Eyesores to city attractions: plans afoot to develop Delhi nullahs into eco-corridors

Author(s): Amandeep Kang

Date: Jan 11, 2013

Pilot project cleared to convert Barapullah drain into an eco-mobility corridor

The Barapulla drain as it looks now (above) and artist's impression of how it will look after the project gets implemented (Courtesy UTTIPEC)

The nullahs of Delhi were once irrigation drains that watered the orchards scattered all over the city. Today, they are eyesores because they carry the city's sewage and filth. But it is possible to turn them into a major city attraction by developing them as landscaped green corridors that can be accessed by cyclists and pedestrians. A plan proposed several years ago to transform 350 km of drains in Delhi into eco-corridors that will have water treatment zones and walking-cum-cycling tracks finally seems to be moving ahead.

Recently, the Unified Traffic and Transportation Infrastructure (Planning and Engineering) Centre (UTTIPEC) cleared a pilot project—eco-mobility corridor or non-motorized public transport corridor—on either side of the Barapulla drain, costing an estimated Rs 16 crore. The nullah is one of the major drains of the city and connects major heritage zones of the city, including Humayun Tomb-Nizamuddin area and Mehrauli. The Jawaharlal Nehru stadium also falls in the way.

A quarter of the money for the project will be spent on treating the sewage in the drain, while the rest will be spent on cycle and pedestrian tracks. The tracks will be developed by raising both sides of the drain over a distance of 4.5 km. The idea is (as provided in the master plan) to ultimately convert all major drains of Delhi into green corridors to connect pedestrians and cyclists with metro stations and bus stops, using the linear connectivity offered by the natural drains of Delhi.

Director of UTTIPEC Ashok Bhattacharjee says the project will serve two purposes: it will improve water quality as well as reduce traffic congestion by providing cyclists and pedestrians safe passage. If successful, the project will be gradually extended to the other drains that criss-cross the city.

Major hurdle

The work has yet to begin owing to the multiplicity of agencies involved, such as Delhi Development Authority (DDA), Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), Public Works Department and Delhi Jal Board. No date is set yet regarding the actual take off the project. Savita Bhandari, director (landscape) with DDA, says, “I am optimistic of its implementation in the near future.” One possible option could be the constitution of a governing body to ensure coordination among the involved agencies, says Bhattacharjee.

One of the aims of converting these drains into eco-corridors is to unlock the potential of this neglected drainage network and utilize it to establish walkways, pathways for cycling and to create green spaces. With this intention, in 2007 a master plan was prepared for south Delhi with Infrastructure Development Finance Company as lead consultant. Over 280 hectares of land is available around the drains that is not being utilised at present.

The proposal also includes treatment of the wastewater using alternate technologies such as bioremediation and constructed wetlands at the source level. Three government bodies, including DDA, MCD and Delhi and Delhi Tourism & Transport Department came together for its implementation. However, due to the high estimated cost (Rs 600 crore), the project could not be implemented.

The idea of a green corridor was first thought of in the late 1990’s when a group of women from Defence Colony Resident Welfare Association (Barapullah nullah passes through this posh south Delhi colony) felt that they must do something to keep the stinking storm water drain out of their sight. They decided that walls should be erected on both sides of the nullah. When Akash Hingorani, an architect who runs the Oasis Design Inc. came to know of this, he suggested a better solution.

“This (the walls) could have definitely kept the nullah out of the sight, but it would still be stinking and in fact could have created more problems both in terms of people using the walled area as a dumping ground, as well as a place for crime,” says Hingorani. He requested the Defence Colony RWA not to pursue this idea. He hit upon a more sustainable solution to get rid of the unpleasant sight of the nullah—develop the storm water drain into an eco-corridor.

Delhi’s natural drainage network is of 350 km in length. There are 19 major drains with over 15,000 sub-drains. The interesting part of this complex drainage network is that it provides a great opportunity to connect people and spaces to the current public transportation network. At present, these drains are a major issue of concern for Delhi as they perpetuate a number of environmental problems due the amount of untreated sewage that these drains carry. These drains carry more than 4,000 million litres a day of sewage, which is discharged into the Yamuna river, mostly untreated.

