Online Consultative Round Table: Reviving Our Lakes

Every Indian city, town and village has its share of lakes, tanks, ponds, rivers etc. These are invaluable sources of water, food and livelihoods; act as sponges to absorb floods; and have proven to be effective groundwater recharge zones in both urban and rural areas. Rapid and rampant urbanisation has, however, spelt the death-knell for many of these waterbodies and reduced their recharge capacities.

India’s first census on waterbodies, published in 2023, reports that 3.9 lakh waterbodies (more than 16 per cent of the total number in the country) are in a state of disuse – they have either dried up, or been built over by the construction industry, or are suffering from siltation, pollution by industrial effluents, salinity etc. Climate change has meant increasing spells of extreme weather events such as intense and frequent rainfall in short spans of time as well as periods of drought – this has vastly increased the level of threat that waterbodies are faced with. In such a scenario, lakes, ponds and tanks need to be rejuvenated and revived to combat both drought and flooding. It is time we understood the technologies which have worked to rejuvenate waterbodies in different ecological regions. The solution lies not only in one-time restoration, but also in continuous monitoring for sustainability.

In 2024, CSE published a compendium of success stories on lake rejuvenation, which analysed around 25 Central and state government programmes covering over 250 lakes. As a follow-up, CSE is organising this virtual round table to focus on the best technologies in rejuvenating lakes in different ecological regions of India and the Global South. Government departments, non-profits, researchers, academicians, technology providers and donors will be attending.

FOR MORE DETAILS, CONTACT

MEHAK PURI
Senior Research Associate
Water Programme Centre for Science and Environment
Mobile: 9773834911
Email: mehak.puri@cseindia.org