Grey Infrastructure

Source: This post “Grey Infrastructure” is based on the article “Introduction to green infrastructure and grey infrastructure” published in “Alberta Water Portal Society” on 7 September 2023.

Why in News?

Both green infrastructure and grey infrastructure can play an important role in water management. Therefore, it is important to understand the advantages and challenges of both these infrastructures.

What is green infrastructure and grey infrastructure?

Green Infrastructure- Green infrastructure refers to the restoration of natural resources like forest covers and wetlands, which help in management of excess rainwater by aiding natural percolation and natural runoff.

Grey infrastructure– Grey infrastructure refers to human-engineered infrastructure like storm water drains, waster water treatment plants and dams, created for management of excess rainwater.

What are the challenges associated with grey infrastructure?

(1) Dangers to human health- The artificial structures of drainage have several health related challenges like breeding of harmful bacteria like E. Coli, dengue mosquitoes.

(2) Negative Social Effects- Construction of dams, large waste water treatment plants have associated human cost of displacement. For Ex- Narmada Dam protests.

(3) Interference with the natural pattern of drainage- These grey infrastructures have interfered with the natural pattern of drainage and have led to situations of urban floods. Ex- Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Chennai floods have occured due to encroachment of natural wetlands and construction of storm water drains in its place.

(4) Funding and public investment– Large investments are needed in building artificial water conservation infrastructures.

(5) Regular maintenance– Regular maintenance of these artificial structures is expensive and cumbersome as compared to natural conservation infrastructures like wetlands and forest.

What should be the way forward?

The way forward in excess rain water management must be on the integration of green and grey infrastructures. But our focus must be on improving the green infrastructures first, as far as possible.

UPSC Syllabus – Infrastructure