My City My Responsibility - Safety measures during floods!!!

Dear All, 

Meetup in Kimaya

Pune has been flooding like never before, one of the major reasons is haphazard concretization happening around without the cognizance of the existing water channels and the network. Thus leaving no place but the roads and our apartments/societies for the rainwater to venture and find its pathway.

Nevertheless, a lot has been said on this, leaving us with the ONLY option as to WHAT we are supposed to do in such a situation in order to save ourselves???

As a matter of concern, we at Samuchit Enviro Tech, LAYA and INECC conducted our monthly session titled #ChallengingThanos-Submerging Cities for brainstorming on ACTIONS that we as individuals should undertake as part of the basic disaster preparedness or measures in such situations.

We conducted the session in an open cafe Kimaya in Kothrud, though it was noisy and a bit uncomfortable to brainstorm, I feel we managed it quite well. We conducted our Mentimeter (click here for mentimeter result) session to collate a list of BASIC measures we can take as individuals during floods from a bunch of 13 people. Below is the list for your reference. Note that you too can also add to the list either as a comment or message.  

1. First things first, be alert. If possible be home or wherever you are, avoid any travel if the weather forecast alerts heavy rainfall. We have to start trusting our forecasting systems like IMD, local news, even google weather app is useful to get an idea on the weather. Call your near and dear ones and make them aware and tell them to stay where they are if they are rushing to come home.

2. Nowadays we all prefer to have cashless transactions, however having some cash is a must during difficult times at home as well as in person. In case of floods especially, the first thing that gets hampered is electricity and then online network gets jammed. in such times your mobiles may also not work, so its crucial to have some cash and food handy and follow the first point. 

3. In order to use our smart phones ''smartly'', ensure phone battery is charged and phones are updated with google maps and other related social media apps. We all use Whats app and Facebook these apps can be used efficiently to inform each other about current conditions around you. These are one of the best handy mode of communication available with all of us. Important point to be noted, a lot of fake/old news also gets circulated sometimes, so instead of panicking or blindly forwarding such posts always ask for authentication of such news.

4. In case if you are caught in any critical situation, make sure you save yourself first, only if you are fine you can help others. So securing yourself should be the priority.

Following is a list of precautions to be taken in order to cope with the ill effects of urbanization. 

1. While buying a house, check if its not near or over a river or a canal or a stream. RiverView homes may not be so appealing if the river drains into your homes. Don't fall for such real estate marketing gimmicks. The rivers/riverbeds, canals and streams are the natural drainage systems, these need to be free from obstructions in any case. Any kind of construction of concreting ON or NEAR such areas is ultimately going to affect the person who resides near these areas.

2. Our societies should have disaster prepardness plan and appropriate equipment, emergency/first aid kit, emergency contact numbers and should conduct mock drills on regular intervals. We as a family and individual should be aware of these activities and if these are not present we need to ask for them and get it.  

3. Keeping oneself FIT is a crucial factor often neglected due to time constraint. Regular exercising keeps one active and alert during crisis. Make sure you do something to keep yourself fit. Swimming is a life saving skill now, we need to be equipped with it. 

4. Stock at least 7 days of food and cash in your homes at any time. You never know when you might need it. 

5. Following sustainable practices like growing your own food or having a backyard vegetable garden, harvesting rainwater, using household biogas or steam cookers, using renewable source of energy like solar heating and lighting systems turns out to be not only sustainable but are best rescue options when there's no electricity and food.

Climate Change is happening and is real believe it or not. Haphazard urbanization is accelerating its impacts and its you, me and our families who are vulnerable to these impacts. Its high time we start taking action for our survival. Its time we start asking for a climate adaptive, resilient and mitigation focused urban planning.  

Any comments are welcome!!!

Pournima Agarkar.

www.samuchit.com

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My City My Responsibility - Sustainability and Climate Action week 2019

Dear All,

I am back! Last week we observed the most happening week of 2019 from Climate Action and Sustainability perspective. I am glad that we could contribute to the Climate Week NYC 2019  and UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDGs) Action for the People and the Planet through our local initiatives in our capacity and reach. Sharing a quick list of activities we conducted in the last week. 

List of Activities

Since the beginning of the week, we offered discounts on all our products as a part of promoting climate friendly or low carbon lifestyle. Also during the entire week, Dr Karve daily posted some content on climate change, its impacts and solutions. Check out the video for a compilation of all the posters in this link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03j0BtBVzlg&feature=youtu.be

Every month we conduct the #ChallengingThanos workshop where Thanos the most powerful villain of the super hyped Avengers-Endgame movie depicts the face of the climate crisis which is inevitable. The name literally means #ChallengingClimateChange and the workshop focuses on understanding our day to day issues like pollution, traffic congestion, floods, water crisis etc and linking it to the big picture i.e Climate change and Sustainability, in the city's context. Due to heavy rains affecting all our cities and considering the severity of Floods, we conducted a workshop titled #ChallengingThanos-Floods in Pune, at Yolkshire Aundh in order to talk about floods and the underlying man-made impacts and above all its implications due to the changing climate. We had planned this on Saturday, assuming that the Climate Strike and Climate March will happen on Friday, but for some reason, the Climate March in Pune was held on Saturday, and clashed with our schedule.

