Note: As part of the ‘Breaking the Vicious Cycle: Planning Water Security In Low-Income Urban Neighbourhoods Through Co-Creation’, PRIA is undertaking a co-creation process in two urban settlements in Gurugram and Delhi – Ghata and Gautampuri. The objective of the co-creation process is: to understand the implications of uncertain availability and decreasing quality of water due to climate-induced impacts on the daily lives, livelihoods, and health of urban poor communities and to center this lived knowledge of risk and vulnerability in future action research to inform stakeholder actions towards inclusive planning for water security in low-income neighborhoods.

Profile of Gautampuri Community

Rapid urbanization and the development of large infrastructure in Delhi have led to the demolition and resettlement of unauthorized slums and colonies within the city. Gautampuri is one such resettlement colony in the South-East district of Delhi, situated close to the All India Institute of Ayurveda. The colony consists of migrants from two slum settlements who were forced to move due to habitation demolition by the government in the late 1990s. The official name of the colony is Molarband but since a lot of people came and settled from Gautam Nagar (near AIIMS), it was started being called as Gautampuri colony. There are two parts of the resettlement colony, 12.5 square feet (allotted to people residing in the slum after the 1990s) and 22 square feet (allotted to people residing in the slum before the 1990s).    

The land in the Gautampuri resettlement colony is agricultural, and thus, it’s been a struggle for the community members and private authorities to construct and retain houses and other buildings on this land. The roads are poorly constructed with bumps and potholes. The houses have also been given on the lease, refraining the families to have full ownership rights or possession of the land. The colony consists of both single and multi-story buildings and families living in owned and rented houses. Approximately 15,000 families were relocated in 1999-2000, however, the current population residing in the colony is difficult to estimate due to the exponential growth in population and lack of available data. Many of the settlement residents work as domestic workers (females), and informal labourers, shop owners (males), with very few having permanent jobs at nearby hospitals. The rapid increase in the number of people residing in the community and urbanisation has led to the issues of water scarcity and lack of sanitisation in the colony.  

According to the 2011 Indian census, 65 million people (13.6 million families) lived in urban slums. The rate of rural-urban migration has increased since then, primarily due to the city's ability to provide better opportunities for seeking better jobs, livelihood, education, health, and other services. This has also increased the number of settlement colonies, especially in the cities like Delhi. These settlement colonies majorly have been established at the peripheries of the city, with little or no civic amenities provided. However, because of the overcrowding, crammed housing with a limited water supply and access to clean water, poor sanitation, drainage facilities, and road networks, these communities become the first ones to be impacted by the consequences of climate change.   

Water in the Community

Earlier when the community was not so developed, people would go to Ali gaon (situated very closely) on bicycles and get water from the tanker. There were a lot of clashes in the community for water when the borewell connection was not there. Now there is a borewell water supply in the community. People have taken individual water connections, and they have taps in their houses. There are motors installed in houses for a better supply of water. In terms of drinking water, many people buy water bottles as they do not have a filter installed. Some families cannot afford to purchase water bottles, so they consume tap water.

Heavy rains in the monsoons create major challenges in the community. Heavy water logging makes it difficult to walk along the roads. Waterlogging is due to poorly constructed roads and poor drainage systems within the colony.

Community park with the litter at the entrance

A house in the community which only had one ground floor located in between houses with 2-3 floors