In 2009, Morphogenesis, another architecture firm also conducted similar research and made a similar proposal to the lieutenant governor’s secretariat; it aimed to utilise Delhi drains as an alternative cultural, environmental and transport network. However, it remains an ambitious idea given the level of planning and administrative coordination required among the government agencies and the stakeholders, particularly when considering its implementation throughout Delhi as per the master plan.

Source: www.downtoearth.org.in

Delhi groundwater will run dry in 3-5 yrs

HIGH AND DRY
Delhi groundwater will run dry in 3-5 yrs: Study
Situation In Other Metros Also Alarming, Says NGRI

Bappa Majumdar & Sunil Mungara TNN 

Hyderabad: This is sounds like crisis. Scientists at the premier National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI) have said groundwater in Hyderabad, Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai, along with several other northern cities, are declining at such a rapid pace that in three years the Andhra Pradesh capital will be almost bone dry.
“History shows us civilizations have vanished once water is also gone. Water carries people and we need to wake up now and do something before it is too late,” Mrinal Kanti Sen, director of NGRI told TOI on Tuesday.
Staring at an acute crisis, NGRI has been asked by the Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) under the ministry of water resources to trace new aquifers using heliborne electromagnetic techniques in the states of Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Bihar and Rajasthan.
“The government is concerned and we are gearing up to find new aquifers all over the country as this is the only way out,” says Sen.
In Hyderabad, despite a very good 2011 monsoon, water levels in places like Sanjeevareddy Nagar and Maredpally were at a depth of just about 18 metres; the situation in other observatory zones are equally bad.
Hydrogeologists at NGRI and government water board officials say that with cities turning into concrete jungles very little rain water is getting infiltrated into the earth for conversion into groundwater.
“In an ideal scenario, at least 16% of total rainfall must seep into the earth to get recharged as groundwater, but in cities such as Hyderabad, Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai barely half of it does. This is very alarming,” says Dr SN Rai, a top scientist at NGRI.
“It is going to go down further, and at this rate Hyderabad will the first to run dry in three years time. Delhi will be next and may run dry in three to five years. There is a bleak future in store for other metros,” adds Rai, also the vice president of International Association of Hydrogeologists.
NGRI scientists say the scenario in Delhi, western Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan are very bad with groundwater in 20 out of 27 tehsils in Delhi receding rapidly.
A two-year CGWB study shows that groundwater use in Delhi was upto 12,569 hectare metres (HM) against an extremely poor recharge of 2,652- 4,172 hm per tehsil.
Vasant Vihar, Hauz Khas, Chankayapuri, along with Karol Bagh, Kotwali, Kalakji, Rajouri Garden and Paharganj, are among the worst exploited areas, officials say. Rampant digging of bore wells and poor water recharge areas due to construction of buildings are the reasons, they offer.
In Mumbai, civic bodies are resorting to artificial rains as the city’s water collection and storage is nearly 30 percent deficient; water needs can be handled only till February 2013.
CGWB officials say they have plans to revive 8000-10,000 old wells and hundreds of ring wells instead of the current trend of bore wells which does not help in water recharge.The only bright spot in Mumbai is that water levels in the lakes are higher than what it was last time, scientists say.
The scenario in the southern metro of Chennai isn’t happy either, with hydrogeologists saying that the already declining groundwater level has been contaminated due to over exploitation. In fact, CGWB says that 247 out of 451 water samples taken from all districts of Tamil Nadu showed high levels of chloride, fluoride and nitrate — all very harmful for humans.
The situation looked dangerous in towns like Perambalur, Namakkal, Salem and Vellore, officials say. In some of the areas, officials are using air compressors instead of pumps to draw groundwater.
“If Hyderabad is the worst, Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai have huge water worries of their own. Unless local governments and people learn to conserve water and think about our next generation, it’s all downhill from here,” says Dr Rai.
Scientists say every big household in the city needs a minimum 3 x 10 feet pit to collect rain water from the roof and divert it to the pits for recharge. Ramesh Kumar, deputy director at the Andhra Pradesh groundwater department, says that indiscriminate digging of bore wells, and encroachment of lakes and water tanks are the prime culprits. The city has only 300-odd lakes remaining out of 900 plus in the late 1960s.
“As a result we are forced to get water from Nagarjunasagar, about 140 km away from the city, to meet water demand,” says Kumar. “Hyderabad will run dry and there is no doubt about it if this trend continues.”
(Source: Times of India, Dec 19 2012)

