CHURNING STILL WATER A BRIEFING PAPER ON THE STATE OF URBAN WATERBODIES, CONSERVATION AND MANAGEMENT IN INDIA JANUARY 2012 Centre for Science and Environment 41, Tughlakabad Institutional Area, New Delhi - 110 062 India Tel: 91-11-2995 5124/6110/6394 Fax: 91-11-29955879 Email: [email protected] Website: www.cseindia.org RESEARCH AND DIRECTION Dr. Suresh Kumar Rohilla Research Sushmita Sengupta Sanyukta Dasgupta © January 2012 Centre for Science and Environment Material from this publication can be used, but only with proper acknowledgement. Centre for Science and Environment 41, Tughlakabad Institutional Area, New Delhi-110062 Phones: 91-11-29955124, 2995125 Fax: 91-11-29955879 Email: [email protected] Web: www.cseindia.org P01 CHURNING STILL WATER 1. INTRODUCTION flood prevention, biodiversity and support food security and livelihoods. India’s waterbodies are Indian cities today are facing huge water crisis, the extraordinarily diverse – ranging from lakes and city supply is not sufficient and sometimes the ponds to marshes, mangroves, backwaters and supplied water is not of appreciable quality . Both lagoons. Lakes, ponds, tanks along with other the surface and groundwater sources for the cities waterbodies in India occupy 58.2 million hectares are declining. Cities have started to face torrential (this includes the areas under paddy cultivation)2. rains which lead to water logging. Thus the impact The interaction of the human world with the of climate change has become inevitable in the urban bodies of water in the last few decades has changed rainfall pattern of many cities. Its time to been a reason of concern. Today these waterbod- engineer about tackling more ferocious events of ies across the country are systematically convert- rain. Channelising and holding rain water must ed into “real estate” by vested interests or simply become the nation’s mission1. Rainwater harvest- used as a dumping ground for sewage and garbage ing should be taken up by the cities at war footing. and are receptacles for toxic waste. Entry of raw Lakes, ponds, tanks and other waterbodies, which sewage causes prolific growth of aquatic weeds are built to hold rain, should be safeguarded. (eutrophication) in many lakes and ponds. Even Waterbodies have variable functions like pro- treatment using high technological tools cannot viding drinking water, fish, fodder, supporting wild improve the water quality. The deterioration of life and controlling the rate of run-off in urban water quality also occurs due to immersions of areas which subsequently control flooding in idols (as in cities like Mumbai, Hyderabad, Kolkata these areas. There are historical evidences that etc.). Sometimes the water quality deteriorates to the areas around lakes, ponds and tanks always such an extent that there is a serious damage of provided recreational spaces to the societies. the biodiversity. The catchments feeding the bod- These bodies of water also help in recharging the ies of water are also subjected to encroachment groundwater. The urban waterbodies of India, and degradation (for example refer to Surajkund whether man-made or natural, fresh water or and Badkhal lakes in section 3). Over-exploitation, brackish play a very vital role in managing the eco- discharge of industrial effluents and domestic logical balance like maintaining water balance, sewage, uncontrolled siltation and weed infesta- CHURNING STILL WATER tion are the main reasons of the destruction of the objective of this rule is to ensure that there is no waterbodies in India. The urban lakes, ponds, further degradation of the waterbodies. The bod- tanks and other bodies of water are getting extinct ies of water in urban areas fall under the jurisdic- due to intensified human activity, unplanned tion of different departments like fisheries, irriga- development, absence of management process, tion, tourism, forestry, local bodies etc. This caus- lack of proper legislation and lack of awareness. es confusion in both planning and management. For prevention of pollution and encroachment, Lack of apex authority in many cases led to the the government has come up with different poli- encroachment of the urban lakes, ponds, tanks, cies and acts. Programme like National Lake marshes and other waterbodies. Few states like Conservation Programme (NLCP) has been Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand, Karnataka have launched in order to restore the lakes, tanks and developed apex authority for the proper manage- other waterbodies of urban areas by central gov- ment of lakes. The management and the conserva- ernmnet. India is also signatory to the Ramsar tion of the urban bodies of water has also been Convention on Wetlands, for conservation and complicated by the absence of proper policy on wise use of wetlands (which include the waterbod- the conservation and protection. The problem has ies). In India, this convention on wetlands came also been aggravated by the lack of any appropri- into force in February 1st 1982. Under this, 25 wet- ate mapping of waterbodies in the country. In lands