Vision of Life; by Sanjay: Ground Water, DC Rules, Developments & Fate of City!

“It’s only after you’ve stepped outside your comfort zone that you begin to change, grow, and transform.”
― Roy T. Bennett

And I think when the subject is of policies, rules, by-laws, its high time our govt agencies (read as PMC/PCMC/PMRDA/UD & all) must understand & adopt wise words of Mr. Bennett as it’s good to be in our comfort zone but you never know when the honeymoon time ends & before you realize entire world is shattered, that’s why change is important & more important is timing of the change! Now if you are confused as what this sharing is about then it’s not about a couple relationship but about the relationship of the city at large & its rulers! Yes, this relation matters very much as a city is indeed a living thing because it is made by living objects & not just dead structures, is a very basic fact which our most urban planners fail to understand. Outcome is our failure on fronts of many civic issues & of which traffic & water are in race to get number one position & sure in the summers water always beats traffic & this water is my subject of sharing! Recently I became part of Ground Water Cell, formed by PMC & many of us may not be knowing (read as are ignorant) but for millions of citizens of this city ground water is the only source of water supply or else they have to buy tanker water which is not very pocket friendly for a middle-class family. Ground Water about which we never think or care about because those who get water by tap (PMC) hardly need it & those who are not that fortunate are not having knowledge about it so once they get possession can hardly do anything about ground water & silently keep paying for tanker lobby cursing their bad-luck on water supply front! This is why I thought about taking this subject (and not for my oath of not writing about city or infra).

As this year’s (2023) summer got extended & dams went dry, the entire city was facing acute water supply problems, the need of this best source (and free) of water came to light which is why Ground Water Cell was formed & during its ongoing meetings various aspects came forward. First is, making people understand the importance of groundwater as a source & second is making policies which will ensure ground water storage remains intact for the use as well as increases by methods we implement for the same. Unfortunately, when the things started being discussed then we realized the scene is grave than we can imagine as it’s not just the ignorance or less knowledge of the masses about ground water but the policies as well regulations of the developments in & around the city are the major concern! All around the city three major aspects are damaging the groundwater, one is concretization which directly reduces rain water percolating into the ground, rampant tree cutting for various purposes which reduces water holding capacity of the soil & third is basements which are being dug for the parking requirements of the new developments!

So, it's decided that detailed study of the policies is needed & changes have to be done in the policies as its high time to decide whether we need parking or water & on top of it there are aspects like fire safety norms etc. which are colliding with ground water related policies! So, here are some solutions which I thought are worth sharing, as somewhere someone can act!

First & foremost, as an engineer as well planner (and builder too) let me clarify basement is the last thing any engineer will want for his building as its costly, safety issues like flooding are always there & it makes services such as drainage lines extremely difficult to maintain in the future! It's only because of contradictory provisions in our building by laws one has to go for basements, though I agree there is no environmental aspect to basement facility by most builders because they are not aware about is one aspect & second is real estate is a business & not science, & any business is driven by the needs of the customers, which in Pune’s case is parking when its real estate!

And on top of it our illogical provisions in the DC rules for parking which makes people to provoke them to buy for more car parks is another aspect as well our extremely poor public transport (and free parking on the roads) policies which makes people not restricting themselves or forced to buy more vehicles! All these factors makes need in the building to make as many parking you can & when its redevelopment the issue is grave because all the existing members demands at least two car parks & in central city area where a two bhk flat also costs more than one & half crore, the new buyers also asks for two car parks per flat & from where you are going to make provisions for all these cars, is the question in-front of the builder (and for architect/ designer/ engineer).

Digging basements directly hits two fronts of water management, one is it stops (not just reduces) rain water percolation over the area of the project thus affecting ground water storage adversely & at the same time all this rain water becomes runoff increasing chances of flash floods even with minimum of rains, which we are witnessing now! The borewells are going dry & smallest of rains are causing our roads to flood & one more aspect, loss of soil cover causing biodiversity loss along which again is reducing water holding capacity of the soil in the central part of the city! And if we don’t take some real practical (read as radical) steps to change our by-laws then we will soon be faced with some disaster on the water front for sure!

First & most important, reduce car parking norms & make it compulsory that existing flat holders in redevelopment project can possess only one car park! As well in TOD Zone there is provision of making 50% flats of smaller area for Metro use but in doing this, we are increasing density of the central part of the city & that means more car parking & as plots are smaller the only way parking needs can be fulfilled is by going for basements! We must encourage bigger flats or bigger spaces in central parts then only the need for car parks will be less! And PMC can make public parking on the amenity spaces it has acquired in newly merged villages from today itself thus projects around those parking can be tagged under a separate category with minimum parking provisions, this has been done in most of the down-towns of European cities!

Second, why we don’t allow podium by keeping 1.5 m margin if we can allow the basements & ask for fire tower which is any way mandatory for high rise buildings with 18 floors & above, so any way the fire engine won’t be necessary here the why not give all the parking above the ground only with no need of basement. Don’t consider these parking floors in the height for Fire NOC or even if you consider then don’t ask for the fire engine thing to move all around the building, which is of no use practically, this has been adopted all over the world to avoid basements! Because on one side building permission dept. considers height of the building without parking floors & gives height accordingly while the fire dept. considers parking floor height too & applies their norms, this is where the builder has to go in the ground than going up for balancing parking needs & FSI consumption!

Third is, no parking in side margins policy needs to redrafted, as if there is drive way to pass other cars what is the harm in keeping parking within margins also as in case of the fire any way people will move away their cars & as I said check the history of Pune’s fire incidences in the past fifty years (related to the residential buildings especially) & study the patterns & then make a policy which will be rational to balance safety & needs of the industry, which is not happening today is a fact! As we have one or two fire engines & to accommodate them, we are holding the entire city’s ground water at stake; actually, the buildings should be self-fire resistant should be the focus of fire as well building norms.

Fourth is, allow open wells in the open spaces to accumulate rain water as well to charge the ground water & give enough incentives to the societies which conserves ground water as well use it instead of PMC water supply. Give special water TDR also to such buildings which are self-sufficient on charging as well utilizing ground water for their needs. We can make a special category of ground water Conserving Buildings & make parking as well as fire norms separate for them to start, so we can actually check whether the policies we made are being utilized for the right cause & not being misused. A periodical monitoring system also needed to be in place for this aspect.

Friends, ground water aspect which we have to deal needs utmost importance as well planning before execution as for thousands of year this phenomenon is part of nature’s cycle which we have interrupted under the name of development & indeed, no growth is possible without the development yet if we don’t make right (and bold too) policies then developments will be still there but whether it will lead us to growth or death, time only will only decide; though I know the answer by myself, do you? Adios with this note!

Check few things which we have done at our projects for ground water restoration at the link below...

https://www.flickr.com/photos/65629150@N06/albums/72177720309889298

Sanjay Deshpande

Sanjeevani Dev.

Please view my sharing about real estate in Pune at You Tube link below..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4xX7eopH5o&t=5s

Please do visit my blog links below to read about real estate & home buying!

https://visonoflife.blogspot.com/2023/01/defining-good-home-real-estate-in-2023.html

http://jivnachadrushtikon.blogspot.com/2023/02/blog-post.html

Creating Togetherness; team Sanjeevani Way (Click link below)

https://www.flickr.com/photos/65629150@N06/albums/72157627904681345

For any of your complaints about city, log in at link below

www.punecorporation.org

Take your issues to Hon PM at link below..

https://secure.mygov.in/