- by Raj Maharjan[1]
This paper discusses processes and framework of urban planning in Nepal. It proposes a vision for the urban areas of Nepal.
Executive Summary
The way we live influences how we think. How we think influences how we behave. How we behave is how we act. How we act is who we are. In that sense, the actions of our citizens can be traced back to our settlements. Our nation building starts with sorting out our home – our cities.
This paper discusses processes and framework of urban planning in Nepal. It proposes a vision for the urban areas of Nepal.
The
task of delivering vision into policies and plans should occur from collaboration among communities, experts and the government. A hypothetical outcome scenario is discussed in Section 6. The vision outlined
here should be taken as a higher-order aspirational goals. The vision stands on fundamental premises of creating well-managed, sustainable
and beautiful cities.
The ongoing political failure is responsible for the current sorry state of Nepal's urban areas. Amidst the chaotic political environment, Bibeksheel Nepali (BN) has emerged as a new political force of the young and the willing. A
version of this paper was submitted to BN for consideration as their position in urban policy.
1. Introduction
This
paper outlines a vision for planning and developing urban areas of Nepal.
The
vision statements in this document are intended to serve as a guideline to pave
way forward for formulation of detailed policies and plans and subsequently
their implementation.
The
power and desire to turn the dreams in this document into reality is vested on
the future Parliament of Nepal who hold the ultimate mandate to promulgate
acts, formulate policies and oversee implementation of plans.
2. Outline of the policy problem: urban issues of Nepal
Between
the last two censuses growth rate of urban population of Nepal is about three
per cent, which is an additional 1,297,908 people in our municipalities[2].
Most of the growth occurred at a few major cities within Kathmandu valley and a
few other cities in tarai. Even at the steady rate of growth of three per cent,
more than a million people are added in our municipalities every ten years.
Conventional
wisdom, demographic trends of the past and outlook for the future suggest
that the population growth in our urban areas will further accelerate in the
future due to migration and natural growth. Most of the urban population growth
will occur in major cities such as Kathmandu and those in tarai. The population
explosion in our urban areas will further exert pressure on the already
stretched resources and environment, thereby accelerating the urban decay that
plagues our cities.
Due
to the failure to plan in the past to manage the unprecedented growth, almost
all of our urban settlements have today turned into what the United Nation (UN)
defines as “slums”[3]. While we
may passionately disagree and view the UN’s label as stereotyping, from an
objective urban planning angle that is the harsh reality of our cities. Let us simply
look around the way we live in our cities. Are there any signs of effort to
make them livable human settlements? Unfortunately and sadly, the answer to
that question is a resounding “No”.
Nepali
cities are a far cry not only from the world-class cities but also from those
from similar sized cities in India. Our cities have never been approached as
planned urban settlements. Our cities and in fact the whole nation, however,
hold the potential to become the hub of regional activities due to our unique
strategic location between the two emerging economic superpowers of the world –
India and China. There in lies our strategic advantage. Nepal’s politicians are
yet to proactively and strategically think about moving towards realising this huge
potential both at the national vis-à-vis region and city scale.
There
has never been a sustained and effective planning intervention to create a city
in Nepal. The sporadic efforts such as those called “town planning” in
Kathmandu’s Gongabu and Naya Bazar is an outright joke against
the urban planning discipline. Such is the scale of the tragedy of our cities
that the very areas known as “town planning” in Kathmandu themselves meets all
the criteria of “slum” as defined by the UN.
3. Objective
The sole
objective of “Cities of Conscience (Bibeksheel
Sahar)” is “to facilitate appropriate actions to provide sustainable,
well-managed, and beautiful cities”.
BN will deliver
such cities by influencing and lobbying formulating and implementing robust
acts (laws) and urban policies.
The Bibeksheel
urban policies will be guided by a sustainable development approach[4],
taking into account the need of the current and the future generations, while
aligning with the eight pillars of the Bibeksheel philosophy for a Peaceful and
Prosperous Nepal.