have been identified from India for conserva- 2011, Ministry of Environment and Forest along tion. India is also a party to the Convention on with Indian Space Research Organisation has Biological Diversity (CBD). CBD addresses con- developed Geographic Information systems (GIS) cern related to water ecosystems through its inter- for mapping of all the wetlands (including the national programme of work on Inland Waters waterbodies) of India. This is surely a positive step Biodiversity. The state governments have also towards the management of waterbodies in India. taken some initiatives—like Guwahati In order to restore the poor state of waterbod- Waterbodies (Preservation and Conservation) bill, ies, there have been several initiatives by the citi- East Kolkata Wetland Conservation and zens and the government. Many public-private Management Bill were passed in order to preserve partnerships are in action for conservation of the waterbodies. There has been initiative to lakes, ponds and tanks. De-weeding and desilting declare parts of the waterbodies as sanctuary to have taken place in different ponds, lakes and protect them from further degradation (example— tanks to restore the original state of these water- waterbody at Kaladeo Ghana Bird Sanctuary in bodies. Technologies like aeration, bioremediation Rajasthan which was declared a protected sanctuary and biomanipulation have been applied to clean in 1971). different lakes and tanks. Few lakes of Nainital, Concerned citizens and non profit organisa- Thane and Jaipur have been revived to great tions have also filed several public interest litiga- extent after application of these technologies. tions in order to save the urban waterbodies. Initiatives have also been taken to restore the There has been few dramatic court actions but it catchment of the waterbodies also (example – has been seen that absence of a legally enforceable Maharshtra government is working on the catchment national regulation has hampered any real treatment and protection for Charlotte lake, progress in many of these cases. Sometimes the Matheran and Yamai lake, Pandharpur since 2007) court verdict takes a very long time and within that The paper tries to raise the different issues of time the waterbody gets totally degraded. In related threats to the urban waterbodies in the December 2010, the Ministry of Environment and country. It also provides a review of the existing Forest has come up with the Wetlands policies, acts and laws to tackle the loss of the (Management and Conservation) Rules, 2010. The urban bodies of water. 2 CENTRE FOR SCIENCE AND ENVIRONMENT 2. THREATS AND LOSS OF URBAN Few of the major threats which affect the urban water- WATERBODIES IN INDIA bodies in India are as follows: I. Encroachment of the waterbodies- both planned and Human interference has considerably contributed unplanned/unauthorised towards the deterioration of the urban waterbod- II. Mining activities in the catchment area ies in India. Over the years, the numbers of lakes, III. Pollution of the waterbodies/catchment and dispos- ponds and other types of waterbodies in the urban al of untreated/partially treated sewage and peri-urban areas decreased continuously. IV. Groundwater decline leading to fall in the level of Bengaluru in the beginning of 1960 had 262 lakes lake but right now only ten of them hold water. In 2001, V. Absence of administrative framework to manage the when the collector of Ahmedabad listed the water- waterbody. bodies in the city following a High Court order, it was seen that 65 out of 137 listed lakes were There is also threat to the highland waterbodies already encroached3. The lakes in the urban areas like Tso Morari lake in Ladakh area due to are built over as the urban planners cannot see unplanned tourism activities4. Disturbance of beyond land. Not only the waterbodies but the wildlife, pollution by solid waste, changes in local catchments are also built over. lifestyles and loss of cultural heritage are some of The urban waterbodies are under the land own- the other impacts of tourism in the area. In the ing agencies like departments of revenue, fisheries, absence of garbage disposal facilities, the practice urban development, public works, municipalities of dumping garbage into nearby waterbodies has or panchayats. These departments fill up the become quite common in recent years, leading to waterbodies and show these cases as change of many high altitude lake pollution and degrada- land use patterns. The vital roles played by the tion5. urban waterbodies in flood moderation and The loss or degradation of water-bodies can groundwater recharge are completely underesti- lead to serious consequences, including increased mated, unaccounted and overlooked. flooding; species decline, deformity, or extinction; In Guwahati, Sola beel, used to collect a huge and decline in water quality. These losses, as well amount of rainwater that flowed from the sur- as degradation of catchment, have resulted in loss rounding hill catchment. The beel used to protect of waterbodies across all continents.