Spandrel Sample Research Article

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SPANDREL, ISSUE 2, SPRING 2011

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Urban Water-Bodies andWetlands: Management Needsand Challenges inIndian Cities*

Krishna Ghosh,Suchandra Bardhan,Souvanic Roy

Abstract

National Water Mission under National Action Plan on Climate Change has

recognized the imminent water stress conditions in the country due to climatechange. Asian countries like India is in the process of rapid progress and

urbanization, though the ideal urban growth model suitable in facing the

climate change crisis is yet to be found. It is already clear that the past and

current pattern of natural resource management in cities has failed to address

the environmental concerns and cities play a major role in wasteful

consumption of natural resources especially water resources. IPCC fourth

assessment report identified urban areas (WGII) as hot spots in terms of

vulnerability to climate change. Also, India's Urban Development Ministry has

taken up rating system of Indian cities according to 19 sanitation parameters

including sewage, waste and water management. This paper discusses the role

and significance of urban water-bodies and wetlands from public health,

sanitation and climate change adaptation-cum-mitigation viewpoints and

attempts to identify the causes contributing to their present state of abuse

considering technological, anthropogenic and institutional parameters. It also

investigates successful case-studies to understand the current facilitators of

and barriers to their social acceptability. This paper further argues that

strategies like replication etc. for water resources management are not only

important for future urban growth but also to retrofit existing cities to improve

their performance in terms of environmental health and sanitation.

Keywords

Water resources, wetlands, health and sanitation, Carbon sequestration,

Adaptation and Mitigation in cities

*Paper received from Healthy Cities Conference 2011.

Ms. Krishna Ghosh

Krishna Ghosh is working as Lecturer and

Head of the Department of Architecture at

Women's Polytechnic Kolkata. She graduated

in Architecture from Bengal Engineering

College, Shibpur, Howrah and completed her

post graduation in Regional Planning from

I.I.T Kharagpur. She has been involved in

architectural practice in Kolkata. Currently

her area of interest includes urban water

resource management.

Suchandra Bardhan

Suchandra Bardhan is a Landscape Architect

with a doctoral degree in Engineering. She is

currently serving as a faculty member at the

Department of Architecture, Jadavpur

University. She has active interest in research

on Building & Environment and has received

many honours throughout her career. A

member of prominent professional institutes

as well as learned societies, she also serves

on two Editorial Boards.

Dr. Souvanic Roy

Dr. Souvanic Roy is a Professor in the

Department of Architecture, Town and

Regional Planning and Founder-Director of

the School of Ecology, Infrastructure and

Human Settlement Management in Bengal

Engineering and Science University, Shibpur,

West Bengal. He is engaged in teaching,

action research, consultancy and advocacy in

the areas of Urban and Regional Planning,

Environmental Planning and application of

alternative technology in Architecture. Prof.

Roy has also published several articles in

books, international and national referred

journals.


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Year Type Population(lakhs)

Water Demand(Treated)

MGD

As per DJB

@60 GPCD

As per DDA

@80 GPCD 2001 Census 137.8 828 1104 2006 Anticipated 165.0 990 1320 2011

Projected 190.0 1140 1520

2021

Projected 230.0 1380 1840

Introduction

Urban water-bodies and wetlands (UWW), either

natural or man-made had always been the lifeline of

Indian cities since ancient times as they sustained life

and activities be it drinking, agriculture or industry. It is

estimated that by 2025 more than 50% of the country's

population will live in cities and towns. Rapid

urbanization, population increase, rising incomes and

industrial growth are resulting in stress and depletion of

available and finite water resources. Decline in per capita

water availability and deteriorating water quality due to

pollution and contamination are emerging as major

threats. This calls for efficient management

interventions of urban water resources as their very

existence is being challenged due to effects of rapid

urbanization and burgeoning population along with the

impending threat of climate change. This paper

discusses the unique case study of 'The East Kolkata

Wetlands', that has been internationally acclaimed as amodel of wise use of wetlands for its symbiotic role

with the city in terms of environmental benefits and

sanitation in the backdrop of a generic overview of UWW

of other cities. Identification of the challenges

threatening its existence along with possible remedial

measures has been attempted in this paper.

