The vulnerability of urban areas and more so informal settlements is augmented by the rapid pace of urbanization coupled with the ever-increasing population burden. In Mumbai, this vulnerability of the informal settlements is most acute and greatly compounded by the location of these communities which is often determined by their relative proximity to livelihood, on neglected, marginalized spaces in the city such as coastal zones, flood-prone areas, and geologically unsafe slopes, as well as proximity to dump yards, slaughter houses, etc.
Moreover, such populations are subjected to a wide gamut of health risks arising due to an absence of planning and provisions of basic services by the respective institutions. Hence the marginalized areas coupled with a poor institutional and municipal framework, create certain conditions that entrap the poorest citizens in a cycle of despair.
These conditions alone do not contribute to an upsurge in risk levels. Natural hazards driven by Climate Change impacts result in the marginalized communities’ exacerbated vulnerability towards health risks and life. The impoverished and migrant populations are more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change such as extreme rainfall events, flooding, water logging, increase in summer temperatures, or the urban heat island effect.
Thomas Hobbes, in his book, “The Leviathan,” describes life in the natural state as being “short, nasty and brutish”. These existential conditions, unfortunately, have become ‘natural’ and routine for the marginalized population in Mumbai – its swelling ranks lured by Mumbai’s livelihood opportunities but cast aside in the concomitant planning and governance challenges.
This Case Study of the communities living in informal slums (Aadarsh Nagar, a neighborhood in Deonar), occupying marginal low-lying land adjacent to the dump yard, examines how these harsh existential conditions are being exacerbated through environmental forces (driven by climate change) like flooding, water logging, and urban heat island effects, and specifically aims to establish an interlink between climate change and health. Further, it seeks to design some planning solutions that can play an important role in ameliorating the severe health outcomes suffered by Mumbai’s marginalized, forgotten population.
“ This Case Study examines how existential conditions are being exacerbated through environmental forces and specifically aims to establish an interlink between climate change and health.”
The objective of the case study is to bring to light the close interactions between climate-related hazards and health impacts in informal settlements. The environment harbours toxic gases emitted out of the dump yard ascribing to the health hazards faced by these marginalised communities which would be further exacerbated by the impacts of Climate Change. The study hence advocates for the need for proactive planning action and helps catalyze strategic thinking in that direction. To serve these objectives, the case study attempts to address the gap between urban planning, the health of vulnerable communities, and the challenges of urban adaptations to climate-related hazards focusing on the physical aspects with health as a key element.
Action plan strategies include:
1. Explore Planning and infrastructure action to give a chance to adapt and build resilience in these settlements like health infrastructure, municipal services, and economic opportunities.
2. Suggestions Institutional/Government Policies.
The research questions are:
1. In which ways do natural hazards (or: extreme rainfall events) contribute to further exacerbation of health risks/problems in informal settlements
2. Can slum upgrading and site-specific risk-based land use planning address the health inequities in informal settlements in the city? And how viable are they under the current conditions?
3. How do city growth and urban development impact the vulnerability of the informal community?
The study positions itself to examine the dominant symptom of the vulnerability of the inhabitants of informal settlements and look at it from a health point of view and through this understand how planning is perpetuating this condition where degradation of life seems to be tightening the noose. It takes the case of the inhabitants of Adarsh Nagar, (a neighborhood adjacent to the Deonar dump yard), to understand the gap between root causes and the nature of these vulnerabilities and health risks.