Mentors Comment:
Mention some of the recent disasters like Chennai or Kerala floods which got aggravated due to encroachments or fires in various urban centers which were due to the unplanned urbanization in you intro.

Then give the reasons behind these increasing events.
What are the implications.
Mention the way forward
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Fixing man-made disasters in Indian metro cities

https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/urbanisation-making-us-more-susceptible-to-natural-disasters-says-global-report-42561
https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/natural-disasters/why-chennai-floods-are-a-man-made-disaster-51980

Answer:
India’s metros are building an unenviable reputation for themselves through the occurrence of a series of man-made disasters. The tragedies like Chennai Flood, Kerala Flood, Bridge Collapse, horrific incidents like fire etc are happening one after another
with amazing regularity. Unfortunately, Urbanisation in India is without vision which has led to man made disasters.

The reasons are as follows-
There is a close correlation between deaths due to fire-related accidents and population density associated with urbanization.
These are man made disasters with failure in urban planning manufactured by a mix of bad regulations and compromised enforcement machinery and powerful interest groups.
The Chennai floods in 2015 was because of faulty urban planning with industrial complexes, educational institutions and housing estates ravaging the watershed areas filling up thousands of smaller ponds and streams and silting major tanks and increasing the surface water flow manifold.
Urban areas alone require an additional 4,200 fire stations just to meet the minimum standard for response time.
Buildings need in-built fire-fighting equipment like sprinklers and alarms that work. But there is hardly any attention.
Regular inspections are supposed to ensure the presence of basic fire-fighting equipment as well as compliance with building norms. But there are enough loopholes, such as norms not applying for establishments with a seating capacity of less than 50 people.
People also view inspections as a form of license raj. There is a lot of resistance
Technological issues:-
urban cities have failed to invest in LIDAR-based (Light Detection and Ranging) technologies that can be used to aerially keep a track of setbacks and the presence of fire exits.
Adequate space could have easily been retained for essential services like fire stations while redeveloping mill land, but urban cities don’t do it.
From fire safety to waste recycling, from energy efficiency to water supply, from housing to traffic safety, the organised interest groups have infiltrated the state machinery and have been successful in damaging public interests as a matter of daily existence.
Urban development is a state subject so there is lack of coordination among multiple stakeholders involved.
Inspection authorities failure
Water Crisis is now becoming a new man-made disasters pointing towards loss of ecological character of flood plains, lakes etc, lack of rain water harvesting, indiscriminate use of water, flawed agriculture practices etc. Eg Chennai water crisis. Concretisation or the increase in paved surfaces has affected the percolation of rainwater into the soil, thereby depleting groundwater levels to a point of no return.

Such incidents have socio-economic-environmental implications. For instance, more than 500 people were killed and over 1.8 million people were displaced in Chennai floods in 2015. It was also one of the costliest natural disasters in 2015.

Way Forward
The need for resilient cities is recognised in the Sustainable Development Goals, the Paris Agreement for Climate Change, the Sendai Framework and in the New Urban Agenda (Habitat-III).
It can be achieved through build and scale up preparedness and resilience against future events through-
1. Detailed mapping of water bodies, natural drainage and flood-prone areas in cities using remote sensing.
2. Need to integrate the drainage system of the city, including rivers, rivulets, ponds, lakes and other natural drainage systems.
3. Need to enhance prevention measures drastically. It can learn a lesson from cities in Japan, Malaysia and Europe.
4. Preparing hazard maps for cities. The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction has collated data for various cities like Chennai.
5. There are LIDAR-based (Light Detection and Ranging) technologies that can be used to aerially keep a track of setbacks and presence of fire exists.
6. There is a need to break the bureaucracy-real estate business nexus.
7. Strict implementation of laws is necessary especially fire regulations
8. There needs to be focus on holistic development which addresses economic growth, employment, social change.
9. At the same time, it needs to deal with economic deprivation, environmental degradation, waste management, and proper utilisation of space.
10. Multiplicity of authorities is a problem in metropolitan cities in India so a minimum organisational set-up as in Singapore is effective in bringing these multiple agencies on a common platform to determine a metropolitan-wide strategy for planning and implementation.