Predicted Water Demand for Major Indian

Cities

The overall objective of the National Water Mission is

conservation of water, minimizing wastage and

ensuring its more equitable distribution both across and

within States through integrated water resources

development and management, very relevant for the

management of UWW in Indian cities. The UN

Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rightsth

meeting on 26 November 2002 declared that access to

water is a human right and that water is a public

commodity fundamental to life. But a World Bank Report

predicts that acute water shortage will affect half of the

world's population by 2030 and all the major Indian cities

may run dry [1].

TABLE I

ESTIMATION OF WATER DEMAND

AS PER DDA AND DJB NORMS [2]

The future demand of water for Delhi and Chennai are

indicated in Table1 and Fig.1. The population in Mumbai

Fig. 1: Demand and supply status of Chennai

Source:http://www.rainwaterharvesting.org/crisis/Urban

water-scenario.htm [3]

is expected to rise to 1.65 crore by 2021. Consequently

the water demand is also expected to shoot up to

5400MLD [4].

A study commissioned by Kolkata Environment

Improvement Project (KEIP) predicts a drop in the

demand supply ratio from 101:125 to 100:75 by 2025 in

Kolkata.

The above predictions regarding water scarcity in the

future in all the metropolitan cities of India appears to be

alarming and this needs serious attention in designing

urban development strategies especially for large andmetropolitan cities.

Relevance of UWW

A. Functions and Attributes

UWW are life supporting ecosystems in terms of

environment and socio-economic context. Maintenance

of hydrological balance as source of water, through

storage and regulation of water table, their role as 'flood-

cushions,' water purification, nutrient retention,

maintaining climatic stability both at micro and macro

levels, their role as carbon 'sinks' and in carbon

sequestration are the plethora of functions theyperform. They harbor a rich biological diversity and are

the sources of many genetic materials used in research

and product development. In many cases they act as

sources of livelihood for a large section of city

population. Besides, a rich cultural heritage has always

been associated with these wetlands.

B. Climate Change

Sharma and Tomar [5] have enumerated how vulnerable

Urban Water-Bodies and Wetlands: Management Needs and Challenges in Indian Cities


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Indian cities are to the effects of climate change. Climate

change will lead to temperature rise leading to alteration

in the global monsoon system thereby affecting

precipitation. A mean sea level rise of 0.8m over the

century is expected. Extreme events like storms,

cyclones drought and floods would lead to huge loss in

infrastructure, livelihood and population and migrationfrom rural to urban areas. Coastal metropolitan cities like

Mumbai, Chennai etc. are likely to be the most affected.

Wetlands contain 14% of the terrestrial biosphere

carbon pool and they have the largest soil carbon stock in

the world. According to Kusler [6], climate change will

likely affect the potentiality of wetlands to sequester

carbon. Increased CO in the atmosphere will result in2increased plant growth in most wetlands thereby

resulting in increased carbon sequestration. Increased

rainfall would result in sediment deposition in some

wetlands. Increased temperature will lead to decrease in

ground and surface water levels of wetlands which mayresult in decomposition and decrease in sequestration.

Status of Water Bodies and Wetlands in Major

Indian Cities

Irrespective of the innumerable functions served by

these ecosystems, their very existence is critically

endangered in the Indian cities. It has been reported that

due to rapid urbanization and industrialization, most of

the 3000 water bodies, in and around Chennai are fast

disappearing In the 1960's, the city of Bangalore had 262

lakes but now only 10 hold water . An NGO had identified

794 water bodies in the city of New Delhi while the

authorities could identify only 623 in 2005. In 2006, DDA

claimed that 37 water bodies which were lost due to

encroachment were never in existence while 39 others

were beyond recovery. The East Kolkata Wetlands are

also vanishing at the rate of 1% per year and are being

severely threatened by human encroachment and

contamination.

Again the decline in the quality and quantity of available

water resources is a direct consequence of poor

sanitation. Only 29% of the wastewater emanating from

423 Class 1 cities is treated [7]. The remaining untreated

waste water finally finds its way to the groundwater,

UWW causing serious water pollution. India's Ministry of

Urban Development commissioned a survey for ranking

of 'healthy and clean' cities. 19 sanitation indicators

were used to rank large cities with more than 100,000

populations. The results of the study on Indian cities

were found to be very discouraging.

