This is a report on the webinar-Public health, environmental protection and economic security: the three lost aims of city planning. It was held on 30th May, 2020, Saturday from 08:30p.m onwards. This webinar is organized by EMPOWER PEOPLE and Ar. Yashika Tijoriwala handled the key speakers and interacted with them about the points to be considered. The key speaker of this webinar was HUSSAIN INDOREWALA (Teacher & Urban Researcher).

Environmental health is the science of understanding how the health and wellbeing of individuals and communities is affected by their physical environment. Global public health security is defined as the activities required, both proactive and reactive, to minimize the danger and impact of acute public health events that endanger people’s health across geographical regions and international boundaries. Economic security or financial security is the condition of having stable income or other resources to support a standard of living now and in the foreseeable future.

Planning means utilizing every inch of land for human benefit. Everyone has just forgotten about the harmful and toxic happenings of environment and public health. People changes just their modus vivendi according to new era but forgets what they have left behind. 

Mainly the urban areas development focus on the infrastructures due to which interdependence of our and other health, political and economic stability. Increase in population also affects the supply of basic infrastructure facilities. Urban environments of today are characterized by areas that contain many acres of hard surfaces like buildings, streets, etc. Natural vegetation such as forests and fields slow rainwater or other running water down, allowing it to soak into the surface which is adversely affecting us and our immune systems. We need to redefine the policies.

There was many acts one of them was Maharashtra Slum Act (1971), a slum area is a buildings that are insanitary, dilapted, poorly designed making them “detrimental” to health, safety of its residents. Slum has become development opportunity now. The planning become dependent on private sector which makes state dependent. What it was earlier and now? Everyone knows the changes. Planning is having two domains one we our familiar with and other is about environmental decision making, public policy that has environment implantation according to time. We need to have alternatives and target excluded group of welfares. This means we have to once again start the collective conception of housing and building institutions.

As Yashika asked is there anything coming from the side of authority as the motivation to any kind of data collection. We are in phases where we might look at changing the aspects as the history is repeating itself. The aspects are basically-: environment, housing and demographics. And our speaker has answer to this as he says that there is not lack of data but it’s not organized in a proper manner or unsystematic. But there is enormous gap in our understanding even. So there is not just problems it’s handled in different manners. There is even working going on so that these problems can be cured in a way as in an instance we cannot say that it will be vanished.

So in the crux, I would like to say the main aims of urban development our important but they should not affects the other aspects of living. Economic growth and environmental protection are not at odds. They're opposite sides of the same coin if you're looking at longer-term prosperity- said by Henry Paulson.

Compiled by - Aarushi Jain