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CITy IMAGE Denmark: raising Benches for rising sea LeveLs

TV2 DENMARK, THE DANISH Broadcasting Company, launched the campaign ‘Our Earth – Our Responsibility’ in Copenhagen to make people talk about the climate change and rising sea levels in the city. Some benches have been raised by one meter and are setup at some of the prominent places in an effort to show the people how the city benches might look due to climate crisis and resultant sea level increase. Copper plates have been put on the benches which read: “Flooding will become part of everyday life unless we start doing something about our climate. According to the latest UN Climate Report, sea-levels are expected to rise up to one meter before 2100, if global warming continues.”

MP CM releases `931.5

crore to urban local bodies

BHOPAL: Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh Shivraj Singh Chauhan on Monday, released `931.5 crore to urban local bodies of the state, as per the recommendation of the 15th Finance Commission. Of this, `432.5 crore has been allotted to million plus cities of Bhopal, Gwalior, Indore and Jabalpur. These are performance-based grants to improve sanitation, water management, air quality, solid waste management, etc. To be specific, `131.5 crore has been reserved for air quality improvement, `301 crore for drinking water, sewerage and sanitation. While `499 crore has been given to non-million plus cities with a population of less than 10 lakhs, within which 199.6 crore is for local development works and `299.4 crore for sanitation, sewerage, drinking water and conservation. A special focus was laid on Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna and PM Street Vendors’ Scheme. He also applauded the efforts of cities in revenue collection, as municipal bodies have managed to earn 35 per cent more revenue than last year. Bhupendra Singh, Minister for Urban Development and Housing, Government of Madhya Pradesh was also present on the occasion. He said that Madhya Pradesh has done well in the field of urban development, as a result it is getting many awards and accolades.

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court of India addressed the issue of growing illegal colonies in cities, on Monday. A bench of Justices L Nageswara Rao and B R Gavai appointed Gopal Sankaranarayanan, Senior Advocate, as amicus curiae in the matter, to suggest ways for the states to tackle this problem. The bench expressed concern over the grave consequences of illegal colonies, even causing floods in Hyderabad and Kerala. The state governments were directed to take cognizance of the matter and come up with a comprehensive action plan. They also directed to take punitive action against officers who allowed illegal constructions. One of the suggestions made by the bench in this regard was stopping the registrations so that the people cannot claim equities. The apex court has stipulated that the amicus curiae submit its suggestions to the court in two weeks’ time, for the purpose of which it is permitted to send questionnaires to the states and union territories. It also directed the state governments to furnish all records and information to the amicus curiae. A petition was filed in the Supreme Court by social worker Juvvadi Sagar Rao alleging that the Government of Telangana, Tamil Nadu, and Andhra Pradesh have been regularising illegal colonies in their respective states causing unregulated growth, traffic jams, urban flooding, etc.

SC expresses concern over growing menace of illegal colonies

GWMC planning waste-tofuel plant in Panaji

Goa Waste Management Corporation (GWMC) plans to make a facility for converting waste into fuel at the Verna Industrial Estate. This waste will primarily be non-recyclable plastic waste. Goa generates 3000 tons of waste, which is transported to cement factories in Karnataka and burnt. Each truck carrying 15 tons of RDF costs about `12,000 to `15,000. GWMC now plans to build a plant on 50,000 square meter land at Verna, which will generate steam or fuel to be used by factories and industries.

JICA to sponsor ‘Assam Health System Strengthening Project’

Chief Minister of Assam Hemant Biswa Sarma chaired a cabinet meeting to discuss the issue of improving access to tertiary healthcare facility projects with the help of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). Cabinet approved the plan, sponsored by JICA, to improve the health infrastructure facility of the state. Currently, the estimated cost of the entire project stands at `3800 crores. This Project also includes 6 super speciality wings in medical colleges of Silchar, Tezpur, Jorhat, Bapeta, Diphu and Lakhimpur. Additionally, 580 crores were also sanctioned for developing 3 medical colleges.

NEWSCAN Experts discuss Maternal and Child Healthcare during COVID-19

JAKARTA: A webinar titled ‘Maternal, Neonatal and Child Health Services during the COVID-19 pandemic’ was conducted by the United Cities and Local Governments Asia Pacific (UCLG ASPAC) on April 22, 2022. UCLG ASPAC is a regional subset of the United Cities and Local Governments, which aims to promote and strengthen local governments of cities in Asia Pacific region. The webinar started with welcoming remarks from Zhang Yajie, Chair of Standing Committee of Women in Local Governments, UCLG ASPAC. She emphasised the significance of the discussion. Since women and children are the most vulnerable populations of the world, they were far adversely affected during the COVID-19 pandemic. This was followed by the panel discussion, which was moderated by Dr Makhyan Jibril, Consultant, London Strategic Consulting and digital expert, East Java COVID-19 Task Force. Prof QiuXiu MD, PhD, Department of Woman Health, Guangzhou Women and Children’s Medical Center talked about how her team approached pregnant women during the time of lockdown and partial lockdown. She started with assessing the differentstages of lockdown in Guangdong province (lockdown, partial lockdown and restricted zones) and discussed how different approaches were taken to access patients in these areas. They created an App where the women could register their medical information. More than 2,50,000 women got registered on the app. Depending upon the risk involved (calculated via Risk Management Strategy) a treatment plan would be devised. Guangzhou was the first city to make three people groups with a policeman, a doctor and a volunteer. Dr Yan Hu, Director of Department of Children Healthcare, Guangzhou

