ARTICLE | Building Back Better
Let COVID not derail work towards a sustainable future The post COVID world has thrown up painful, even tragic outcomes, many seen and felt such as the loss of livelihoods, deaths of young breadwinners, orphaned children, and national economic downturns. In addition, there have been several impacts largely unseen and unfelt, atleast as of now. These setbacks could potentially derail our march towards a more sustainable future for mankind
T
he COVID Pandemic has made a lasting impression on people all over. For most of us, it was the first time we witnessed streets deserted during peak hours, busy markets completely devoid of any vendors or customers, near-zero vehicular traffic during what we knew as high traffic congestion times. In short, it has been, and in many places continues to be, something we never experienced before. As a consequence, COVID-19 has delivered a body blow to the economy of most cities, states and nations. While at the macro level, GDP of nations across the globe has gone into a downward spiral, government revenues have quickly dried up, millions of livelihoods have been snatched, and education has been adversely impacted. Among the more tragic impacts has been the large numbers of children orphaned, with parents and other family members succumbing to the virus. Sadly, the devastation may not be over; likely further waves and new variants of the virus could pose fresh challenges. A
40 September 2021 | www.urbanupdate.in
grim aspect of the impacts of COVID-19 is with respect to poverty alleviation. It is likely that the significant gains made in the recent past by pulling millions out of poverty have been erased; large numbers could have slipped back into unemployment, ill-health, and poverty. The bright spot however, is the rapid and efficient rollout of the vaccination programme in India. We have seen daily numbers of vaccinated increasing steadily, new vaccines being approved, and production ramped up. The public and private healthcare systems have responded admirably. Among the pandemic-related setbacks are some not yet fully felt. Take for example, mobility. Governments have been pushing for use of public transport in order to achieve better air quality and remove congestion from streets. But citizens may now avoid public transport and prefer private modes instead, out of fear of infection. This can be a double whammy. While on the one hand, the efforts for cleaner air and less congestion could suffer, and on the other hand public transport undertakings could
incur bigger losses due to lockdown restrictions and reduced ridership. Recently, the Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation announced it is in a financial crisis; the utility had suffered a loss of about `400 crores due to the lockdown and higher fuel prices. Such losses could prevent the operators from taking up expansion of their services. In Mumbai however, there is a clamour among users for restoring suburban train services given the speed, reliability, connectivity, and affordability of these services. Similar is the case with the metro in many cities. A reversal in the push for public transport could be a big step backward in the clean air mission of cities. Yet another significant setback is in the use of plastic. There is no doubt that use of single use plastic has been a potent tool in protecting frontline healthcare workers (PPE kits), and in protecting citizens (disposable masks, coffee cups). But these have added to plastic waste. Increased home delivery of food and online shopping have also resulted in more plastic in landfills. Prior to COVID, administrators
