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Urban Infrastructure and Basic services
1. Introduction
Infrastructure is the fundamental facilities and systems serving a country, city, or other
area, including the services and facilities necessary for its economy to function and to cater to
the needs of people. Infrastructure is composed of public and private
physical components such as roads, bridges, tunnels, water supply, sewers,
electrical grids, telecommunications (including Internet connectivity and broadband speeds).
In general, it has also been defined as "the physical components of interrelated systems
providing commodities and basic services essential to enable, sustain, or enhance societal
living conditions."
Urban Infrastructure and basic services are the foundation and delivery vehicle of a functional
and resilient urban environment. The following are basic urban services are -
1. Water supply
2. Sewerage/sanitation
3. Transport
4. energy
5. Solid waste disposal
6. Primary health
7. Primary education
The provision of these services is important for the following reasons:
1. Equitable basic services such as water, sanitation, drainage, energy, and
transport are key ingredients for the economic and social development of urban
areas.
2. They also sustain and improve the health, livelihood, and general living
environment of urban residents.
3. Equally important, basic services are the cornerstone for a government’s compact
with its citizens and are the most tangible issue for which communities hold their
elected officials accountable.
Every day, almost 180,000 new urban dwellers need access to energy, water, sanitation,
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waste management services, healthcare, education, transport, and need to earn a living
in cities in the developing world. To meet this growing demand, at least $70 trillion of global
infrastructure investment is needed between 2016 and 2030. In developing countries, with
large sections of the urban population living in informal settlements, the challenge is how to
expand and upgrade these services to keep pace with urban growth, while ensuring access to
an adequate and affordable level of services for the poor.
Urbanization trends in India and basic services
Urbanization is a key indicator of economic development and should be seen as a positive
factor for overall development. Also, as an economy grows, its towns and cities expand in
size and volume and the contribution of the urban sector to the national economy increases.
The urban sector presently contributes 63% of the GDP of India.
There is a continued concentration of the urban population in large cities and existing city
agglomerations (Class I cities with population over one lakh) account for 68.9% of the urban
population and this proportion has been growing. The pattern of population concentration in
large cities reflects spatial polarization of the employment opportunities. Indian urbanization
process places cities and towns at the center of India’s development strategy. India is a part of
the global trends where an increasing number of people live in urban areas. The share of urban
population to total population has grown from 17.3 percent in 1951 to 31.16 percent in 2011.
According to the 2011 Census, the urban population grew to 377 million showing a growth rate
of 2.76% per annum during 2001-2011. The Challenges of Urbanization in India are
unprecedented in scale and significance. The magnitude of the challenge can be from the
sheer fact that our urban areas may be required to accommodate 250-300 million people in
addition to the population that they are already home to at present in about two decades from
now. Similarly, the amount of investment required would be of the order of nearly Rs. 50,
00,000 Crore over next two decades if basic infrastructure is to be provided (Strategic Plan of
Ministry of Urban Development for 2011-2016).
The following table shows the shortage of basic services in India.
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Status of Basic Services in India
Water
According to Census 2011 data, Nearly 70 per cent households have access to tap water, out of
which 62 per cent have access to treated tap water. Thus, nearly 40 per cent of urban
households have no access to public supply, and have to depend on other sources of water.
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Moreover, not all households that have access to public supply have access to it within the
premise. Only 49 per cent of households have access to piped water supply within their
premises. In addition to a large percentage of households not having access to piped water
supply, a large percentage of households do not have access to water within the house. Nearly
two-thirds of the households do have access to water within the house, and 8 per cent of
households need to fetch water from more than 100 metres away from their households.
The biggest concern is that most cities do not provide the quantum of water according to
existing per capita norms. While Indian cities are supposed to conform to the standards laid
down in the Manual on Water Supply and Treatment (CPHEEO, 1999), the cities are rarely
able to meet these standards.
According to Service level Benchmark of Ministry of housing and Urban Affairs, the Indian
cities clearly receive only 69 lpcd, asopposed to the norm of 135 lpcd.
Some larger cities like Delhi provide water supply far above this norm (Narain, 2012a). But
these averages tend to mask huge inequities within the system. The extreme example of this
is Mumbai, where Narain (2012b) estimates 46 per cent of the city to be using 95 per cent of
the water Moreover, 54 per cent of the city officially lives in slums and consumes only about 5
percent of the supplied water. In addition to inadequate quantity, the water supply in almost all
cities is intermittent and often of questionable quality (Shaban and Sharma (2007); Narain
(2012a)). Almost no city in India provides 24 hour water supply and a four-to-five hour water
supply seems to be the norm (McKenzie and Ray (2009) ; Narain (2012a)). The SLB data
shows that the duration of supply is only 2–3 hours on average.
Sanitation
Access to toilets- Around 81 per cent of urban households have access to toilet facilities within
the household premises, 6 per cent access public toilets, and 13 per cent are forced to resort to
open defecation. Thus, nearly 10 million households still defecate in the open. Open defecation,
and the lack of access to any kind of toilet facilities, individual or shared, is one of the biggest
concerns and challenges for urban sanitation in India. In addition, a small percentage of
households that have to depend on insanitary installations like unimproved pit latrines, or toilets
where waste is removed by humans, animals or drains. This often involves the practice of
manual scavenging, which is unacceptable, and a serious breach of human dignity. Access to
improved sanitation has increased over the past two decades (from 49 per cent in 1990 to 77 per
cent in 2011). While the percentage of households without access to ‘basic sanitation’ has
decreased from 32 per cent to 17 per cent over the same length of time, the number of
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households practising open defecation or having unimproved toilets, has reduced from 72
million to 64 million.
