“Community Building: The Long-Term Impact on Health and Resilience”

After effects of Communities after they have been built –

“An apple a day may help keep the doctor away” – a limpid narrative that has personified the scripturient soul of the writer in assuming that “Everyone must find an apple in their own neighbourhood”.

Let us take into consideration, that with a total area of 207 square kilometre, and a population of 1,55,71,000, the city of Kolkata has just 10 fruit markets. With such a proposition – would it have been possible to fetch an apple daily to keep the doctor away?

The World Health Organisation defines social determinants of health more broadly as “the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age, including the health system. These circumstances are shaped by the distribution of money, power and resources at global, national and local levels, which are themselves influenced by policy choices. Social determinants of health are mostly responsible for health inequities—the unfair and avoidable differences in health status seen within the different parts of the country”. While coordinated, place-based initiatives are strong in theory and academic support, they can be difficult to achieve in practice because of the need for robust collaboration across community agencies, as well as sometimes-significant reallocation of funding.

Healthy behaviours do not occur in isolation within a community, so it is important to consider connections among a society’s social, cultural, economic, and physical elements. Simply building a park and a walking trail for residents may not be successful if the trail is not well lit or the park is in an area plagued by crime. How communities are structured and how public transportation, health care, and social services are built within a city often can dictate the level of access residents have to these and other community services and features. When these elements are not present in a community or their integration is not well designed, making access strained or difficult, adverse health effects can result.

The Impact of Place on Community Health: 

The environment in which a person lives influences health in countless ways. The natural and built environments of a community can promote the health of its residents by providing opportunities for physical activity, clean air and water, safe roadways, and access to healthy food and essential services; as noted above, the absence of these elements can hinder health. The physical environment is heavily influenced by a community’s social environment. Neighbourhoods with high concentrations of racial minorities or low-income families tend to lack elements that promote health, such as opportunities for activity, and contain elements that hinder health, such as pollution from highways or factories.

The Impact of Disaster on Community Health:

Following a disaster, the short-term impacts on community systems and overall health generally are well known, often receiving significant media coverage. Initial concerns include impeded access to goods and services—including food and supplies and ambulance services—because of impassable roads or non-functioning transit. Another concern is impaired functioning of critical infrastructure that provides clean water to the community and power to important buildings such as hospitals. Environmental degradation that can exacerbate existing conditions (e.g., asthma) or cause new ones may be less apparent in the immediate aftermath of a disaster. Occasionally, commercial buildings or housing projects are too damaged to be repaired easily, so they are abandoned or shifted further down the priority list. The result can be an increase in blight and associated crime, causing the community to break up and individuals to scatter across a state or region.

Post-disaster reconstruction and relocations are steep hurdles for individuals and families. Upgraded construction codes, mitigation requirements, and changes in actuarial insurance rates are major challenges for elderly and fixed-income individuals. Neighbourhood changes and the loss of hospitals, physicians, grocery stores, and pharmacies can exacerbate the hardships faced by residents even if temporary housing is provided. Rarely do recovery plans address all of these needs, nor can restoration of full community services be accomplished immediately, leaving the population in dire straits at a time when all forms of stress and uncertainty are at their highest levels. 

Added complexity arises during disaster recovery as a result of the compression of time in which the same set of tasks must be accomplished. Despite the added challenges, this planning process should be guided by a shared goal of helping people create settlements that are healthy and safe places to live that provide viable livelihoods, and that enable convenient access to all of the things they need. 

Bhuj’s reconstruction of lives –

After the devastating Bhuj earthquake on 26th. January, 2001, the community members with the aid of other stake holders had garnered resources in constructing unique seismic compliant housing which holds strong even today in 2024. The rehabilitation measures were conceptualised after the impromptu disaster – Conducting Vulnerability and Capacity Assessments; Assessing Disaster Impacts on Community Systems; Restoring Critical Infrastructure and Remediating Immediate Health Threats; Environmental Management.