Catfish signals revival of city lakes: Untreated Sewage A Problem

Untreated Sewage A Problem, But Hauz Khas & Neela Hauz Being Cleaned

New Delhi: The recent discovery of a 3.5 feet long catfish in the shallow Hauz Khas Lake had marked a major progression in the revival of the lake, which till some months back had been a smelly cesspool of untreated sewage. Though residents still complain of foul smell from a part of the lake but its biochemical oxygen demand — an indicator of pollution levels — has dropped from 11mg/l to 6 mg/l in a span of six months. 
    A few kilometres away, Neela Hauz continues to languish under an onslaught of untreated sewage. Both water bodies have the same source of water — treated effluent from the Vasant Kunj sewage treatment plant and untreated sewage from Mehrauli and nearby areas. Neela Hauz, over which a flyover was constructed for the Commonwealth Games and should have been restored by October 2010, is nowsupposed to be restored by February next year as per a high court order. 
    Debris from the water body was just cleared last week and according to Delhi Development Authority officials, the water body will be restored by the court-set deadline. 
    Plantation will be carried out by next monsoon. While debris dumped by the PWD around the lake during the flyover construction has been removed, a lot of it that subsequently was dumped into the main water body is still to be cleaned out. 
    “The revival plans released by DDA show a much smaller area of the lake compared to what it was before the flyover project began. Our concern is not the peripheral work that DDA will get done on plantation etc. We only want that the water body is preserved properly, and for that untreated sewage must be stopped from entering it and secondly, the area of water should be increased,” said Nitya Jacob, a resident of Vasant Kunj. 
    According to Delhi Jal Board officials, they will be trapping untreated sewage from the Kishangarh area in Mehrauli and diverting it to Vasant Kunj STP. Some institutions, located near the lake, have been discharging their waste into it directly and they have been asked to take corrective measures. 
    The lake will finally be merged with Sanjay Van where efforts by residents have already seen some improvement in water quality of the lake there. 
    From Neela Hauz to Hauz Khas Lake, there are five check dams where residents of nearby areas have introduced fish. These catfish have found their way to Hauz Khas and feed on the carps that were introduced in the lake. 
    The check dams also act as regulators since anytime the flow of untreated sewage increases, they can be shut down. 
    “The Hauz Khas Lake is fed by treated effluent from the Vasant Kunj STP, some untreated sewage from the Mehrauli ward and rainwater. The north/northeast side of the water body is deeper and in the shadow zone — meaning it is protected from sunlight and wind. Hence it also looks dirtier. Other than bio-remediation, we have asked DDA to take water from the deep end for gardening, ensure that the pipe from the last check dam to the lake should always have water flowing through it and ensure that aerators work at the deep end,” said Manu Bhatnagar, the principal advisor of environment projects in Intach’s natural heritage division. 
    “We have seen a substantial change in water quality in the past few months,” he added. Intach is working in an advisory capacity with DDA to revive the lake. 
    The lake has started receiving migratory birds as well, but sources say that DDA officials are not following all instructions and untreated sewage often finds its way into the lake. 
    “The aerators are also not working and the part of the lake next to the monument is filthy and smelly,” said Rashmi Singh of Green Park.

Source: TOI (pg.9, 25 Nov 2012)

HC: Civic Agencies Told to Ensure Untreated Sewage Is Not Dumped Into Lakes

HC relief for Delhi's water bodies: Civic Agencies Told to Ensure Untreated Sewage Is Not Dumped Into Lakes

NEW DELHI: A recent Delhi high court order has spelt major relief for hundreds of water bodies in the capital that are being fed with untreated sewage. The court has directed Delhi Jal Board and Delhi Pollution Control Committee to ensure that unless sewage is treated to levels prescribed by the Central Pollution Control Board, it cannot be discharged into lakes, ponds or other water bodies.