Interactive session on ChallengingThanos!

However, I was glad that there was at least ONE person who felt the need to know about Floods and actually attended our workshop. Our strategy has always been to undertake the workshop even if there is just one participant, the show must RUN in any case. We also had a special invitee for the workshop, so between the four of us, we had great discussions on the different stresses our water bodies are undergoing due to so called 'development', deficiencies in dam management, illegal constructions, encroachments, governance issues, religious practices and above all Climate Change. The exciting part of this workshop was a quick activity called as Ecosystems puzzle. The Ecosystems puzzle is an interesting concept in order to learn and understand how we have impacted the Earth's ecosystems. This has been designed and created by Isha Vywahare who attended our Climate Friendly Lifestyle workshop last month, and was our special invitee. Overall our workshop went quite well!

Please note that last week WE faced the worst ever floods in Pune for the first time after the Panshet dam mishap in 1960's. A lot of property and life was lost. In view of the seriousness of the issue, and by popular demand, we will be conducting another #ChallengingThanos event on the same topic, on 12th October Saturday. This time our focus will be more on how to adapt and build resilience in the face of this new threat. For more information you can comment on the blog or email on pournima@samuchit.com. 

We were approached by the International Institute of Hospitality Management (IIHM), Vimannagar as they were celebrating the Sustainability 2020 week as part of Action for SDGs theme,  titled Paryatan Parv since they are into Hotel and Hospitality industry. I was glad to know that the Hospitality management industry is going all sustainable. It looks like a lot of efforts are underway to meet the SDG 2030 goals and that is a great beginning!

@IIHM, Vimannagar  

I conducted our Climate Friendly Lifestyle workshop for the students by showing Dr Karve's TEDx Talk and going over our Personal Carbon Footprint Calculator Webapp. The students calculated their footprint and we discussed how to go Low carbon, which is the first step towards Sustainability. There were around 50 plus students and they were aware of the huge carbon footprint the Hospitality industry causes. 

Wordcloud by students

Our next session was a 'Climate Katta' in Bhavans College, Andheri, Mumbai. Dr Priyadarshini Karve had studied there for a couple of years, so it was a special joy for her, to conduct a session on Climate Change in her alma mater during the Climate Week 2019. The session was organised by the Marathi department's coordinator Prof. Jyoti Malandkar for the students of 11th and 12th class. There were around 60 students and all were really curious to know about climate change and keen on action! Dr Karve spoke about the science of Climate change and its impacts in global and Indian context, as well as the possible solutions. Myron Mendes, the communications Manager at INECC spoke about the Climate Strike happening globally, with reference to Greta Thunberg and how the students can be part of the Strike in their own capacity. The students were then divided into groups and asked to present their 'take' on climate change in the light of all that they had heard, in the form of a skit with posters. The students were all excited to be part of this global movement, and came up with some interesting presentations in the short time that was available to them. I conducted our usual mentimeter activity in order to see what these young minds would demand the government in order to address Climate change. Sharing some pictures of the session.

Dr P Karve and Myron Mendes addressing the students at Bhavans!

Students preparing for the skits

Wordcloud 

The students were so inspired by the workshop that under the guidance of Prof Malandkar they also undertook a rally in their college on the subsequent Friday to join the #FridaysforFuture initiative!

Rally at Bhavans College as part of #FridaysforFuture 

Next we conducted a session on Climate Friendly Lifestyle workshop for our INECC members, to showcase our approach to climate change education. This triggered a lot of discussions on how the Carbon Footprint Calculator webapp can be used by various members as a part of their own public outreach. 

with INECC members

Last but not the least, as part of the SDGs action and Paryatan Parv by IIHM, Vimannagar there was a corporate seminar on Sustainability 2020 where I got an opportunity to present our work on envisioning Pune as a Sustainably SMART city by 2030 and the Citizen Charter for Sustainable Pune in the panel discussion. Other panel members included the DGM-MTDC Mr. Chandrashekar Jaiswal, Environment Officer, Pune Municipal Corporation Mr. Mangesh Dighe, HR Director Sheraton representing the Marriot group Mr. Viral Jesani and Deputy GM of Radisson Mr.Vivek Joshi. Each panel member spoke about their work and its relevance to Sustainability. Glad to know that Sustainability is being imbibed in the corporate sector and we could share our work with them. The attendees of this seminar included parents of the IIHM students, ex-army officials, teachers etc. I am glad that we could reach varied sections of society through this seminar.

@IIHM Corporate Seminar on Sustainability 2020

This was thus a very fruitful and enriching week for us. A BIG thank you to everyone for being part of this initiative with us.

However knowing the fact that some parts of Pune were worst hit by the rains on the 25th September, its high time WE as citizens get SMART and demand for an ecologically sensitive development instead of haphazard development. Stay tuned for our upcoming session on the same! 

Pournima Agarkar. 

www.samuchit.com

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