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Author(s): Ritu Rao

With climate change, the need to conserve India’s urban water bodies has become even more urgent

Source(s): Scroll.in
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Conserving non-degraded water bodies, rejuvenating degraded water bodies and managing them in a sustainable manner can help build climate change resilience in cities.

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Unlike earlier times, the value of water bodies as a social and economic need has diminished as people are no longer dependent on co-located water bodies. Tangible change in the state of water bodies in cities is only possible when the people and the government realise the value of their myriad ecosystem services. Any number of remedial measures without this realisation will always fall short and the state of water bodies in cities will remain grim.

This is what has happened with Najafgarh jheel, a transboundary lake lying in Delhi and Gurugram, the second-largest water body in the region after Yamuna. Once measuring 220 sq kms, it has now shrunk to mere seven sq kms due to anthropogenic pressures.

Delhi and Gurugram suffer from urban heat island effects, water scarcity in summers and flooding during monsoons, which is expected to intensify with climate change. Conserving and rejuvenating this waterbody can alleviate these challenges in both cities.

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Hazards Flood Heatwave
Themes Climate change Urban risk and planning Water
Country and region India

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