Commonwealth Games Delhi 2010: A Threat to the Common Wealth

The Indian capital city of New Delhi will be hosting the upcoming Commonwealth Games 2010. This will be the first time India will host the Commonwealth Games and the second time that the Games will be hosted in Asia. Preparations have been on for quite some time now, to not just renovate and construct sporting facilities all over the city but to also beautify the city and gear it to ensure that visitors during the Games have a comfortable stay. Cashing upon the tourism potential is another motive of all the gearing up. The preparation of the Games has not been untouched by the green wave and Delhi’s Department of Environment, Forest and Wildlife has already asked all concerned authorities to, “ensure that Delhi’s latest showpieces are environmentally sound and reflect the city’s commitment to preserving nature”. However, the ground realities are far from that and the ecological impact of the Games may be much more than the economic gains.
The rapid and deadline driven renovation and laying down of wider transport system, especially connecting the different venues with each other is coming at a huge green cost. A large number of ‘heritage’ trees have either been axed or transplanted. Transplantation has rarely worked and though the Government maintains the green cover of the city has gone up, the green heritage has been lost and the green space missing, from where it is needed the most. This is not just because of the Commonwealth Games, but also to accommodate the ever increasing number of private vehicles, particularly cars, on the Delhi roads. The Delhi metropolitan has more cars than the total number of cars in the other three metros of India, viz., Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai (formerly Bombay, Calcutta and Madras). Concerned citizens and civil society groups have taken to the roads, time and again, to protest against the felling of trees and have also called for a policy to reduce the purchase of such large number of cars in Delhi.
The largest environmental impact of the preparations, which may cause a permanent and irreversible damage to the Delhi ecosystem is the construction of the Games Village complex on the floodplains of river Yamuna, that passes through the city. The river has its own story to tell. The 22 km stretch of the river in the city has already been turned into a drain. A large volume of the water from the river is withdrawn and diverted to be supplied to the city the moment it enters Delhi. What flows in it is essentially the untreated waste water that enters into it during its journey from one to the other end of the city. The river also has power plants, industrial units and what not been put up on its banks. As if all of that wasn’t enough, one of India’s largest and finest temples - Akshardham Temple has also been constructed on the floodplains of the river, right in the heart of the city.

Now, the authorities have decided to construct the Commonwealth Games Village bang opposite to the Temple complex and literally on the riverbed. Constructions are on full swing even as protesters from all across the country have called in for a Yamuna Satyagrah(the fight for truth) - a method of protest first popularised by Mahatma Gandhi. The river has usually shown a calm period of 4-5 years after which, it comes down with a flood of water. With the threats of climate change looming large, one cannot really predict with absolute certainty, but the next time the river comes down with its flood of water, there will be no floodplain available to control it, and the city would then said to be ‘flooded”.
The Environment Department has further asked the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) and the various civic agencies to adhere to the concept of “green building technology, sustainable site planning, design and construction of buildings” in order to “ achieve maximum harmony with nature. According to the State Environment, Forest and Wildlife Secretary J. K. Dadoo, “The State Government has declared the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi as Green Games. It is important that buildings that are constructed under the scheme combine features of being water and energy-efficient and are made of eco-friendly material.” What seems to have been overlooked is that such buildings should also hold their ground and not be constructed at places where they are themselves in danger and also pose a threat to the very human ecosystem they are supposed to provide services to.

Source: Written by Govind Singh; http://ecoworldly.com/2008/07/06/commonwealth-games-delhi-2010-a-threat-to-the-common-wealth/