Those policies
will also align with the characteristics of good urban governance, namely –
sustainability, subsidiarity, equity of access, efficiency of delivery,
transparency and accountability, civic engagement and citizenship, and security
of individuals and their living environment[5].
4. Policy Options
We
basically have two alternatives.
·
to continue with
the status quo, and
·
to introduce
full-fledged Bibeksheel urban planning intervention.
The
state of our current cities should be sufficient to justify a full-fledged
urban planning intervention. It is the only rational choice we have. Any
reluctance to embrace full-fledged urban planning now means heading towards
disaster tomorrow. The “slums” of today need to be managed imminently before a
natural disaster or an epidemic strikes. The rate of urban decay should be
brought under control and reversed. We have no choice but to strive towards
achieving sustainable, well-managed, and beautiful
cities if we intend to live in a civilized society.
5. Implementation
The
foremost step towards our journey to build great cities of tomorrow begins with
the Government assembling a smart team for Urban Planning Commission (UPC). The
UPC’s sole job is to investigate and recommend a suitable urban planning model
for Nepal.
The
terms of reference of this Commission will involve studying successfully
working planning framework of various countries from every continent. The
Commission will look at urban planning models from English and non-English
speaking countries, OECD and non-OECD counties, and those from India and China
too. The Commission will report to the Parliament with recommendations on
legislative and planning framework for urban development in Nepali context. The
Commission’s tenure ends after reporting to the Parliament. Parliament will
then discuss the recommendations, enact an overarching legislative framework to
facilitate formation of urban policies and finally oversee implementation of
those policies through proper central and local government agencies.
The
purpose of urban planning and how it is implemented will be greatly influenced
by the structure and system of our governance. That is because urban planning
policy formulation and their implementation processes are “heavily politicized
struggles over distribution of resources”[6].
Formulating
urban planning policies and their implementation “is performed through, and has
effects on, a wide range of institutions”[7].
That means we have to get right institutional and regulatory framework to
deliver on our promise of well managed, sustainable and
beautiful cities.
Urban
planning is not only a function of spatial development. It also involves
political, economic, social, cultural and environmental functions. It is
imperative to consider all those functions and their interrelations if we are
to achieve a sustainable urban development. A silo approach of over concentration only on
a few of those functions (say, economic) is a recipe for disaster. In that
sense, urban planning is both a multi and inter disciplinary subject matter.
The role of governance is critical in achieving goals
of any urban planning intervention. It is often the role of the Local
Government (municipality) to deliver urban planning outcomes. This is both an
opportunity and challenge. Success of Local Government in carrying out its
urban planning function greatly depends on level of decentralisation and means
to resources.
Local Government is where the rubber meets the road in
terms of of implementing central govt policies. In urban policy terms, the
conventional practice suggests that the Central Government promulgates laws and
vests certain responsibilities upon the Local Government to implement them,
including the major share of implementation.
Execution
of the objective outlined in section 3 to achieve a sustainable urban development
is intended to occur at following three stages –
Stage 1:
After
debating and refining the recommendations of the UPC, Parliament to enact an
overarching legislative framework to facilitate the formal adoption and
implementation of the vision discussed in this document. The vision to be
adopted as the National Policy Statement on urban planning. National Policy
Statements are a set of outcome focused higher-level visionary principles that
guides formulation of lower order policies, including that of the Local
Government. This national level guideline provides clarity to Local Governments
around the direction they need to head. Having said that the National Policy
Statements allow flexibility to introduce local flavor in local level policies.
Parliament
to truly decentralize its authority by vesting Local Governments the power and
responsibility to implement this national policy statement. Resourcing needs of
the Local Governments to carry out those planning functions will be ensured
under the overarching legislative framework.
Stage 2:
Municipalities’
Planning Department (setting up of which will be one of the requirements under
the overarching legislative framework) to flesh out the concept in the national
policy statement into a detail spatial plan. The spatial plan may be at city,
sub-region or regional level. The national policy statement is like the
skeleton; the spatial plan is like filling in muscles and injecting life-blood.