Even as several lakes are fed by treated or untreated sewage — including Hauz Khas lake, Bhalswa lake and Sanjay jheel — DJB officials claimed that "to avoid pollution of ground water and harm to plants, animals and aqua life, it is not advisable to recharge ground water or water bodies with treated sewage because of the standards maintained of (at) the sewage treatment plants (STPs)".

"Biochemical Oxygen Demand or BoD levels in treated sewage should not be more than 30mg/lt. This is the level maintained at all STPs and most of them are treating this level too. However, against a demand of 680 million gallons per day, Delhi has sewage treatment capacity of 513.4 million gallons per day. It is treating even less as all sewage does not reach the STPs. A lot of this feeds small lakes and ponds. DJB's logic is that in flowing water systems like rivers, natural processes lead to an improvement of water quality. These systems are missing in still water systems," said a source.

The order, issued by Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw, has directed DPCC to monitor from time to time all STPs to ensure their proper functioning, and that any deficiency should be reported to DJB immediately.

DJB has also been directed to act immediately if DPCC complains about the working of any STP.

Both DPCC and DJB have been asked to ensure that treated sewage from STPs "is not discharged into water bodies like lakes, ponds etc, unless the same is compliant with prescribed standards".

The water quality in Hauz Khas has recently shown an improvement after DDA put up a check dam in Sanjay Van at the point where untreated sewage was getting mixed with Vasant Kunj's treated effluent and was entering the lake. However, the measure is only temporary and the lake could be at risk if the procedure is discontinued.

Bhalswa and Sanjay lakes are other examples of water bodies where untreated sewage finds its way into. While some may dry up if untreated sewage is stopped from flowing into them, sources say that sewage needs to be treated and not stopped from entering water bodies.

Source: Times of India (28 Oct 2012, Pg 6)

OPEN DRAINS TO MAKE WAY FOR ECO CORRIDORS

Non-Motorized Transportation Project To Develop Areas Along Drains As Recreational Public Spaces & Special Corridors For Cycling And Walking

New Delhi: Think of the drain behind your house, the eyesore of the colony which is usually lined with garbage, stray cattle and dogs, and stinks so much that one would not venture near it. Now imagine a tree- lined canal, an open public space that has people walking and cycling along the gently gushing water. The idea may sound ambitious but the Delhi government has plans to convert several of the city’s larger drains into eco-corridors: areas that will be used extensively as non-motorized stretches and connect colonies to the BRT corridor, Metro stations and bus stops. 
    The non-motorized transportation (NMT) eco-corridor project will be incorporated into DDA’s master plan and has been prepared by UTTIPEC. The project has two components — developing areas along drains as recreational public spaces and developing a road network that includes special corridors for cycling and walking. “We have to shift focus from traffic planning to mobility planning. However, the development of recreational areas is entirely dependent on the cleaning of the drains. The project has been around for ages but if it has to work the government needs to take a holistic view of it and carry out all works together,” said an official. 
    The project aims to tackle open drains and bring down traffic congestion, which is the prime reason for Delhi’s rising pollution problems. “Among the proposals we have already mulled are connecting Nizamuddin Railway Station and ISBT to Jungpura Metro Station. The existing open drain behind Nizamuddin that passes by Jungpura is an ideal location to develop NMT. The other stretch is from Sheikh Sarai to Moolchand Metro station. This will also provide connectivity from the Saket malls to GK-I. The project along the Barapullah drain is the most extensive and will provide an interface with existing modes of public transport,” said UTTIPEC director Ashok Bhattacharjee. “We have a cycle sharing system along the BRT corridor but one reason it failed was the insufficient number of stations to park. Development of sufficient infrastructure is a priority. A sizeable number of cycle parking points, convenient hiring systems, accessible locations and dedicated paths even along the main roads need to be put in place. The cycle tracks need to become transit routes, between colonies, within colonies and between colonies and public transport points,” said a source. 
    The environment department, too, has been promoting the project. “By encouraging walking and cycling, we will be able to tackle congestion, bring down pollution, create open public spaces and deal with the problem of untreated sewage,” said an environment department official. 
Source: Times of India (28 Oct 2012, pg 4)

