mobile
Climate Change
 
CII Media Releases
 
Planning and managing water intelligently is the key to a Smart city: CII views
Aug 26, 2015

The ardent need for planning water resources is the most important element while planning a Smart City stated Mr A B Pandya,Chairman, Central Water Commission, Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, Government of India, in his special address   at the Conference on Making Our Cities “Smart”: The Water Urban Connect  at New Delhi. 

Mr Pandya mentioned the importance of understanding the ‘city in the context of its watershed’. Source sustainability and improving water use efficiency are two key components of city- planning. With climate change setting in, there further remains a need to have carry-over storages, to tide over years of low rainfall.  

Mr Ravi Parthasarathy Chairman, CII Mission on Smart Cities & Chairman, IL & FS Ltd. welcomed the participants reiterating the importance of water while building ‘smart’ cities. He stated that while it was laudable and ambitious to talk about smart cities across India, ensuring the same remains a challenge—and here importance of water could not be undermined.A City can hardly be called Smart  if it does not have water.

Mr Parthasarathy mentioned that over the next 20 years the largest  movement of humanity will be witnessed and cities would be more crowded than they are today. The impact on the infrastructural services would be phenomenal and public services will be affected. According to Mr Parthasarathy, with water being a complex issue becoming scarce overtime, a smart city requires solutions to the challenges of Policy, Structural aspects, technological options and financing. The need for a strong focus on shared water resources was also emphasised. 

Shri Sushil Gupta, Advisor, National Water Mission & Former Chairman, Central Ground Water Board, Ministry of Water Resources, Government of India, emphasised on the mantra of 3Rs- Reduce, Recycle and Reuse for smart cities. He said water is the most complex issue to be planned for any city. While planning for the city, it is important to look at various demand centres i.e. understanding water availability in the entire basin where the city is falling.

Mr. Gupta mentioned that cities are highly dependent on groundwater resources and with changing climate scenarios, tackling wastewater generated also holds importance. Addressing water around the city and wastewater generated in the city are both important components that warrant attention, said the speaker.

Dr P G Diwakar, ISRO, discussed about the various space-based techniques that can be used for addressing smart cities initiative. Dr Diwakar mentioned that  National urban information systems have data which are available in the scale of 1:10,0000 across 152 towns. This is available for the planning or decision makers at the ULB’s town planners. Geospatial data could help users create their own base maps with a 2 metre and 1 metre resolution. Over 1000 layers of GIS information on water has been uploaded in the public domain that can help users in taking appropriate decisions for planning cities and towns in an integrated manner.

Mr Hariprasad Hegde, Chairman, Industrial Water use Efficiency Group ,CII National Committee on Water & Senior VP and Global Head Operations, Wipro Limited, proposed the vote of thanks reiterating the importance of providing water and wastewater services to the citizens. Managing resources efficiently, improving infrastructure and delivering smart services are key to a smart city was reiterated by the speaker in the inaugural session.

Later in the day during the sessions, experts, deliberated on the various aspects related to smart cities focusing on water—technology, partnership models, financing.

The Sessions of the Conference witnessed eminent speakers like Mr Ashok Natarajan , Chairman, Communications and Capacity Building Group, CII – National Committee on Water, Managing Director, Tamil Nadu Water Investment Company (TWIC); Dr Chetan Vaidya, Director,  School of Planning & Architecture; Dr Jesper Goodley Dannisøe, Director, Danish Water Forum – India, Mr Arun Lakahni, Chairman and Managing Director, Vishvaraj Infrastructure Ltd.,  Mr C Devarajan, Managing Director, URC Constructions; Ms Camilla Laag, Managing Director, United Water India, Mr Phani Varanasi, Chief Executive Officer, Hanbit Automation Technologies Pvt. Ltd, Mr Pradeep Kapoor, Siemens Limited and Mr S Podipireddy, Senior Water and Sanitation Specialist, World Bank, deliberate upon the urgent need to  encourage concerted and collective  efforts from all stakeholders  to work towards sustainable water solutions in as smart city.

 

26th August 2015
New Delhi


 

Email to a friend   Print
Download CII App:
App Store Google Play