Churning Still Water - Briefing Paper on Urban Waterbodies
Urban waterbodies play an important role in flood control, groundwater recharge and water supply to help cities adapt to climate change effects.
Urban waterbodies play an important role in flood control, groundwater recharge and water supply to help cities adapt to climate change effects.
A way to augment Chandigarh’s water resources CSE has submitted a report on city wide rainwater harvesting for Chandigarh as a part of its work as Centre Of Excellence under the Ministry of Urban Development. Chandigarh does not have any surface water source and there is a steep decline in the groundwater levels in the city. The city has very few options for sourcing water, recharging the confined aquifers from where water is being tapped becomes a necessity. Every summer, newspaper reports quote residents residing on the second and third floors in the southern sectors of the city complaining about the shortage of drinking water.
While the Delhi government has been debating on what needs to be done to clean the river, the pollution levels have only worsened. In its book Sewage Canal: How to Clean the Yamuna, published in 2007, the Centre for Science and Environment reported that the Delhi stretch of the river is not only dead but had an overload of coliform contamination. Two years later, the pollution data shows no respite to the river.
Passing through five states, the Ganga covers 26 per cent of the country’s landmass. Despite the enormous amounts of money spent on cleaning it, the river continues to run polluted. Worse, the pollution is increasing even in stretches that were earlier considered clean.
Water programmeiswidely acknowledged as thought leader that mobilsed the country through a water literacy campaign calling for decentralized solutions to harvesting rainwater, control water pollution, urban sewage management in catalyzing policy changes at both national and state levels. Several publications that laid the reform agenda for water management in the country include - Dying Wisdom (1997) documenting the rise, fall and potential of India’s traditional water harvesting systems from different ecological contexts; Making Water Everybody’s Business (2001) followed with connecting the theory and practice of rainwater harvesting (RWH) targeting planners and policy-makers with a toolkit on Catch Water Where it Falls and focused research report Yamuna – sewage canal highlighting the needfor re-engineering the water and sewage management to address river pollution. CSE was awarded the prestigious Stockholm Water Prize in 2005 for promoting awareness on sustainable water management and community engagement, and the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation Water Award in 2008.
CSE has put together and submitted a report to the MoUD on “Urban Rainwater Harvesting: Case studies from different agro-climatic regions” as a part of its deliverable as a Centre for Comprehensive Capacity Building, under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (CCBP- JnNURM) for Sustainable Water Management.
A Public Service Advertisment on Rainwater Harvesting by Centre for Science and Environment (CSE)
Both surface and groundwater today in India and other South Asian cities is facing huge quantity and quality threat. Urban areas are facing water logging due to torrential rain. It is time to engineer the ferocious events of rain. Channelising and holding rain water must become the nation’s mission. Lakes, ponds, tanks which are built to hold water must be protected. These waterbodies not only provide drinking water, support livelihoods and biodiversity but also control the rate of runoff and subsequently control the runoff.
Tanjore in Tamil Nadu, Cambodia and Sri Lanka (dry zone) are the three civilisations in Asia which had well managed tank systems for rice production.
Wise Water Use in Gurgaon An action plan for HUDA, MCG and residents Download pdf
We open a tap for water. We push the flush handle to get rid of our excreta.
It was inevitable that Ganga, the largest river basin in India, constituting 26 per cent of the country’s landmass and supporting 43 per cent of its population, would be the starting point of any cleanup initiative of the Government of India.