Over five decades and more, Indian metro cities had to tackle growing population surge and its attendant problems as civic administrations collapsed and failed to provide even basic services to its citizens in a satisfactory manner. As a countermeasure, the government assumed urban development meant expanding on all corners and merging neighbouring local bodies into the central administrative unit – usually the municipal corporation of the city. While the political angle to the move was not missed by the Opposition, the spurt in land prices, the unbridled growth in residential and commercial properties have added to the miseries of the residents in these zones, who are forced to sustain themselves and meet their basic needs of power and water supply on higher maintenance charges, more often than not. Coming to the Telangana State capital, in the first week of December, recent news reports in the local media highlighted that the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation in its expanded version had added 27 more circles, which takes the total number of circles to 57.

The expanded GHMC is likely to boast of a population of over 1.3 crore, and with 40,000-50,000 people in each ward/division, the total number of wards could range anywhere between 280 and 300. The size of each division could also be based on natural boundaries such as Musi River, major storm water drains, railway lines, colony and community boundaries. This raises a set of questions like ‘is there any other method of balancing development with sustainable practices’ as the existing methodology has revealed gaping holes in the way it has been managed.

A recent media report says that cities growing more densely rather than expanding outward could help 220 million people gain access to piped water and 190 million to sewage systems, according to a new analysis of 100 cities across Asia, Africa and Latin America. Some of the interesting findings published in the journal Nature Cities show that water bills are 75 per cent higher in sprawling cities compared to compact ones, and access to piped water drops by 50 per cent in more dispersed urban areas. Researchers from Austria’s Complexity Science Hub and the World Bank also found that residents in outer neighbourhoods have 40 per cent less access to critical infrastructure, compared to those living closer to the city centre.

The team modelled scenarios for urban expansion and found that cities expanding outward rather than growing more compactly can significantly impact people’s access to clean water and basic sanitation. “If cities expand through compact growth rather than horizontal expansion, 220 million more people could gain access to piped water, and 190 million more people could gain access to sewage services,” the authors wrote. Lead author Rafael Prieto-Curiel from Complexity Science Hub said, “Our analysis shows that effective planning can significantly enhance access to water and sanitation. Compact, walkable neighbourhoods with adequate density aren’t just environmentally sustainable.

They ensure that basic services are available to everyone.” Prieto-Curiel contends that “water scarcity gets a lot of attention, but urban form is something we can actually control through planning and policy.” Urban populations across Africa and Asia are expected to grow substantially by 2050 -- tripling and increasing by half, respectively -- demanding considerable planning efforts, the researchers said. Cities in Africa are nearly twice as sprawling as those in Asia, with only 12 per cent of the residents living in central areas, compared to 23 per cent in Asia.