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Linking urban design and health issues: an interdisciplinary approach

Final Report Summary - URBEN (Linking urban design and health issues: an interdisciplinary approach)

This interdisciplinary study on the interlinkages of urban design and health issues under rapid urbanization, water scarcity and climate change hypothesizes that visualizing the value of access to safe drinking water to reduce human health risk to policy makers should inspire willingness to invest in appropriate water infrastructure. The case study Leh Town, Ladakh, India is in a semi-arid high-altitude region in the Himalayas. The study undertook mapping using geographic information systems (GIS), and questionnaire and interview surveys and finds the following. Leh, with a population of ca. 60,000, has grown exponentially since the 1980’s. 180,000 tourists have visited annually in recent years, and hundreds of hotels and guesthouses (H/GH) have opened. The local government supplies 3-4 million litres per day (MLD) of freshwater, mostly through groundwater extraction, which is very energy intensive. Further, 60 % of Leh’s 360 H/GH own a private borewell and are extracting ca. 1-2 MLD groundwater. Wastewater from H/GH is collected using septic tanks and soak pits. These are not properly managed and groundwater is being polluted through seepage. Further, wastewater from H/GH amounts to ca. 1 MLD, a resource not being utilized. According to government health records, acute diarrhoea possibly linked to drinking water pollution affects ca. 10 % of the population. 30 % of households think septic tanks and soak pits are causing groundwater pollution. Whilst 99 % of tourists prefer to use a flush toilet, the vast majority of the local population use the traditional Ladakhi dry toilet, which uses no water. 90 % of H/GH are in Leh’s wards with agricultural land so that in the last decade, 10 % of agricultural land has been built-up and barren land is 40 %. Currently the local government is implementing a centralized sewage system, which will require twice as much groundwater extraction per capita to flush long pipes and may not necessarily ensure health risk mitigation as long pipes may still have seepage into groundwater. Thus, the study recommends an integrated urban planning approach based on the Water-Energy-Food Nexus concept. Specifically, decentralized wastewater recycling and reuse to regenerate barren land, for water and energy conservation, renewable energy use potential, and health risk reduction is recommended. The study is at the breaking edge of research as wastewater recycling and reuse worldwide has often been implemented at building level but rarely at neighbourhood scale. The study has been carried out in close collaboration with the Ladakh Ecological Development Group (LEDeG) and findings presented to the local government as a policy recommendation. The fellow, Dr. Daphne Gondhalekar is an urban planner and is working as Postdoctoral Researcher at Technical University Munich (TUM) on a contract ending July 2016. The fellow has built up a very extensive research network in Germany and abroad. Still, continuation of the research career depends entirely on her ability to procure further research funding, even with which maximum duration of contract allowed as a Postdoc at a German university will be limited, or to obtain a professorship. daphnegondhalekar@gmail.com. http://www.enpb.bgu.tum.de/en/research/water-energy-food-nexus/ http://www.ledeg.org/2012/08/12/urban-water-health-leh-urwahl-research-project/