In class 1 cities of India, 7% of households practice open defecation, while in class 6, the figure
is 30%. This figure might be substituted by another information—the total contribution of class
1 cities to open defecation is 32%. ,
Waste Conveyance and Treatment- Broadly, the sanitation systems in India can be divided into
two broad types: network-based systems, which refer to piped sewerage and on-site systems
which includes all other categories. The sewerage systems, where they exist, are plagued by
multiple problems. The sewers in most Indian cities are badly maintained: frequent blockages,
siltation, missing manhole covers, gulley pits. Only a third of the city population is serviced by
network-based systems, as apart from piped sewerage. According to census 2011,oonly 792 or
only 10 per cent of cities have more than 50 percent of households connected to sewerage
systems, and it is in all likelihood an overestimate.
There is limited data available on wastewater treatment. However, a CPCB study
shows that
treatment capacity exists only for 21 per cent (6,190 out of 29,074 MLD) of the
total sewage
generated in Class I and II cities. It is estimated that most plants work only at 72
per cent of
their capacity, and hence only 15 per cent of the waste is effectively treated. The
problem is
sometimes exacerbated by mixing industrial water with domestic wastewater.
Treatment
plants may not function properly for a number of reasons: insufficient wastewater
due to
inadequate conveyance system, frequent power cuts, breakdowns due to lack of
maintenance. Most of the treatment capacity (nearly 70 per cent) is concentrated
in the 35
million plus cities. Besides this, there is minimal reuse/recycling of wastewater
(CPCB,
2009).
According to Census 2011, nearly two-third of the households in India are
dependent on onsite
sanitation systems, the most common being septic tanks, followed by a different
kind of
pit latrines. While on-site systems are the most common systems, most of the
policy focus
has been on sewerage systems, to the neglect of on-site systems.
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Transport
The predominant trends influencing mobility of urban population in Indian cities are rapid
urbanisation, rising motorisation and dwindling modal share of Non-Motorised Transport
(NMT). These factors have resulted in a sudden rise in the demand for travel. At the same time,
the rapidly increasing levels of motor vehicle ownership and use has resulted in an alarming
increase of negative externalities such as road congestion, air pollution, road fatalities, and
social issues of equity and security.
Five metro cities have vehicle registration rates in excess of 500 per 1,000 people and account
for 54 per cent of the total vehicles in the metropolitan cities as of 2011 (Sarma et al., 2011).
Delhi had the highest vehicle population with almost 6.3 million vehicles (See Figure 2). In
2011, with nearly 17 million vehicles, the four big cities—Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai and
Hyderabad—alone constituted 12.3 per cent of the total number vehicles in the country.
Dwindling share of Non-motorised Transportation (NMT), also known as Active
Transportation, includes walking, bicycling, other variants such as small-wheeled transport
(push scooters, skates and hand carts), and wheelchair travel. In Indian cities, people who
commute by walking outnumber those who use private motorised transport. As cities sprawl,
the share of NMT reduces drastically creating increased reliance on private modes of transport.
Urban design that fosters walking and cycling is under threat as sprawl based urban design is
becoming the norm in big cities. The plans for new extensions and townships are still based on
low-density, segregated land use with wide roads.
Sidewalks and cycle tracks are the most neglected in infrastructure planning. For instance, the
Master Plan for Naya Raipur, the state capital of Chhattisgarh, is a planning for a 50 per cent
share of private vehicles by 2030 and has begun developing 60- to 100-metre wide roads.
Over the time, there have been efforts of making the public transport systems in cities
multimodal. There are currently 17 operational rapid transit (Officially and popularly known as
'Metro') systems in seventeen cities across India, with Delhi Metro being the largest. As of
March 2024, India has 902.4 kilometres (560.7 miles) of operational metro lines in 17 cities.
Since rail network can’t be made in every city, rapid transport system based on bus has been
introduced in 14 cities-BRT
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Urban Basic Services by UN-HABITAT
Urban basic services emphasis is placed on strengthening policies and institutional frameworks
for expanding equitable access to urban basic services, especially for the poor. Policy and
technical support is provided to partner countries and local authorities in the areas of water and
sanitation, urban waste management, urban mobility and urban energy. The main objective is
to increase equitable access to urban basic services and the standard of living of the urban
poor.
A key focus of Urban basic services area is the strengthening of policies and institutional
frameworks for increasing equitable access to urban basic services and improving the
standard of living of the urban poor. Policy and technical assistance is provided to partner
cities and regional and national authorities as follows: first, to rehabilitate and expand urban
infrastructure and services to keep pace with growing demand; second, to ensure institutional
efficiency and effectiveness in service provision; and third to provide adequate levels of
service for the urban poor. It also takes into account the needs and priorities of women, men
and vulnerable groups in decision-making and the implementation of projects, and addresses
the gender imbalances and inequalities in the provision of sustainable water and sanitation,
urban infrastructure, energy, transport and waste management.
Urban Basic Service Program in India
The Urban Basic Services (UBS) Programme in India is a program that aims to improve the
quality of life for the urban poor, especially women and children:
Goals
The UBS Programme aims to reduce child mortality and morbidity rates, improve access
to learning opportunities, and enhance the ability of low-income communities to meet their
needs.
Community participation
The UBS Programme is based on community participation and assessing the needs of the
community.
Implementation
The UBS Programme was launched in 1986 in some of India's major cities. In 1991, the
Government of India revised the UBS Programme into the Urban Basic Services for the
Poor (UBSP). The UBSP was integrated with other urban poverty alleviation programs,
such as the Environmental Improvement of Urban Slums (EIUS), Nehru Rozgar Yojana
(NRY), and Low-Cost Sanitation (LCS).