Stage 3:
Guided
by the spatial plan, Municipalities’ Planning Department to develop and
implement City Plans that will include details of planning rules. This legal
rule book will include detailed nitty-gritty of how to implement planning
policies at the real world such as rules about where people can and cannot build
houses, minimum and maximum height of buildings, where to build houses and
where to put industries, and so on. A robust public process of formulating and
changing the City Plans guided by the overarching legislative framework will
ensure public engagement and good governance.
The
implementation process discussed above in the three stages is purely and highly
political. Due legislative process is necessary to legitimize the urban
planning policies. Once they are legislated, only Parliament itself may change
them. This will address the issue of successive governments haphazardly
changing legitimately enacted acts and policies by previous parliaments.
Equally important is the public buy in. Active public engagement in this whole
process must start from day one. Without public participation, we would be
heading towards utterly miserable failure. After all, the policies and rules we
are talking about will, in one or other way, have impact on an individual’s
property rights. It is thus not only politically makes sense to engage the
public from the beginning but also becomes our moral obligation. Public
engagement is a Bibeksheel way forward; more so in terms of urban development.
6. How does a
Bibeksheel City looks like?
This section is a journey through a Bibeksheel City
along the political, spatial, economic,
social, cultural and environmental functions of
urban planning.
Politically:
Our Bibeksheel City, in addition to embracing the
characteristics of good governance discussed in Section 3, is committed to
ensure fundamental principles of democracy such as respect, dignity, justice,
fairness, equity and equality.
In our Bibeksheel Governance model, there is true and
meaningful decentralisation of power from Central to Local Government
(Municipalities). This enables and empowers the municipalities to carry out
their urban planning functions. The two layers of government (central and
local) complement each other than compete for resources and power. The Central
government formulates national level policies; the local government gives
effect to those policies at the local level. There are effective and efficient
mechanisms to ensure the flow of information between the two layers of
governance is seamless. Tensions are kept at bay or solved by talking and listening
to each other.
The governance and bureaucratic arms of our Bibeksheel
City are clearly defined and support each other. The elected Mayor is the
leader of our City who heads the governance arm. S/he has a vision for the City
that majority of citizens buy in to. The Mayor along with other elected
representatives form a Municipal Council. The Municipal Council is vested with
the responsibility of making decisions on civic matters, including that on
urban planning. The Municipal Council is ultimately accountable to the citizens
and the voters.
The municipal bureaucracy, under a Chief Executive
Officer (CEO), assists the Mayor to achieve his vision for the City. The CEO,
directly reporting to the Municipal Council, is responsible and accountable for
the bureaucratic arm. Under the CEO of our Municipal Council are various
departments. Each department has a policy and operational wing. The municipal
policy wing implements the policies inherited from the central government. The
operational wing is responsible for the day-to-day civic function of the
Municipality such as collecting tax and providing services.
The municipalities are entitled to raise local tax to
fund its urban planning and other civic functions. This resourcing is critical
for the proper functioning of the local government machinery. Without financial
independence the Local Government will merely be a dog without teeth. This
resource independence from the Central Government is one of the reasons that
neutralise the inherent tension that tend to universally occur between central
and local governments.
Spatially:
Our Bibeksheel City strives to be sustainable,
well-planned and beautiful.
The City’s urban policies and operational models
seriously take into account the sensitive issue of intergenerational equity.
The City’s politicians and bureaucrats understand that they have the moral
obligation not to compromise the well being of the future generations while
meeting the need of its today’s citizens. This is not only preached but truly
reflected in their policies and day-to-day operation. For example, the City has
embraced a “compact city” model rather than allowing the settlements to sprawl.
A “compact city” allows the city to grow vertically rather than horizontally
over space. A “compact city” also addresses many issues associated with urban
development in relation to climate change and peak oil. The “compact city”
model along with a well-defined city boundary has allowed the peri-urban areas
on the outskirt of the city to function as green belts. Those green belts serve
multiple purposes, including the following:
- define the city’s boundary
- keep the urban environment pure and clean by naturally filtering
air and water
- safeguard biodiversity and water catchments
- provide source of wilderness and leisure to its citizens
- act as food basket of the city.