‘Covering drains is a worse move’

New Delhi: DDA has been on a drain covering spree, but UTTIPEC says space utilization has been the worst. Instead, developing it aesthetically, treating the sewage and creating cycling and walking paths along the drains would be a much better approach. 
    “Covering drains opens up some space and covers up an eyesore, but a better utilization would actually happen if the sewage was treated. Once the drain is covered up, the civic agencies are likely to forget about the problem. Also, sewage undergoes natural treatment through sunlight and aeration in an open drain. Once it is covered, the chances of it raising a stink actually go up,” said UTTIPEC director Ashok Bhattacharjee. 
    UTTIPEC's Non-Motorized Transportation Eco Corridor plan says, “Concrete slab effectively stops groundwater recharge and the slab cover over the nullah shall aggravate the ‘heat island’ effect.” Water has a natural cooling effect on its surroundings: an advantage that will be lost during Delhi's searing summer. 
    The project also says desilting the drains once they are covered would become an expensive and cumbersome task. Such cleaning, it says, will “require super suction machines” since cranes etc would no longer be able to access the sewage. “The sewage shall be deprived of sunlight and oxygen, creating septic conditions, increase the river's pollution load,” it adds. 
    Officials suggest the sewage should be treated and the channel reused as a parkway. “Instead of making everything into a concrete jungle, the area could be developed as a green belt and a linking route for NMT users from one public transport point to another,” said a source. 
    The Defence Colony drain, on which work is still on, has left residents quite unhappy. “Since work on covering the drain has started, sewage has started backflowing in our bathrooms. The stench has also increased,” said AP Singh, a resident. 

Implications of covering drains 

• Environmentally bad decision as the problem gets 'out of sight out of mind' and situation worsens 
• The concrete slab effectively stops groundwater recharge 
• The slab cover over the nullah shall aggravate the ‘heat island’ effect 
• The siltation in the drain shall become difficult and more expensive to manage and would require specialized super suction machines 
• The sewage being carried by the drain shall be deprived of sunlight and oxygen, creating septic conditions and effectively increase the pollution load on the river.

Source: Times of India (28 Oct 2012, pg 4) 

PIL against proposed golf course over city's forest area

                                Source: HindustanTimes (23 Oct 2012 Pg 3) 

Water body authority in limbo

Source: Hindustan Times (23 oct 2012 pg 6) 

HC pulls up civic agencies for failure to stop waterlogging

Press Trust of India / New Delhi August 21, 2012,

On a day Delhiites reeled under waterlogging woes due to heavy rains, the Delhi High Court today pulled up the civic agencies for not taking measures to desilt drains to prevent inconvenience to people during monsoon in the national capital.
The court also asked trifurcated MCD and NDMC to place on record the road maps relating to drainage system by next week.
"Drains have to be cleaned. There are no short-term measures to stop waterlogging in the city. If you don't know the number of drains in the area, how will you clean them?," a division bench of justices S K Kaul and Vipin Sanghi asked after MCD failed to file the status report.
The civic body claimed that long-term plans were there as per the Masterplan 2021 to solve the problem.
"Year after year the problem of waterlogging occurs. You cannot ask citizens to wait for implementation of your long- term plans," the bench said and asked the authorities to bring the records of road maps to court by August 28.
The bench made the observations while hearing a plea by NGO Nyaya Bhoomi President B B Sharan to launch contempt proceedings against the civic body officials for their alleged failure in complying with the court's July 11 order.
The high court had on July 11 had directed officials to take steps to end the problem of waterlogging in the capital in 15 days.
The court's directions had come while hearing two PILs, filed by the NGO and Gaurav Bansal, a lawyer, seeking steps to address the problem of waterlogging in the capital.
One of the petitions had claimed MCD and Public Works Department (PWD) have done nothing significant after 1998 to properly desilt drains and this was causing waterlogging on major roads even after the slightest of rain.
Giving a list of 41 waterlogging-prone areas here, the petition referred to a response received under an RTI, and said affected areas included Ashram Chowk, South Extension Part-I, Mathura Road, ISBT Kashmere Gate, RTR Marg near Moti Bagh flyover, Siri Fort Road, Dhaula Kuan underpass and underpasses around Dwarka.

