Coronavirus: Delhi Govt Must Ban Construction and Sanitize Housing Societies
LONG-TERM CONSTRUCTION WORK IN OCCUPIED HOUSING SOCIETIES IS A MAJOR CAUSE OF INCREASING CORONAVIRUS IN INDIA’S CAPITAL NEW DELHI
If one is unsafe, all are unsafe.
In its announcement to lock down the city to check the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19), the Delhi Government banned construction until March 31, 2020.
However, this is an inadequate measure because construction has been identified as a major cause of spreading the disease among communities. And non-essential construction projects are being stopped all over the world to check the coronavirus contagion.
As the coronavirus is expected to pose a threat to human lives for the coming many months or may be years, the Delhi Government should impose a permanent ban on all types of non-essential construction particularly in housing societies where millions of people are living.
The immediate need is to ban the floor area ratio (FAR) construction which is already causing major health risks to the people of Delhi.
If FAR construction is not banned until at least December 31, 2020, it will help spread coronavirus (COVID-19) in the entire national capital region and will be a major health risk to millions of locals. It will also pose a greater risk to the external communities when people from Delhi will start traveling to other cities or countries.
As construction dust is a main cause of pneumonia and common flu – the diseases that belong to the coronavirus family of virus – construction in inhabited housing societies can easily increase the occurrence of coronavirus or COVID-19.
Government Action: The housing societies which are planning to start FAR construction should not be allowed to start it and the housing societies where the FAR construction has already started should be ordered to stop it and remove the harmful construction material.
Subsequently, all such housing societies should be cleaned and fully sanitized to check the possibility of coronavirus.
In order to fully understand the increasing risk of coronavirus (COVID-19) in group housing societies, you can download and read the full report. It is also given below in the digital format.
