information, and services. Furthermore, off-farm employment opportunities can arise in the developing value chains. To realise the opportunities, this paper identifies a range of social, physical, spatial, economic and institutional conditions that enable inclusive rural transformation

Urbanizing food systems: exploring opportunities for rural transformation

Urbanization is transforming food systems across sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Increases in economic inequality, combined with growing urban populations, are expected to pose a risk to future food security. This paper shows that while anticipated increases in food demand by 2050 can largely be met regionally, potential yield increases or diversification will not contribute automatically to inclusive rural transformation. Instead, urbanization may potentially increase rural inequality and poverty. Smallholder farmers located close to expanding cities risk losing their land to urbanization, while people living in rural areas far from growing urban food markets who lack access to inputs, information, and markets are at risk of losing out. For all rural food system actors to profit from growing urban markets, the patterns of urbanization, the quality of rural-urban linkages, and the functionality of secondary towns are crucial. Physical and communicative proximity to urban markets means better access to finance, inputs, information, and services. Furthermore, off-farm employment opportunities can arise in the developing value chains. To realise the opportunities, this paper identifies a range of social, physical, spatial, economic and institutional conditions that enable inclusive rural transformation