Empower the poor to mitigate effects of climate change
ENVIRONMENTAL conservation and climate issues were consigned to oblivion by various political parties in the recent Lok Sabha elections, despite a heatwave sweeping through many parts of the country. Delhi is making headlines over its drinking water crisis. The AAP government has claimed that the Capital is facing a water shortage of 50 million gallons per day. The most polluted capital city in the world is struggling to cope with the heatwave. The weather conditions have hit poor people the hardest; they lack access to basic needs, such as food, water, health, housing and electricity, to fight or adapt to heatwaves.
The impact of climate change is not the same for the rich and the poor. Societal inequalities exacerbate the effect of heatwaves on the poor, whereas the rich can afford to adapt to them. Over 80 per cent of the street vendors surveyed in Delhi reported a decline in customers amid the heatwave in April and May, and around 50 per cent experienced significant income loss, according to a report by think tank Greenpeace India and the National Hawker Federation.
While the rich contribute to climate change, it is the poor that suffer its negative effects, such as high temperatures or heatwaves. Rising temperatures cause a multitude of problems, such as health issues, water scarcity and food adulteration. Heatwave-related morbidities like dehydration, weakness, restlessness, headache, diarrhoea, skin rashes, heatstroke and sleeplessness continue to affect people, especially children, the elderly, women and those with comorbidities.
Climate change has adversely affected the adequacy, accessibility and affordability of drinking water, with an increase in demand for it in Delhi. Residents, especially those in slums, continue to grapple with water shortage. The fundamental right to access clean water is denied even as the government proclaims the success of the Jal Jeevan Mission for an assured supply of rural drinking water and the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation for the universal coverage of drinking water supply in urban areas.
Further, the past two months have seen a high demand for climate adaptation appliances like fans, air coolers, air conditioners and refrigerators in India. And there has been a huge surge in the consumption of electricity. Frequent incidents of fire are reported amid high temperatures and a corresponding increase in the consumption of electricity to ward off the heat. The NCR has around 750 slum settlements, housing 3,50,000 families with a total population of 20 lakh. Poverty, sweltering heatwaves and an inadequacy of water have worsened the living conditions of slum-dwellers. With limited economic resilience, the poor are unable to adapt to the climate.
The poor seek relief from the excessive heat inside their homes — which have plastic and asbestos roofs — in open spaces like footpaths, parks and the areas under flyovers. Children, the elderly and women remain the hardest hit. The rich, on the other hand, can adapt to the heatwaves, as they have access to water and air conditioners. These unsustainable human lifestyles and the extractive and exploitative use of common property resources can create problems for the common man in India.
Governments are hardly prepared to face the greater developmental challenges posed by climate change. There is an urgent need to economically empower the poor to battle climate change. Sunstroke is not treated as a natural disaster in policy forums, and there are no rehabilitation centres or livelihood support for the poor who suffer because of heatwaves. There is an urgent need to assess urban climate risks for each city for a holistic climate resilience policy in India. The urban climate risk and vulnerability assessment — in terms of the number of people vulnerable to climate-related disasters, the damage to humans and infrastructure and the financial support needed to rebuild — is important for climate resilience.
The system requires three kinds of resources to fight climate change at the city level: natural (forest and water), man-made (infrastructure) and human (technology and employment). Without them, an individual’s capacity for climate resilience is highly limited. Climate resilience largely relies on the sustainable development of cities through practices like rainwater harvesting, replenishing groundwater and the conservation of urban forests, land, biodiversity, lakes, rivers and trees.
Indian cities lack modern and sustainable infrastructure. Most of the infrastructure is old, and it cannot support the growing demands, for example, multimodal public transport, 24×7 water supply, sewage and solid waste management, green energy, urban housing and public hospitals and schools.
It is also imperative to improve the human capital through education, technology, health, jobs and a decline in poverty and income inequality. Inclusive development, such as social protection, acts as an insurance against climate change. The poor need financial, technical and institutional support in the form of poverty reduction programmes, social security schemes, etc, to improve their quality of life and develop climate resilience. Indian cities need to have institutional capacity to adapt to climate change. Systemic wealth and income inequalities have exacerbated the impact of climate change on the poor.
The present model of economic development perpetuates inequalities and fails to reallocate and redistribute resources. Economic inequality and climate change are intricately linked to an unequal distribution of income and resources, limiting the economic resilience of the poor to fight climate change. Therefore, there is an urgent need to restructure economic and environmental governance systems to achieve inclusive development and strike a balance between ecological and economic stability to tackle climate change in India.