Place making brings together learning from many
disciplines to create urban spaces at various scale (local to regional) that
are responsive to the environment, need, and demand of the current and future
generations. Urban design is a more specialised discipline focussing on
assembly of components (buildings, roads, trees etc) within a spatial boundary
with intention of focussing on sustainable and aesthetic outcomes. Design of
our City’s public spaces ensure that they serve the democratic (such as freedom
to assemble and protest without compromising others’ rights) and civic (such as
organise concerts and street festivals) needs of its citizens. Our public
places are designed in such a manner that they facilitate spontaneous exchange
among strangers. Such spontaneous exchanges are indicators of a healthy
relationship among city’s inhabitants and that between the urban spaces and
people who use them.
Economically:
Our City works closely with the central government to
allow every citizen in its city to achieve economic prosperity. It actively
promotes Public Private Partnership and entrepreneurship to assist small and
medium businesses. Our City is serious in ensuring an environment where
businesses flourish. Bandhas and coercive donations are things of the
past. Our City politicians have worked hard with the central government to
forge a coalition to cut the roots of these fatal practices. Bandhas and coercive donations are now not only rejected at civic level but the
culprits are liable to harsh economic and legal consequences. The law around
this allows prosecution of the organisers of such economically and socially
disruptive activities. Culprits may be liable to financial compensation,
imprisonment or even expulsion from the city.
Our City has many sister cities around the world for
economic cooperation. The City strives to maximise its comparative advantage
with other cities within the country and that with the cities of neighbouring
countries. It closely works with Central Government to become one of the
important nodes of the South Asian region taking advantage of the current and
projected economic prosperity of India and China. Our City has been preparing
to gain from the economic prosperity of India and China by investing in
physical infrastructure, attracting multi-national businesses and investing in
human capital. The impact of which are visible in our City in the form of more
jobs and healthy terms of trade.
Our City is proud of its contribution to the national
GDP. The Mayor and other members of the Municipal Council tirelessly lobby to
ensure that the city’s contribution to the national treasure is filtered back
to its citizens through various central government projects such as roads of
national significance and good governance. The central government acknowledges
and reciprocates our city’s contribution to the national economy by duly
responding to its sensible demands such as better schools and a sub-ground
metro system.
Today, it is hard to believe that only a few decades
ago our city did not have even the basic city infrastructures such as
scientific numbering of houses, sewer treatment plant, recycling facilities,
proper roads and libraries.
Socially:
Citizens of our City are civilised and care for each
other. Crime rates are one of the lowest in the world. They strive to live a
peaceful, prosperous and meaningful life.
Our City truly embraces that children are our future.
Our urban planning interventions put the children at its heart while
formulating and implementing policies. We have targeted programs and policies
to address youth issues such as drug abuse and bullying. Our social mobilisers
ensure that the youths are involved in various activities such as sports and
music. We respect our senior citizens. There are many projects, programs and
activities that allow our senior citizens to age gracefully. After all, we all
will get old one day. Citizens of our City view this as investment in their own
future.
Our City manages the free libraries dotted in every
tole within our municipalities. The library is also a hub where other municipal
services such as paying bills can be taken care of. Activities such as paying
bills have been greatly simplified anyway. Thanks to technology, financial
transcations with our municipal office can be completed electronically via
online banking, text messaging or the latest smart phone apps. Applications
such as that to build a house may be lodged electronically. Our City has well
and truly adopted e-governance which has proven to be hugely effective in terms
of cost and time.
Culturally:
Our City cherishes its rich cultral heritage. It
sponsors and promotes a large number of events such as jatras, street festivals
and exhibitions. The City has programs that encourages the younger generation
to learn about their culture. It provides scholarship to students of Nepalese
History and traditional music in the Central University. One percent of the
revenue gathered from tax payers is contributed to the Central Museum.
The City’s urban planning rule book (City Plan) has a
dedicated chapter on cultural heritage. This chapter has detailed outcome
focussed planning provisions that ensures the City’s rich cultural heritage is
protected, maintained and managed properly. For example, special permission is
needed to change the façade of houses within 200 meters of the historical City
Square. Similarly, a number of private houses has been identified as having
heritage and architectural significance. Special permission is required to
significantly alter these buildings and their surroundings. The urban policy
rules around building new dwellings encourage façades with traditional Nepali
architecture.