Women and Children Medical Center spoke about how the hospital successfully provided neonatal healthcare services for families with children during the pandemic. It took a collective effort from all stakeholders like family, nursery, healthcare facilities and the government to develop an efficient management system. Support services, like specialised, targeted and common support services were curated according to the risk assessment of children. For instance, during the worst phase of the pandemic, the hospital provided neonatal home visits. Incorporating AI technology to detect, diagnose health issues has been an innovative and effective approach, especially during the pandemic, when people didn’t have unhindered access to hospitals. AI applications allowed people to self-monitor the children’s health at different developmental stages and suggest appropriate interventions as and when needed. Ozone crosses safe limit in Delhi’s air: DPCC

NEW DELHI: Recent data from the Delhi Pollution Control Board Committee (DPCC) showed that the level of ground level ozone crossed the safe limit in many parts of Delhi, owing to the heat-wave conditions in the capital city. It pushed the temperature to unusually high levels. The DPCC had recorded temperature rising up to 43-47 degree Celsius during the last week of April. The highest values of ground level ozone were recorded at JLN stadium. According to DPCC, the hourly values of gas touched 251 micrograms per cubic metre (one hour standard), close to noon every day at JLN stadium during the last week of April. That is also the time when there is substantial traffic at the place and the temperature is high. Areas including Dr Karni Singh Shooting Range, Nehru Nagar, Mandir Marg, Rk Puram, and Narela also witnessed breach in the safe limit of ground level ozone. Unlike PM 2.5, PM 10, or NO2, which have 24-hour set standards, ozone levels are measured by eight-hour and one-hour standards, because the gas can be very dangerous in a short amount of time. At Mundka, the level of gas breached the limit on five of the seven days. At Nehru Nagar, it reached 238 micrograms per cubic metre (one hour standard). Ozone is a highly reactive gas that is especially toxic to people who have asthma or respiratory problems. A combination of heat and gases such as nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds produces the gas. Thus, it largely occurs during the day in areas with traffic congestion or industries.

EVENT Local governments and development co-operations are key to achieve SDGs: UCLG & CIB

NEW DELHI: CIB Working Group and the UCLG Learning team organised a dialogue on “Conversation on Development Co-operation with Associations of Local Governments UCLG ASPAC & UCLG MEWA” on April 29. The Dialogue aimed to discuss the recommendations for the CIB new policy paper on development cooperation of local governments that will include recommendations and calls for action reflecting the main challenges and opportunities in the field of local government development cooperation. Introduction to the Dialogue session, which was third in series of the sessions being organised, was given by Sara Hoeflich, Director, UCLG Learning. Hendra Adi, Training coordinator – Localise SDGs Project, UCLG ASPAC, was the first speaker of the session. He said that Asia-Pacific region consists of most populous countries like China and India. These regions face the challenges of poverty, economic disparity, and incapacity of government authorities to make economies fair. However, he added that there lies a great potential of economic growth in these regions. He mentioned how Indonesia is cooperating with the Ministry of Home Affairs to achieve the SDGs. They are currently trying to set priority goals for decentralised cooperatives with cooperation from local governments. UCLG is advocating the need for increased capacity of local governments for successful achievement of SDGs. Moreover, they are trying to link international cooperation and also trying to expand their initiatives to other countries as well. He said that development cooperation needs to be at the heart of climate response. He mentioned how the UCLG aims to connect local governments with the development actors to explore partnership that will enable them to learn and adapt from global and regional platform. Adi’s presentation showed that in a survey in ASPAC region, 65 per cent of all the participants felt that they had a sound understanding of development cooperation, wherein only 36 per cent rated their understanding as low or very low. An assessment of state of readiness to roll out development cooperation showed that whilst having many (although not often documented) examples of active development cooperation projects in the ASPAC region, nearly 65 per cent of the survey participants felt that not enough energy was currently being spent on development cooperation activities. Jessie Post, CIB secretariat gave a brief introduction to CIB and gave a presentation of the draft policy paper and calls to action. CIB, she quoted, is a technical platform for professionals from Local Government Associations and individual local governments active in the field of capacity development and local development cooperation. The CIB aims to advance the effectiveness and quality of international policy and programmes of local and regional governments and their associations through knowledge exchange, coordination, and advocacy. Her presentation went on to explain the contents of the draft policy paper. It consisted of 6 major points under call to action – push for a continuous recognition of the role of local and regional governments in addressing global challenges; promote decentralised cooperation as an essential development cooperation modality; make decentralised cooperation more effective, professional, and innovative; further engage decentralised cooperation in the financing sphere; help create more integrated and coordinated development cooperation between all countries and actors; and foster stronger public support for decentralised cooperation. The next speaker, Salim Korkmaz, General Coordinator, UCLG-MEWA, talked about how disparities within the ASPAC region, a unified model for the region as a whole is not possible. He said that SDG framework has the potential to create a balance between development and sustainability. He quoted major challenges to be limited number of local government organisations in the regions and their incapacity to cater to these projects. He said that decentralised co-operations have more potential to act, as they proved so during the worst times of the COVID-19 pandemic. The next session involved an open discussion on the calls for action and if anything needed to be added to the list. Sara Hoeflich, while concluding the session, said that decentralised cooperations need to be more professional and active. She added that cities would be able to attract private investments in their path to achieve the SDGs if they are further decentralised.