Building Pandemic Resilient Cities in India

It is well established that globally most pandemics have severely affected crowded urban settlements which are often the hub of significant economic activities, but yet they suffer from poor housing and basic Water, Sanitation, Hygiene (WASH) infrastructure. In this article, Mary Abraham and Nathaniel B Dkhar highlight that while washing hands and maintaining adequate hygiene has been advocated as the need of the hour, COVID-19 exerts the need to reassess the adequacy of the WASH infrastructure in slums and low-economic settlements. They rightly emphasize on the need for WASH infrastructure improvement to face pandemics in urban areas.

- Mary Abraham and Nathaniel B Dkhar

India is one of the fastest urbanizing nations with around 459 million people living in the urban areas. As per the Census of India, about 28.53 per cent of the population in 2001 resided in urban areas which grew to 31.16 per cent by 2011 and estimated at around 34.3 per cent in 2018. 1 By the year 2050, around 52.8 per cent of Indians are estimated to live in urban areas. 2 Despite considerable progress in the urban Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) sector, the inequity of WASH infrastructure persists as a serious challenge especially in the context of the COVID-19 outbreak. Almost all the states in India are affected with coronavirus with urban areas being on high risk. Several measures are being taken by the Central and State Governments for containment of the pandemic, including a phased-out lockdown and strengthening of health infrastructure.

The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends hand hygiene or washing of hands with soap to prevent the spread of COVID-19 virus transmitted through respiratory droplets or direct contact. Good WASH and waste management practices in communities, workplaces, markets and institutions including health care facilities serve as barriers in the spread of the virus.