Kerala district re-building life & climate-proofing infrastructure –

In 2018, Kerala had witnessed its worst flooding in a century, with millions of people being affected, and monsoon rains hampering rescue operations.

Aftermath, officials and experts reiterated that the floods in Kerala, with 44 rivers flowing through it would not have been so severe if authorities had gradually released water from at least 30 dams in planned phases. Opening the gates to the dam also caused widespread damage to the critical infrastructure of Cheruthoni town. The gushing water submerged the bridge connecting two ends of the town, and the arterial road partially caved in. Residents and the administration quickly realised the need to climate-proof the town’s critical infrastructure. A proposal to replace the submerged 60-year-old bridge got approved, and the construction was accomplished. Other measures, including the construction of a solid concrete wall along the approached road and installing tetra pods to reduce the impact of gushing water were completed.

With this case in mind, the project points towards the need to develop a climate-proof infrastructure index for India. Such an index can help identify and map strategies to protect the country’s existing and planned infrastructure against climatic menaces.

Farmers in Maharashtra adapting to drought –

Farmer in Maharashtra’s Ahmednagar — one of the most drought-prone districts in India has been practising agriculture in a region with low fertility soil, which requires more fertilizers and water.

Now, they also have to cope with erratic rains and longer, harsher summers — the impacts of climate change. “In 2005, 2007, 2013 and 2016, Maharashtra faced massive droughts for which they had abandoned their fields and migrated to cities for work. At the present, farmers are finding ways to adapt to the challenges. They have taken to watershed management and efficient cropping techniques with the help of grassroot-level organisations.

They have benefited greatly from watershed programs that helped prevent run-off from the hills. Gradually, the groundwater recharged, replenishing water in wells and lakes.

Water availability also helped them shift to other crops, such as onion, soybean, pomegranate and papaya, which fetched more money in the market. They have also started burying diffusers connected to existing drip lines in the pomegranate garden to adapt to droughts. The diffusers help optimise water usage during dry spells by moistening the soil around the roots. Climate-smart agriculture practices can promote effective water resource management and revitalise drought-prone ecosystems, especially in rain-fed areas.

Rajasthan village’s floodwater harvesting mitigates drought stress –

According to the study of The Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), the frequency and intensity of extreme droughts has increased three-fold in the Jodhpur district since 1970. It rains only two to four times a year, but when it rains hard, the gushing water carries away all the topsoil and fertilisers and destroys the crops.

A group of villagers formed a Village Development Committee (VDC) and collaborated with a grassroots organisation — Gramin Vikas Vigyan Samiti (Gravis). Together, they decided that the flow of water downstream from the hills must be checked and the water stored. They built several structures such as check dams, ponds and rainwater harvesting tanks.  In addition to slowing the flow of water, they also aid in recharging groundwater substantially. “As a result, many farmers are now able to cultivate crops twice a year,” a field coordinator of Gravis says.

Govindpura has demonstrated that a challenge was turned into an opportunity successfully, shows that rainwater harvesting through traditional watershed infrastructure can prevent soil erosion and mitigate extreme droughts.

Flood-hit Odisha farmers are turning to traditional crops –

In Odisha, there had been a three-fold rise in extreme flood events in the last two decades, according to CEEW analysis.

A combination of unsustainable landscape planning, lack of climate-resilient infrastructure and human-induced microclimate change triggered this rise in storm surges, incessant rainfall, and floods across the eastern and western coastal belts in India, according to the Council on Energy, Environment and Water.

To overcome the crisis, farmers in the region are returning to certain traditional agricultural practices.

Adjacent to the hybrid paddy crops, a farmer is planting a paddy variety called ‘Pottiya’, which his forefathers cultivated. The traditional variety was not damaged in the flooding, since the traditional crops can withstand floods for up to two months, in comparison to the hybrid varieties those which gets destroyed in 15 days.

The hybrid varieties initially promised higher monetary returns, but their rising input cost and unpredictable monsoons have made them risky. Realising the same, the farmers have decided to cultivate more traditional varieties.

To be continued………