Source: Business StandardOriginal Link

The disappearing water of Delhi. More serious than you think

Reported by Radhika Bordia, Edited by Janaki Fernandes | Updated: July 27, 2012 17:13 IST

New Delhi:  In a country where a woman's 'suhaag', her husband, is seen as central to her existence, imagine a song where a woman, driven to desperation, says it's easier to lose him than her precious pitcher of water. This was a song we filmed in Banda, Bundelkhand, 16 years ago, when we travelled to Uttar Pradesh. The water shortage appeared apocalyptic then, even for this under-developed part of India.  But since then, Banda's thirst has become starker.  
In 1997, the Centre for Science and Environment, published 'Dying Wisdom:  The Rise, Fall and Potential of Traditional Water Harvesting Systems'. It beautifully mapped the acumen with which communities across the country once conserved their water resources. At the book's launch, when we interviewed the CSE director at the time, the late Anil Agarwal, he emphasized how urgent the need was for us to revert to our older water-harvesting techniques as well as develop newer ones.  The book was widely-read and for a while, it seemed that policy-makers would take note. Yet, 15 years passed before some laws were put into place to make rainwater harvesting mandatory. The Delhi government, for instance, constantly reiterates its commitment to do rainwater harvesting but when we set out to do a water profiling of the city, we found a disturbing mismatch between intention and reality. 
Dhiraj Ahuja runs a company called Delhi Tubewells Limited. In 1994 when his company dug a tubewell for a house they had to go down approximately 60 feet to get water. By 2011, for the same home,  they had to go as deep as 250 feet to hit water. "In some places we only had to dig 30 feet and we would hit water, today when we are called to bore wells, even after going down 300 feet we don't get any water." It's a candid confession from a man who has profited greatly from a dangerous water policy which allowed unchecked tubewell-boring for decades. 
From the mid-sixties, both the government and home owners have bored their own water supplies, deep into the earth, sucking out Delhi's ground water in massive quantities. "See those are tubewell pipes pulled out of the ground as the wells have dried up,' Dhiraj Ahuja points to piles of dug up borewell pipes, now lying unused and rusting. 
Frantic laws are now being formulated to try and reverse the damage. In neighbouring Gurgaon, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has barred the Haryana government and its agencies from allowing any construction till real estate developers commit that they will use water tankers for building their projects.  Ground water will be off-limits.  The construction lobby has been badly hit by this. According to the Central Groundwater Authority (CGA), Gurgaon was illegally extracting as much as 50 million gallons of water per day - taking out from the ground three  times the amount of water it replenished. The CGWA warned that by if this was not stopped Gurgaon would have no groundwater left by 2017. 
In Delhi , a law passed in 2005 makes it mandatory for all tubewells to be registered with the government, but the Centre for Science and Environment reveals that only 100,000 tubewells are on the records -experts say  at least double that amount are not documented. Regulating illegal tubewells is next to impossible as almost all our households have them and there is no one agency or government body tasked to monitor this.
Private householders argue that tubewells are the only option as the Delhi Jal Board, in charge of the city's water supply, simply does not provide adequate water. At the moment The Jal Board, a civic body mandated to provide water, supplies piped water to about 75% of Delhi's population which means many parts of the city has no connections. Those who do have water connections say the supply is erratic. Statistics also reveal how unequally the water has been distributed. Take a look at this - 70% of Delhi's total municipal water goes to the privileged Delhi Cantonment area, which means that less than 5% of a city's population guzzles up an entire city's water supply.

