Delhi crisis: Demand-supply mismatch
Delhi-NCR: Currently, the population of Delhi and its suburban areas is nearly 21 million and by 2025, the number is expected to grow to 28.6 million, says the UN State of The World’s Cities report. However, this is a real bad news for the city which is already left with no space to bear more population.
Delhi and NCR have observed a population growth of 21 percent and 55 percent respectively in the past decade, which has made Delhi-NCR, the second largest urban agglomeration in the world.
The consumption rate is pretty high than the rate of supply in the city. Delhi’s demand for power is increasing by 10 percent every year. The city is witnessing a shortage of 718 million litres of water every day while it needs 3,874 million litres per day. It is expected that the city would generate over 10,000-tonne of garbage every day in the near future.
Although Delhi-NCR suburbs do not face problems such as lack of space, they are facing different kinds of problems. Gurgaon city, which houses the highest number of high-rises after Mumbai and Bangalore, depends mostly on groundwater. Central Groundwater Authority has warned that as the city is extracting three times of what is naturally replenished, it may go dry by 2017.
Besides this, there is power crisis across many cities and townships in NCR. Many gated communities face routine sewerage issues because solid waste management systems are either insufficient or non-existent.
Though Delhi has the most extensive road network in India, it is not sufficient to manage the city’s traffic. A study reports that the increased roadway capacity will be consumed by added traffic in just five years.
However, this is a matter of grave concern in case of all critical infrastructure sectors. Adding capacity is not a permanent solution as demand continues to grow. Since physical resources are limited, sustainable solutions have to be sought.
Many cities across the world have come across such issues and have left behind successful legacies. For example, Chennai made rainwater harvesting compulsory for every building in 2002 and saw a 50 percent rise in groundwater levels in just five years.
Such ideas encouraging energy-efficiency, renewables, waste-recycling, water-harvesting or equitable distribution are believed to be real time solutions which can protect from the negative effects of urbanisation.
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Central Groundwater Authority, consumption rate, Delhi garbage, Delhi NCR, Delhi power supply, Delhi suburban areas, Gurgaon city, infrastructure sectors, population of Delhi, Rainwater Harvesting, UN State of The World’s Cities report, waste recycling
