With the advancement of Science and technology, there has been remarkable increase in the number of mega cities due to migration of people.
Mega cities are facing problems in respect of congestion of population, pollution of environment, transportation and waste management etc.Therefore, some solutions are to be found out for a balance Eco friendly environment.The basic requirement of any development work is that it must be beneficial to all concerned.Therefore, the basic and most important issue today is how to meet the growing needs of growing population, considering the ecological imbalance in general and also human race in the long run.
Some of the area which could be seriously thought of, are as follows-
* Landscape and afforestation
*Rain water harvesting
*Use of solar and alternative energy in buildings wherever possible
*Conservation of building materials and use of locally available good materials
*Waste management plan
Landscape and afforestation
Every plot / building owner shall have at least 20% of the set back area reserved for plants/greenery.
Provision for planting trees should be kept in the multi-storied building complex also.
Rain water harvesting
Rain water harvesting in our ancient way of storing water for domestic purposes.
Every owner of the building shall make suitable arrangement of harvesting the rain water falling on the roof and plot and shall be taken to a filtration tank for purification, suitably located in the campus.Harvesting of roof top rain water could meet over 60 percent of domestic water requirement.The building plan should show such provision on the drawing submitted for proposal.
Use of solar and alternative energy in buildings
The building shall make provision for use of solar / alternate system of electricity for cooking / lighting etc. wherever possible.Every multi-storied building shall install solar energy based lighting system for lighting of indoors and outdoors.The plan shall show such provision of the drawings submitted for proposal.
Conservation of building material
Every owner of the building and promoter of the building shall make use of materials saving technique wherever possible in the construction of the buildings.Use of machine made bricks, hollow bricks designed concrete in large buildings, proper grade of blended cements for R.C.C works are recommended.
Conservation of Heritage Structures
The development authority or Map Sanctioning authority shall appoint a special committee to see that the character of the heritage structure does not get affected and shall review all the proposals submitted for approval in close proximity of the heritage structure.
Waste Management Plan
It has been observed that increased usage of ungraded plastic bag commonly known as Carry Bag" has become a matter of great concern to the society.The Govt. should come forward to stop the manufacturing of ugraded plastic bags.Public in general should adopt the following steps to minimize its use.
Refuse: When purchasing packed products (like ilk, Bread etc) which come in plastic bags, tell the shopkeeper not to put it in another plastic bag.
Reduce: By using the clothed bags of different sizes while marketing and insist the shopkeeper to use the thick paper bags, the use of plastic carry bags may be reduced.
Reuse: In spite of the above, if plastic bags somehow reaches to your home burn them immediately.The family members including children should be instructed not to throw the plastic bags in the dustbin or road side drain and advice them to buy reusable not disposable products.
Recycle: Recycling is the process of recovering scrap or waste plastic and reprocessing the material into useful products.Some of the graded plastic bags may be kept for recycling considering the grade of microns of the bag instead of throwing hither and thither and may be handed over to the ragpickers for recycling.
It is believed that the various regulatory bodies, academicians and government should play a vital role in these areas.Within the existing rules and regulations of the regulatory bodies for approval of plans stc of cities, there is hardly any scope for mitigation of these problems.They have a definite role to play by amending the existing rules and regulations by providing such elements which should be obligatory for builders to follow in construction and planning.
The concept of sustainable development and issue relating to environment should be taught in the institutions level so that the students will be aware of the fact and learn to minimize the consumption of inputs and wastage of natural resources.
Engineers, designers and architects should also think over the matter seriously and to act as a positive catalyst for improvement of the environment.