Vast areas like the ones we visited were completely left out of the Jal Board's ambit. In Madangir, a sprawling semi-urban, densely populated area, there are few Jal Board connections, leaving the residents dependent on a corrupt water tanker mafia. This is a scenario well-documented, with stories of long waits, water fights and large scale corruption. 'I have to pay almost Rs 2000 a month for water, you tell me how am I supposed to survive," asks a middle-aged woman, the voting ink on her finger still not faded. "Should I spend on my children's education or give them drinking water?"  Dhiraj Ahuja, who was with us, pointed out the innumerable tubewells in the area, dug by those who could afford it, now bone dry.
This is one part of Delhi's catastrophic water story. 
Cut now to a black-and-white picture taken in the 70s. It shows a group of five young men in a motor-boat on a vast lake. One of them, Sharad Gaur, is taking his friends to his ancestral village situated at the edge of the lake. His village and that vast lake is, today, Sector 20 Dwarka, a matrix of high-rise apartment buildings on the southern edge of Delhi. If the disappearance of a lake over 30 years is a common story in Delhi's growth as a city, there is enough evidence of water bodies disappearing almost overnight. Sharad Gaur, now the regional director with the Centre for Environment Education, a cell of the Environment Ministry, takes us across Delhi to show us how the city has rapidly destroyed its water bodies. The starting point is the most obvious -   the river Yamuna and its flood plains. 88% of Delhi's water supply comes from surface water of which 60% is from the Yamuna. The abuse and neglect of this river has been reported often, but each new visit reveals a wave of fresh damage that is frightening.  40% of the Yamuna flood plains have been destroyed, the construction continues unchecked. At one site, in the heart of the city, Sharad Gaur pointed out the last remaining bit of the flood plains that had survived. On it one could see the seasonal cultivation, traditional to flood plain, a soothing green body acting as sponge for water in a desperately thirsty city.  But less than a kilometer away, this was interrupted by a man dumping rubble into the same land - 'That's the way the Yamuna is reclaimed' explained Sharad Gaur.
If a city has no sense of its river, imagine the ease with which it has ruined its natural water bodies, old step wells, man-made lakes, each time evoking the fallacious argument of development. Shamsi Talab, once a water reservoir, is hemmed in by growing construction around it. Jahaaz Mahal as its name suggests once stood like a boat on water, now on dry ground. Vinod Jain's NGO TAPAS has been fighting a 20-year-old legal battle to save Delhi's innumerable natural water reservoirs. Their studies reveal that there's enough space for the city to grow without killing its own most precious natural resource. 'We have managed to bring 629 water bodies to the notice of the Court.  I think there are actually as many as 800-900 but most of these water bodies have construction on them, around them, there is constant encroachment and some have just gone dry. In 2003 the Court has given an order to preserve the water bodies and I'm grateful for that. There's a lot of work to be done and I just hope the Delhi government becomes more serious in abiding by the Court', says Vinod Jain.
Legal intent, though is not enough on this own. With depleted groundwater, a river under threat and natural water bodies being destroyed, it became clear that there would be an urgent need to do rainwater harvesting on a war footing. In June 2001, the Ministry of Urban Development made rainwater harvesting mandatory in all new buildings with a roof area of more than 100 square meters and in new plots that had an area of more than 1000 square metres. On the ground, this is not working as no one wants to take responsibility of implementing the law. The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), responsible for construction bye-laws, rarely checks if new buildings have rainwater harvesting apparatus. The Ground Water Board told us to take our queries to the water-harvesting cell of the Jal Board. And at the Jal Board, its CEO, Debashree Mukherjee told us that they do have a department that facilitates water harvesting but the Jal Board is mandated to enforce the law. The buck is passed with dizzying speed.
Dhiraj Ahuja, the 'tubewell man' is keen we end our story on a positive note. He says his company no longer digs tubewells but now works on creating rainwater harvesting systems He uses the same old tubewell pipes to now take water from the roof deep into the ground. Ahuja's company has been hired by the Ministry of Environment to carry out a Canadian grant to install rainwater harvesting systems in some schools and institutions. Ahuja takes us to some of these sites and says with deep satisfaction that he is 'returning to the ground, what he took from it. 'I am glad' he says, 'to move from destruction to creation'. 
If only the city could move in the same direction.


Story first published:July 27, 2012 12:30 IST

Original Article: http://www.ndtv.com/article/view/india/248213?device=mobile