Sujata Awale

CHALLENGES MOUNTING IN MANAGING HIGH RISES AND ENCOURAGING ORGANISED URBANISATION

As the city struggles to cope with a surging population, high rise buildings may be the answer to Kathmandu's urban sprawl. However, some experts claim that high rise development, which requires investments amounting to billions, often have more to do with profit and image than sensible long-term town planning -not to mention the lack of environmental, neighbourhood and even safety considerations.

NEGLECTING NEIGHBOURHOODS
Although developers reportedly start construction with proper permits and essential documents, many times their adverse effects on the surroundings cannot be denied. “While digging the foundation of Imperial Court, the walls of residences towards the eastern side of the area collapsed,“ says Gopal Khatiwada, resident of Sanepa Height near Imperial Court. “The developers compensated us for our loss, but the whole ordeal was nonetheless quite stressful,“ he adds.

Complaining of noise pollution from the ongoing construction, he adds, “Apart from totally blocking the sunlight, we constantly worry about the safety of our property.Although they claim the buildings are resistant to quakes, we feel high rises should have been built outside the ring road.“

Dr Bhai Kaji Tiwari, district commissioner at Kathmandu Valley Development Authority (KVDA), claims high rises are safer and more technically sound than individual houses in the valley . Stating that provisions are quite stringent in terms of safety, he says high rises have to meet all the standards ranging from fire escapes to overhead tanks for additional water. He adds, “Developers are also required to follow the standards set by Building Bylaws like ground coverage, floor area ratio, setbacks, road accessibility, soil mapping and other factors, or they do not get the permit for construction.“

Om Rajbhandary, third vice president of Nepal Land and Housing Developers Association, says, “High rise buildings need more homework and planning, not to mention adhering to all the provisions than individual homes.“

According to him, developers follow all the design safety measures, fire safety , building codes and other essential aspects to safeguard the building.

According to Building Bylaws 2008, the land coverage for buildings with height till 25 metres can be up to 50 per cent, for buildings taller than 50 metres, the land coverage can be 25 per cent only .

LAPSES AND LOOPHOLES
KVDA is the primary body responsible for checking the proposed site and giving build ing permits, while the municipality checks overall construction plans and design. The Department of Urban Development and Building Construction (DUDBC) is accountable for monitoring structure and other safety measures like fire, earthquake, et cetera. As the projects have to go through many departments and processes, the concerned government authorities claim all the high rises that have taken permits are safe.

However, they agree that the criterion of regular monitoring by the government is almost never practiced. Coordination between the responsible bodies is necessary to maintain balance and according to Tiwari the coordination between them is now “improving.“

DUDBC has given permits to 63 high rise apartments in the valley, among which three projects have applied for cancellation. Beside nine completed projects, it has no proper updated records on permitted projects. “We have not been able to follow-up on the buildings that have been constructed due to lack of manpower,“ admits Shivahari Sharma, superintendent engineer at DUDBC, Division Office Kathmandu.

Sharma also agrees that there is a possibility of developers capitalising on such loopholes.“In theory, developers are required to inform us seven days prior to commencing any important construction works, but only a handful of companies are working as per the mandate,“ he says. He passes the buck by saying that developers themselves should be wary of not maintaining quality as it is their prestige and ethics on the line.

Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is considered to be an important tool in promoting sustainable development by identifying environmentally sound practices and alleviation measures for development.According to Environment Protection Regulation 1997, annex 1, initial environment examination (IEE) is required for buildings exceeding 10 storeys (25 metres) and up to 16 storeys (50 metres) and buildings taller than that are mandated to acquire EIA permission.

According to a report titled `Environmental impact assessment system and process: A study on policy and legal instruments in Nepal' by Ramesh P Bhatt and Sanjay N Khanal, “It has been found that the implementation of mitigation measures, monitoring and auditing of EIAs, limits only (20 per cent) on the large scale donor supported projects.
The EIA system only limits screening, scoping and terms of requirement, prediction and assessment and monitoring of impact. However, there is no policy for environment impact statement as well as post evaluation mechanism which could show some implications and constraints in the EIA system.“

Kedar Prajapati, senior divisional engineer at the Environment Section under the Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD), states, “We study the proponent's EIA proposal in which they state measures to minimise the impact on the environment and society and we give approvals for projects based on how sound their documents are.“ He says there has been no cross-checking on any of the documents presented till date. As high rises accommodate many families, sewage and waste water treatment is a major concern in minimising the environmental impact. He says almost all apartments that apply for the permit claim to have waste water and sewage treatment plant but due to resource crunch they have not been able to actually check and monitor the sites.

On this, Rajbhandary claims the developers abide by all the rules and regulations and are doing all things necessary to mitigate any environmental and social impact.

PROCEDURAL PERILS
There is also a growing concern about high rise build ings affecting the skyline of Kathmandu. “The main reason for high rises cropping up just about anywhere in the city is due to lack of implementation of land use policy,“ says Arun Dev Pant, architect planner at the Design Cell. He says the government should look into this issue seriously considering that Kathmandu is a historic city with seven of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation's (UNESCO's) world heritage sites located in the valley. “High rises also brings along with it problems of traffic congestion, land liquefaction in case of disaster, solid waste, sewage, noise pollution, among others,“ he says. Pant further suggests government focus on comprehensive plans and amend provisions to manage high rises in better way. Suresh Prakash Thapa, joint secretary at MoUD, adds, “The government is in the process of amending and updating the present bylaws.“

However, Tiwari claims that amending existing bylaws and implementing land use policy will not be easy. “Even if the government enforces the zoning provisions, the public will be up in the arms,“ he says, adding the public representatives themselves should come up with solid plans after conducting extensive discussion within their communities.

With about 48 per cent of the valley denizens residing in rental houses, the scope and probability of newer high rise apartments coming up in the future is high. “But developers should now focus on lowend apartments targeting the middle class families, while not compromising on quality and following all the proper procedures,“ Thapa says.

Apart from amending the building bylaws, those in the know also demand that all provisions be set in the stone rather than being limited to paper.

source: Awale, Sujata (2012),"Towering troubles", The Himalayan Times,26 Nov 2012