Water: The essence of life

Mohan Rao, founder and principal of INDE (Integrated Design), a consultancy in the field of Environmental Design, Regional Planning and Landscape Architecture, based in Bengaluru, shares some valuable insights with MyLiveableCity about how issues related to water could be addressed adequately in the present scenario of ongoing urbanization.

Water is an essential part of life and, therefore, living in cities. What, according to you, are the most important issues related to water that need to be addressed in the ever- growing Indian cities?

Most Indian cities, with rare exceptions, are traditional settlements that have grown organically over hundreds, if not thousands, of years. Each of these cities was conceptualized and developed with an intricate relationship with the surrounding natural landscape. These relationships are specific to each province, responding to climate, geographical and other natural parameters. With the introduction of centralized planning, it is seen that physical planning frameworks almost never take into cognizance these carefully nurtured relationships with natural systems. One of the first victims in this scenario is water.

Total reliance on centralized piped networks automatically compromises, often permanently, existing natural capacities in our cities. 

This includes all-natural sources such as rivers, lakes and ground water. This is often exacerbated in Indian cities, given their historical growth pattern and contemporary demands on resources. Cities across India face fairly similar challenges with respect to water: access, quality, quantity and resilience. 

Central to the idea of water as the most essential life force is the recognition that water is much more than a commodity that can merely be trapped, piped and priced. As important as it is treating water as a basic right of every individual, it is equally, if not more important, to recognize the right of ecological systems to this the very same resource. From the urban/human perspective, access to safe water determines almost every aspect of a citizen’s life – from individual health to livelihood.

Because of its large size, India has cities in different climatic zones. How does that affect the problems related to water in our cities across our sub-continent?

Cities in India span a wide range of geo- climatic zones with distinct and varied rainfall patterns. A simple illustration is the contrast between river systems of the north, fed by snow melt and those in peninsular India, dependent exclusively on the monsoon. Rivers flowing across the northern part sustain a minimum ecological flow right through the year. They receive water even in the summer months from the melting snows of the Himalayas, augmented by the monsoons. Drought conditions are rarely seen in the northern region while floods are a recurrent and serious issue. In stark contrast is the southern region, whose river systems receive all their flow exclusively through the monsoon, making the region highly susceptible to droughts. When one considers the remarkable range and variety of all-natural systems – soils, topography, biodiversity – the complexity is quite daunting.

It is quite common to read in the news that while one part of the country is reeling under severe drought, only a few hundred kilometers away, others are experiencing severe flooding.

In such a complex milieu, human settlements across the country too have an immense variation in their structure and morphology. Challenges posed by access to resources and provision of services needs to recognize this diversity. Rather than attempt to standardize solutions, the need of the hour is better definition of the problem itself.

Water available for human consumption – for domestic, agricultural and industrial requirements – needs to be based on the natural capacity of the region, rather than creating benchmarks derived from often-alien contexts.

In light of such recognition of the immense complexity of water systems and the incredible diversity of the Indian subcontinent, it would be useful to ruminate on the current ideas of river linking in the country. There is enough evidence from across the globe that points to the failures and dangers of treating river systems as conveyors of water for exclusive human use. It would bode well to learn from the acknowledged blunders of others, as much as one would want to learn from standing on the shoulders of giants.

Tell us about some examples of successful water management or projects you’ve personally been involved with.

There are several excellent examples of integrated water management projects one can draw from in the Indian context. Documented examples dating back to the 12th-16th centuries can be seen across the sub-continent. Some of the most striking are the large-scale integration of surface and ground water systems seen in places like Hampi, Bidar, Chitradurga and Jodhpur. We have been fortunate to have worked on several of these heritage sites. Large-scale site interpretation of these sites has helped understand many of the traditional water management strategies across different geo-climatic regions.

These studies and documentation span the heritage areas and the regional landscape as well. It is important to bear in mind that while these studies and interventions are limited to heritage areas, the learning from historical settings is quite invaluable in deriving sustainable strategies for contemporary applications. Considering the fact that these examples are drawn from dense metropolitan settings of the historical period, they remain strongly relevant for current development challenges.

Some of the notable applications of such traditional knowledge systems in our practice can be seen in the proposed city extension for Surat, environmental design frameworks for large campuses in Rajasthan, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Haryana and Tamil Nadu, as well as watershed development projects in Madhya Pradesh.

Besides techniques and design issues, how can the behavior of our citizens lead to solving water issues cited by you?

This is an important and topical issue. And, as you rightly said, rather than discuss techniques and designs, I would say the most important differentiator would be our attitude to water.

The first step is to recognize water as an essential and precious resource, not merely as a municipal service. 

If we paid as much attention to water as we pay to mineral resources or fossil fuels, it would be a great start. Second is to recognize the highly integrated nature of water as a resource in all its dimensions. Such an approach would effectively address domestic usage, storm water and wastewater management, integration of productive landscapes waste management and so on. It is not enough to dispense and use water in a controlled fashion; it is absolutely critical that our urban development projects actually become water-centric right from their conception and in the manner in which our cities function.

Which other measures in future will be necessary to deal with the ever-increasing urban population in our cities?

A central issue with respect to water and urban areas is the lack of clarity in policy directives. There are many acts, laws and policies that address distribution and treatment of water for urban areas.

But there is an enormous gap in the policy to address water as a resource, especially with regard to water for urban areas. 

This is a critical gap that needs to be closed so as to effectively secure, develop, manage and nurture water sources. Forward-looking policies would recognize the criticality of climate change and its impacts in the sub-continent. This is essential to ensure the resilience of Indian settlements in the coming decades.

Other important measures to meet the urban water challenge in India are to treat all water-related services as an integrated process. Currently, fresh water supply, sewage, wastewater, storm water, etc., come under the ambit of various authorities. It would be far more rational, financially and ecologically, to bring these together under a single umbrella. This does not mean recasting the institutions but looking at the larger development vision.