Asia Urbs

- linking Auroville with Europe

A project approved by the European Commission under their Asia Urbs programme   In December 2001 the Aurovilians received a little booklet updating them on the latest developments of the Asia Urbs programme.  We here share it with you:

What exactly is Asia Urbs?

To the Aurovilians

In one way or other, you must have heard or read the words Asia Urbs lately, and this little brochure is especially designed to let all of us Aurovilians know what exactly we're talking about. The Asia Urbs programme is an interesting project designed to bring nations of the European Union closer to those in Asia. It encourages exchange between the two areas and provides substantial opportunities for working together with the aim to improve living and environmental conditions for the residents of urban areas in Asia.

How it started…

The first call for proposals for the Asia Urbs programme was broadcast by the European Commission in September 1998. Earlier in that year, Luigi and Sauro had been exploring possible grants from the EC and contacted several municipalities in Europe. Their contacts were quite appreciated and, later on, after some preliminary meetings in Brussels, Auroville received the visit of the director of the programme. At that stage the main topic of discussion was Auroville's status and its eligibility for such grants. Eventually, after quite some process, the EC recognised Auroville as a legal entity of urban nature.

Once this point was clarified, intensive preparatory work took place from September 98 to February 99. Several visits to the possible European partners (Cologne, Paris, Venice…) were made, and it was only on 25th February 99 that the final proposal was sent to Brussels. More than a year later, in May 2000, and after many communications with the Asia Urbs Secretariat in Brussels as well as with the European Commission itself, the project got the confirmation of approval. After that, still one more year was required for the refinement of the proposal and budget. 
Eventually the contract was sealed and signed on 10th April 2001. The project will be a new adventure was about to begin…

Main features of the project:

So where does Auroville come in, what will we see in the very near future of this project?

Center for urban development studies, research and planning

The very first major development in this context is the creation of a 'Center for urban development studies, research and planning'. In the overall scheme of the project, this is to be a building where research and exchanges of experiences in the field of planning and development can take place. And, of course, this is precisely what is needed for our township! Auroville needed all along a proper space for its town planning and related issues and the idea was greatly welcomed by all involved.

We started the actual construction at the end of April '01 and named the building 'Town Hall Annex'. It is the very first building in the Administrative Area of Auroville, located in the Bliss area near Matrimandir. It's quite elaborate and will include the planning offices for Auroville's urban management groups (planning, development, infrastructure, etc), a conference room for 100 people, and a multimedia center cum library with books, videos, CDs and specialized magazines & other publications open to the public for consultation and research. 

The Center will provide facilities and documentation for individual researches for Indian and European students on topics related to urbanisation, sustainable growth of cities and the diffusion of appropriate technologies in city development.

Auroville Fund & Financial Service and Land Fund are joining

Encouraged by this initiative and in urgent need to move from the periphery to the center of Auroville, Auroville Fund & Financial Service as well as the Land Fund decided to contribute towards the construction of another, extra part of the building where their services will be located. Other main groups of Auroville's organisation will have also their space in the set-up.
It was quite interesting to watch it all come together, and see how the entire undertaking turned out to be a real collective effort towards the physical realisation of an administrative building for our future township. And no one will deny that, after more than thirty years of Auroville's existence, it's about time!

We anticipate that the building will be completed by March 2002 and in this framework, four Workshops are planned to take place there during the very next year, entirely organized by the Aurovilians involved. As the main idea behind Asia Urbs focuses on the collaboration with, and reaching out to, Asian cities, these workshops are the first steps in that direction. They will be particularly addressed to district and civic officers from Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry, and special efforts are made to have officers of neighbouring areas attending. The platform thus created will provide all parties concerned with space to discuss proposals and common issues in light of the various topics and experiences dealt with in the workshops.
Living up to Asia Urbs' wider scope, the workshops will also be attended by experts from the European cities Cologne and Venice. Finally, a fifth workshop in this series will be held in Cologne in Germany, and travel and accommodation cost of the local officers attending will be arranged for by Auroville's Future.

The workshops will be mainly centered around the following topics:

• Waste management

• Water management, water catchment protection and management, waste water management

• Energy planning at municipal level, energy savings and renewable energy diffusion at urban level

• Traffic management and alternative transport

• Innovative town planning

By now Auroville is quite experienced in holding such workshops and is increasingly becoming a dynamizing entity for its immediate bioregion, for Tamil Nadu and India at large, particularly in regard to environmental matters. It is our hope and conviction that these new workshops will strengthen our links with our neighbours, establishing firm contacts for further collaboration.

Publications

As a support to the workshops and other activities of the project, and also as part of its outreach and dissemination of information on its various activities, several booklets, brochures and pamphlets are in the pipeline. One of these you're presently holding in your hands! A special publication will be dedicated to the Master Plan, and during the gradual unfolding of the Asia Urbs project a regular newsletter will be sent to some 800 addresses all over India. We will, of course, also maintain an Internet page where we share all our activities under Asia Urbs.

Again, as part of the outreach and diffusion effort, we will hold an Exhibition in the town of Venice, dedicated to Auroville and its activities undertaken within the Asia Urbs programme. The exhibition will consist of elaborate panels, catalogues and video presentations and will take place during the entire month of June 2002, at the same time as the renowned 'Biennale' of Architecture.

