Iñaki Alday and Pankaj Vir Gupta face with this project the situation that New Delhi is experiencing: an unprecedented urban, social and environmental crisis. It has become one of the cities in the world with the highest concentration of people in urban areas, as well as the most polluted.
By the Yamuna River, a tributary of the Ganges River, wastewater is displaced, a symptom of the pollution that can also be seen in the toxicity of the air and in the transformation of Delhi's rivers into wastewater channels.
New Delhi currently has a population of over twenty million people, being one of the fastest growing cities, which is why it faces enormous challenges: social inequality, air and water pollution and overloaded urban infrastructures. New Delhi has tripled its population in the last 25 years, which has implied an inadequate planning, a lack of equality in the urban zone, a deficient infrastructure and a total indifference for the value of the ecology, especially in its role of shaping to the public space.
Toxic air and septic waters cause public health systems to be overburdened and the consequences of climate change are already beginning to be felt with the increase in the frequency of monsoon floods.
Currently, the total pollution of the Yamuna River, in Delhi, represents one of the most acute urban crises in the world that makes restoring the relationship between the Yamuna River and Delhi a matter of survival.
"The Yamuna River Project" is an unprecedented project promoted by the University of Virginia that has the support of the Indian government and several international diplomatic and financial aid agencies, among which is the Embassy of Spain in India.
It is outlined as a multidisciplinary project, directed by the Spanish Iñaki Alday, which covers the following areas of research: water, infrastructure, health, environment, urban design, social sciences, economics, humanities and arts. After five years of study, a clear conclusion was reached: contaminated water in Delhi is an indicator of deeper and more complex urban problems, with the most pressing urban inequality in the city.
The research continues to move towards the implementation of pilot projects that will serve as a study for the recovery of the water ecology of Delhi and, finally, the restoration of the ecosystem of the Yamuna River.
"The Yamuna River Project" is a test ground for developing an empirical and multidisciplinary approach based on research, essential to solve some of the most pressing humanitarian and ecological crises in the world, especially in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
Actar has published a book that includes more than five years of research, methodologies and designs carried out by the University of Virginia, in collaboration with the Board of Delhi Jal. "The Yamuna River project", as well as the publication of the book, intends to serve as a catalyst for the urgent recovery of the Yamuna River and its tributaries, building a public information and knowledge entity that will allow us to see what future alternatives we have.
By the Yamuna River, a tributary of the Ganges River, wastewater is displaced, a symptom of the pollution that can also be seen in the toxicity of the air and in the transformation of Delhi's rivers into wastewater channels.
New Delhi currently has a population of over twenty million people, being one of the fastest growing cities, which is why it faces enormous challenges: social inequality, air and water pollution and overloaded urban infrastructures. New Delhi has tripled its population in the last 25 years, which has implied an inadequate planning, a lack of equality in the urban zone, a deficient infrastructure and a total indifference for the value of the ecology, especially in its role of shaping to the public space.
Toxic air and septic waters cause public health systems to be overburdened and the consequences of climate change are already beginning to be felt with the increase in the frequency of monsoon floods.
Currently, the total pollution of the Yamuna River, in Delhi, represents one of the most acute urban crises in the world that makes restoring the relationship between the Yamuna River and Delhi a matter of survival.
"The Yamuna River Project" is an unprecedented project promoted by the University of Virginia that has the support of the Indian government and several international diplomatic and financial aid agencies, among which is the Embassy of Spain in India.
It is outlined as a multidisciplinary project, directed by the Spanish Iñaki Alday, which covers the following areas of research: water, infrastructure, health, environment, urban design, social sciences, economics, humanities and arts. After five years of study, a clear conclusion was reached: contaminated water in Delhi is an indicator of deeper and more complex urban problems, with the most pressing urban inequality in the city.
The research continues to move towards the implementation of pilot projects that will serve as a study for the recovery of the water ecology of Delhi and, finally, the restoration of the ecosystem of the Yamuna River.
"The Yamuna River Project" is a test ground for developing an empirical and multidisciplinary approach based on research, essential to solve some of the most pressing humanitarian and ecological crises in the world, especially in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
Actar has published a book that includes more than five years of research, methodologies and designs carried out by the University of Virginia, in collaboration with the Board of Delhi Jal. "The Yamuna River project", as well as the publication of the book, intends to serve as a catalyst for the urgent recovery of the Yamuna River and its tributaries, building a public information and knowledge entity that will allow us to see what future alternatives we have.
