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S. Gopikrishna Warrier

Cities are centres of human consumption which draw heavily from the surrounding ecosystems. At best the citizens can help reduce adverse environmental impact.

Giant-sized cacti that grow within the Phoenix city

Flying into any city can be an educative experience. It provides a perspective that one cannot get even after living years in the city. Moving from general to particular one can get a feel of the ecosystem in which the city has been carved out. From within the city it is always a worm's eye-view, with the buildings, roads and automobiles taking precedence over the larger natural system.

Phoenix, the second-fastest growing city in the US, sits in a valley in the Arizonian desert. The dominant colours seen are shades of brown when one descends over the mountain range through which the mighty Colorado river has carved out the Grand Canyon. There is green though, but like freckles on the face of a teenager. There are trees on the hill slopes, but in the valley it is mostly bushes and cacti.

Both Seattle and Boston have many water bodies in and around the city. Reflecting back the sunlight, the colours that dominate are shades of green and turquoise.

As the aircraft's wing tip comes in line with the volcanic peak of Mt Rainier before touching down at Seattle, it is snow and virgin evergreen coniferous forests of the Pacific Northwest of the national park. Beyond are the timber plantations, with some lots thinned and others clear-felled. Then the buildings and the large water body come into view. The runway at Boston airport begins at water's edge.

The picture on the ground is starkly different, however. Even when the US is going through the sixth consecutively dry year, there is no palpable shortage of water in Phoenix. The network of canals that bring water from the six reservoirs on the Salt and Verde rivers rise to their brims. The resorts do not mention about water shortage to their guests. Citizens flood irrigate their lands once in a few days. Acres of golf courses are strikingly green.

The city of Seattle that is built around water of Puget Sound.

Seattle and Boston, on the other hand, advise their citizens not to water their lawns. Citizens complain about the plants in their gardens dying.

Phoenix's indulgence with water comes from the irrigation and hydroelectric project called the Salt River Project. It has a rather interesting history, starting with the US Government's policy during the turn of the century to encourage people to move to the uninhabited land on the western side of the continent. Those who had settled in the Phoenix area, in the Salt River valley, formed an association, pledged their lands as collateral to the government and got a loan for building a series of dams and canals for irrigation.

Six dams and a 2,093-km network of canals were built in the decades that deliver one million acre feet of water to nearly a quarter million acre of land. This water is drained from a catchment area of 33,670 sq km, with a rather low annual precipitation of 508 mm. The citizens in the command area — in and around Phoenix city — have control over this precipitation, having laid first claim to it.

Over the years, the use of water for agriculture has decreased, giving way to urban use. Currently, only 19 per cent of the service area is under agriculture and 81 per cent for urban use. It is this water that has been making Phoenix a resort city, like Las Vegas.

In Phoenix the resource is obtained from elsewhere, and the citizens are not aware of the ecological footprint that their actions are leaving. Out of sight is out of mind for them. The citizens of Seattle and Boston, on the other hand, live in the midst of the natural resources themselves. This perhaps creates a greater sense of belonging.

Boston is among the oldest cities in the US and Phoenix is among the newest (it is still growing).

Between the three of them one can see the pattern of classical urbanisation. Phoenix is the frontier territory, still riding high on the might of human technology. Nature has been tamed and water reached to the people.

In Seattle and Boston the society is showing a greater maturity towards its environment. For instance, youth volunteers for Earth Corps, drawn from various cultures and countries, work on projects to rehabilitate the shoreline ecosystem, so that more good quality water flows into the lakes and Puget Sound.

Cities — small or big, old or new — are centres of human consumption. They draw heavily from their own ecosystems and also from other ecosystems, whereas they hardly give anything back. So they can never be sustainable in the real sense of the word. At best the citizens can help reduce the impact of their lives on the surrounding environment.

The challenge for the neo-urbanising society like ours is to avoid the Phoenix stage totally.

Feedback can be sent to warrier@thehindu.co.in

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