You are aware that in the year 2000 the residents of Auroville and the Governing Board gave their support to the 'Perspective Master Plan for Auroville' which was later approved by the Ministry of Urban Development of the Government of India. This perspective plan now needs detailing and further studies. Therefore, under this same Asia Urbs project, the "Auroville detailed Master Plan" will be elaborated upon in five successive phases:

1. collection of data (which is already going on)

2. analysis of data,

3. elaboration of data & proposal,

4. participation & discussion with the citizens and interested groups, and

5. completing the final proposal.

The master plan will be worked out first and foremost with the participation of many Aurovilian collaborating with experts sent through the Asia Urbs partners abroad. Also Indian consultant town planners and engineers have been hired for the duration of the project, - it promises to be an inspiring, productive time and we're very much looking forward to it.

Municipal Energy Map

Enabled by the Asia Urbs programme, we are now geared up to look, in depth, at all major aspects of the overall emerging plan for the township, and how they correlate. So, naturally, also the Auroville Electrical Service is largely involved in the town planning activities and their objective is to prepare a Municipal Energy Plan. They will determine the present pattern of energy consumption and prepare a 'municipal energy map', taking into consideration the various categories and locations of users, the identification of weak points in the grid as well as possible areas of improvement in energy saving for big users. They will also make recommendations at town planning level on how to improve grid performances and how to promote a more diffused consumption of renewable energy, and may suggest energy saving techniques that can be included in the design and construction of buildings.

For this to happen, first Auroville's present energy situation needs to be assessed in its entirety. Once this is done, the Electrical Service, with the help of external consultants, will prepare a master plan for the future installation of Low Tension and High Tension Lines which will include a pre-feasibility study for the installation of an electrical sub-station endowed with 4 feeders and 4 different capacity transformers. Again, for Auroville to become a city, it is high time that this is done and we're appreciative that the Asia Urbs programme enables us to go in depth into this crucial aspect of the future township.

It goes without saying that Solar Energy plays an important part in this area as well. With the aim of promoting the use of renewable solar energy systems, the Auroville Solar Service participates in the project with Display and Demonstration of Solar systems in various centres in Auroville and in nearby villages in public buildings such as schools, mini health centres, libraries and Panchayat offices.

Then there is another area where we're all concerned, and that is WATER.

Water plays an essential role in the development of any town, but even more so in India. In order to avoid that our city would suffer from the ecological effects of over-exploitation of ground water resources in the wider catchment area, an innovative concept to base the city's water supply entirely on the rainfall within its boundaries was developed by a German expert and friend of Auroville, Harald Kraft. As you know, this proposal has been a topic of discussion in Aurovilian circles for quite some time now, as it implies a major shift in our water strategy. In order to find out if Harald's vision l would be suitable to Auroville's conditions, Harald is now enabled by the Asia Urbs scheme to do a pre-feasibility study of his proposal which will provide us with required information and data in the not too far future.

As Auroville's first aquifer will be used for fresh water storage and the groundwater resources for potable water, in future infiltration of wastewater into the ground is absolutely unacceptable. We therefore need decentralised water treatment plants to bring the water up to suitable water quality standards so that it may be re-used for irrigation.

As Auroville already has quite some experience with several water treatment plants, we will now, under the Asia Urbs programme, prepare a plan for the installation of various decentralised wastewater treatment units. This plan is to identify the location of these units in order to optimise their efficiency in terms of ratio between the forecast population of the settlement, capacity of the plant and the size of the area to irrigate with the recycled water. The building of the Center for Urban Development Studies (Town Hall Annex) will be equipped with one of them as a demonstration unit.

Water and Environmental Monitoring

The indispensable services of Harvest and the Auroville Water Service are, of course, also participating in the project. One of the first things to be done is extending and upgrading the Auroville environmental lab in Harvest. In the context of the programme, very advanced technical equipment has been ordered in order to monitor activities in Auroville and the surrounding villages on pollution control. Considering the increasing contamination of the area, especially by uncontrolled disposal of garbage, industrial effluents and the hazardous pesticides from the surrounding cashew crop plantations, we see this as a matter of first priority.

Green Work

As Auroville is already a renowned example in land regeneration and development of a green environment, and as the town will be covered with more than 50% of green areas, it goes without saying that the Green Work is very much present in our project as well. In collaboration with the teams of Pitchandikulam's Bio Resource center and the Auroville Botanical Garden, the project will amply contribute to the creation of city parks, green corridors, green areas, avenues, water catchment ponds, water run-off control and kitchen gardens.

A Green City Service Nursery, which is being set up in the Botanical Garden will gather the personnel and expertise already existing in Auroville and will also get input from experts from India and abroad. As yet, Asia Urbs has facilitated the installation of a windmill and water distribution system in the Botanical Garden, where enthusiasm and good energy are abundant and ready for the work to come.

Education, Training… unending education

Even Auroville's primary aim of unending education is very much present in this project. The AV Electrical Service, for instance, will each year select 12 young local people and train them during the two successive years to become fully-fledged electricians. As a matter of fact, the first batch of students already receives their training in the premises of Abri's Electrical Service, in an especially arranged classroom there. Of course, the boys are very enthusiast about this opportunity to learn a trade, knowing that it will help them find better jobs in the future.
The Auroville Solar Service has also been enabled to start a training programme in solar equipment installation and maintenance. Theirs offers ten courses of one month each, for 10 Aurovilian and local students as well as students sent by organisations from other parts of India.

Asia Urbs' training activities also include education in green work expertise, where batches of 15 people will be trained in gardening and urban landscaping for 160 days per year, over two years.

See for a previous article: Auroville Outreach Newsletter, January 2001 (PDF file)

Contact: aurofuture@auroville.org.in