Environmentally:
Our City’s one of the guiding principles is care
for the environment. It is engrained in the culture of our City that
development at the cost of environment is actally destruction. The City’s
political and bureaucratic arms are committed for not compromising environment
in the name of development.
In the past our City’s rivers were turned into
open sewers. Thanks to our state of the art treatment plants (that treat the
sewer and wastewater) and the tireless environmental recovery efforts of the
municipality’s Environment Protection Unit, biodiversity is back in our rivers.
After more than three decades the water in the City’s rivers is once again
crystal clear. A recent research of Ministry of Health suggested it is fit even
for drinking purpose. The once on the verge of extinction breed of fishes are back
in our waters. Its banks are full of indegenous and exotic species of birds,
plants and flowers once again. A stroll along the river bank is one of the most
popular activities of the city dwellers. People of all ages are seen relaxing
and playing in the river bank parks. Lovers are seen busy dotted along our
parks enjoying the romatic vista.
Our municipaltiy has adopted the policy of
reduce, reuse and recycle to manage household and industrial waste. City
dwellers are encouraged to sort their rubbish at their house. There are
campaigns to encourage reuse and recycle. The municipality joins hand with the
local clubs to organise awareness campaigns to keep the city clean.
On the economic aspect of waste management, our
City adopts the “polluter pays” principles. This principle has been integrated
into the City’s revenue collection mechanism. Households pay an annual revenue
which includes charges for all essential municipal services from waste disposal
to libraries. A household generating 5 kg of solid waste a week pays
significantly less compared to an industry that generates 500kg.
Environmental friendly and Green practices such as
solar energy, recycling and responsible citizenship are cornerstones not only
among the citizens of our city but also that in the municipality’s machinery.
For example, the municipality has its own targets of significantly reducing
solid waste and fossil fuel consumption within the next five years.
7. Conclusion
Where
BN heads in the future is for everyone to wait and see even the BN leaders and
members themselves. The reality of Nepali political climate is that, if ever BN
achieved a major player status in Nepali politics, BN will have to most
probably forge a coalition of the willing with other political parties to form
a government. At this negotiation position there is going to be a lot of give
and take. BN should be so flexible that not only the coalition of willing
partners but also even the opposition shall be approached to get “buy in” through
a sensible bipartisan dialogue for collaboration in their policies including urban policy.
Nepal ko sahar haruko jai hoss! Nepal ra Nepali ko jai
hoss!!
Note:
A version of this paper is a working paper under discussion within Bibeksheel
Nepali (www.leadnepal.com). Feel free to use this document without being obliged
to quote.
*****
[1] Urban
Policy Planning practitioner in Auckland, New Zealand; MPlanPrac, The University of Auckland; MSc, University of Copenhagen
[2] Central Bureau of
Statistics online resources
[3] UN-HABITAT (unhabitat.org) defines a slum household
as a group of individuals living under the same roof in an urban area who lack
one or more of the following:
1. Durable housing of a permanent nature that protects against
extreme climate conditions.
2. Sufficient living space which means not more than three people
sharing the same room.
3. Easy access to safe water in sufficient amounts at an
affordable price.
4. Access to adequate sanitation in the form of a private or
public toilet shared by a reasonable number of people.
5. Security of tenure that prevents forced
evictions.
[4] The term 'sustainable development' was used by
the Brundtland
Commission which coined what has become the most often-quoted definition
of sustainable development: "development that meets the needs of the
present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their
own needs." (Wiki)
[5] Characteristics of good urban governance burrowed from UN Habitat Global
Report on Human Settlements 2009 p.74. It is interesting that many of the
characteristics of good governance overlap with BN’s eight pillars of
philosophy for a Peaceful and Prosperous Nepal.
[6] UN Habitat Global
Report on Human Settlements 2009 p.74
[7]
Ibid, p. 75
