Archives - Question of Cities

The new challenge: Rising heat and worsening water
access in cities

As the heat hits hard, people can stay hydrated and offer a glass of water to others, but where is the water? Water access and equity, critical underpinnings of a dignified life, hurts the most in summer as vast numbers…

How Mumbai’s slums won the battle for access to water

Around 1,000 of the 1,400 families in Ganpat Patil Nagar in Mumbai’s Borivali received piped water in 2021, some 23 years after struggling without it and paying exorbitantly to access water from non-municipal sources including cycling for kilometres at night.…

The many costs of heat
and water

Extreme heat is emerging as one of India’s most significant climate risks, with impacts that extend beyond just rising temperatures. Heat affects health, in turn affects labour productivity, as well as agriculture, energy systems, and water security, all the while…

The unheard stories of people’s struggle and protest for water

Protests for the simplest of human needs – water – took place in many cities and towns of India this summer, from Jaipur and Indore to Delhi and Palghar, as the harsh summer and depleting water levels led to acute…

Ten reports on heat, heat risks and women, and water challenges

As most cities in India record temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius, the warning signs of climate change cannot be ignored. Over the years, researchers have, through their studies and reports, detailed the impact of extreme heat. Climate change is a…

Night heat: The silent crisis of summer for the marginalised

Rising night temperatures are playing havoc with people’s lives in cities. In Delhi’s Seemapuri, a colony of waste pickers, unusually warm nights compound the day’s heat stress. Mumbai and Chennai have unusually warm nights too. The burden of rising night…

Built form worsens unbearable heat in Mumbai’s SRA buildings

Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) buildings in Mumbai’s Goregaon East record higher temperature than surrounding areas because of the built form – tiny windows, lack of cross ventilation and open spaces. Residents are forced to cope in buildings not designed for…

Mapping heat stress shows Delhi street vendors’ precarity

Street vendors, indispensable to cities but structurally excluded from urban planning, infrastructure and legal protections, are forced to deal with continuous, unavoidable and hazardous heat. A longitudinal action-research study in Delhi found that vendors suffered monetary losses due to heat,…

Rising heat makes cool
Kashmir history

As Srinagar and other parts of Kashmir turn hotter than ever in summer and winters become warm, discussions revolve around declaring heat waves in a region known to be bitterly cold to cool. Heat is no longer an aberration but…

Shade as infrastructure for Hyderabad’s vendors in scorching sun

The city’s tree cover has shrunk, taking away the natural shade that would have provided some respite for thousands of vendors forced to work in the harsh summer sun. As vendors focus on finding spots on roads and pavements, severe…