Urban constructions need new environmental regulation

Urban citizens and organisations have shown exemplary leadership on the issue of air pollution in the last two years. Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai, Patna, Varanasi, have all made headlines in major newspapers for abysmal air quality. Having achieved success in framing the problem as one that is pervasive both geographically and through the year, they now have a great opportunity to offer policy solutions. A proposed amendment to the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) notification put out by the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change seeks comments from the public to revise the environmental regulations for the real estate sector.

The draft notification seeks to ‘streamline’ the environmental scrutiny on building and construction projects. Firstly, it recommends an increase in the size of projects requiring environmental clearances from the existing limit of 20,000 sq.m to 50,000 sq.m built up area. For projects with a built up area between 5,000-50,000 sq.m, it proposes to introduce a system of self-regulation. Project proponents will give assurance through a ‘self declaration form’ that they will comply with a list of pre-determined environmental conditions. As per the new proposal, the relevant local authority will oversee the grant of approval and compliance of these projects.

Regulating construction

Presumably any proposal to loosen the environmental regulatory grip on a sector should be based on an understanding that it is one that does not cause such impacts or that it is a sector that has demonstrated unwavering initiative to comply with existing legally mandated safeguards. However, neither holds true in this case. Construction projects have large-scale environmental and social impacts. These projects have been responsible in large measure for displacing the urban poor from their jhuggis or bastis and the privatising of access to parks and forests. They extract more than their fair share of water and turn neighbourhoods into large dump yards. They provide risky living and working conditions for the large construction labour that they employ. In recent years, they have emerged as one of the major contributors to the air pollution crisis in cities.

Building projects were first brought under the jurisdiction of EIA notification in 2004. Since then, the sector has actively lobbied to keep the regulatory action as light as possible on them. In 2005, builder associations submitted petitions to the Ministry, urging that these projects not be treated at par with industrial projects as “Real estate development is by nature non-polluting, non hazardous, and environment friendly and are subjected to close monitoring, therefore, need to be exempted from EC.”  By 2006, the EIA framework significantly reduced the approval standards for construction projects. Over the years, negotiations have continued and resulted in further dilutions of environmental scrutiny on the sector. In 2014, schools, colleges and hostels for educational institutions were exempted from the requirement of getting environmental approvals.

In December 2016, the Ministry removed the requirement of environment clearances and pollution related consents for all construction projects up to 1,50,000 sq.m if environmental conditions are integrated into the project’s building bye-laws. A year later, the National Green Tribunal suspended the implementation of this notification and directed the environment ministry to re-examine the process. In March 2017, the Ministry introduced a process to give a one-time amnesty to projects that were operating without environmental approvals. As per the latest figures, 12 per cent of projects that could benefit from this scheme are building and construction projects. Consolidated official data on the compliance of the sector to environmental standards does not exist.  

Urban participation

So there are no environmental reasons to support this draft amendment and the government has presented none so far. The draft states that this proposal is to speed up approvals for the Prime Minister’s flagship programme of affordable housing for the poor. Why this exception and who benefits when projects are allowed to bypass the norms of environmental performance are important questions to ask.

Urban environmentalism in India has taken a reflexive turn. The problem of poor air quality in our cities has helped to establish that urban consumption and production both need much attention. Air quality cannot be addressed as a standalone problem separate from the way our cities, mobility and energy systems are designed. This notification may be an opportunity to open up the conversation of designing safe and healthy urban spaces for all citizens across age, gender and class. Citizens’ groups can demand more ambitious standards and safeguards, organize to be part of auditing and monitoring project compliance and ensure all round transparency and accountability from implementing authorities. Urban environmentalism will transform into a lasting movement for environmental justice for all only with the active involvement of informed and public-spirited citizens.

The authors are with the CPR Namati Environment Justice Programme. Views expressed are personal.