Management Needs and Challenges

The challenges encountered by the UWW are primarily:

hydrological alterations, increased sedimentation,

atmospheric deposition of pollutants and alterations in

wetland biodiversity characteristics. It is observed that

various development activities in and around the urban

areas, draining and conversion of the wetlands,

hydrologic manipulations, siltation, lack of awareness of

the local people, complex ownership of wetlands are the

primary causes for the problems mentioned above. It is

likely that the stresses encountered by the UWW may be

further aggravated by the effects of climate change and

hence there is an emergent need for sustainable urban

wetland management practices to be implementedwithin a city or its vicinity.

Fig. 2 : Location of East Kolkata Wetlands, Source: Google Earth



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The concept of wise use of wetlands as a strategy in

response to management needs has gained ground in

many Asian countries. In Asia, UWW are being utilized

for many environmental services including waste-

water/storm water treatment in Phnom Penh,

Cambodia, many communities in Australia, Luang Marsh

in Laos PDR, Ho Chi Min City in Vietnam, China, as well asthe Indian Kolkata Wetlands [8].

Fig. 3: Waste Recycling Region for Kolkata City, Source: CMWSA 1996 [9]

Fig. 4: Waste Water Recycling System in the East Kolkata Wetlands. Source: Roy, 2000 [10]

The East Kolkata Wetlands as a Model

The East Kolkata Wetlands (EKW), located between

2225' to 2240' latitude north and 8820' to 8835'

longitude east designated as a wetland of international

importance under the Ramsar Convention on August

19, 2002, are a complex of natural and human-made

wetlands adjacent to the eastern part of Kolkata (Fig.2).



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This Waste Recycling Region as shown in Fig.3 is the

world's largest and unique wastewater fed aquaculture

system and has attracted much international attention

as a model system for the re-use of urban wastewater

and resource recovery (Fig.4 ) and the treatment of

municipal sewage and wastewater at practically no cost.

A. Land Uses

The area of land under different uses in the EKW is shown

in Table II and Fig.5 respectively.

TABLE II

LAND USE (AREA) [11]

Land Use Area (Acres) Percentage

Water 14460 (9600 for fish

farming)

46% (31%)

Agriculture 12256 39%

Rural Settlement 3051 9%

Urban Settlement 224 1%

Productive

Farming

1490 5%

Total Area 31000

B. Functions

The Kolkata Municipal Corporation area generates

approximately 600 million liters of sewage and waste

water everyday which is led to the fisheries of the EKW

where within a few days' detention, bio-degradation of

the organic compounds of the sewage and waste water

takes place. Networks of channels are used to supply

untreated sewage and to drain out the effluent. The

cumulative efficiency in reducing the B.O.D of the

Fig. 5 : Land Use of EKW (2002), Source: Online Available:

http://cgi.unc.edu/research/pdf/Taylor.pdf [11]

sewage wastewater is above 80% and that in reducing

coli form bacteria is 99.99% on an average. The solar

radiation here is about 250 Langley per day sufficient for

photosynthesis [12]. The EKW consists of 351 fish farms

in addition to many small homestead ponds utilized for

pisciculture producing about 13,000 Metric Tones per

annum.

The EKW receives about 2500 Metric Tones of garbage.

Approximately 150 Metric Tones of vegetables are

supplied from the garbage filled areas everyday. The

effluent waters of the fisheries are used for irrigation in

the paddy fields and thus produce about 15,000 Metric

Tones of paddy per annum. It supports the livelihood of

60,000 residents [11].

During the monsoons, the EKW acts as storage reservoirs

and plays an important role in flood mitigation It acts as

carbon-sink and are known to produce and hold-1

approximately 10ml oxygen l [10] Besides it has a rich

biodiversity of plant species (108), mammals (20), birds(40) and fishes (52) [11].

C. Management Needs and Challenges

1) At Local Area/Ecosystem level: Being located on the

boundary of an expanding metropolis, EKW faces

constant threats from infrastructure development and

growth of real estate around it despite being officially

protected by legislation. There is a lack of a rational, need

based, equitable sewage distribution system and sewage

water due to siltation and bed-level rise of the fish ponds

which has led to reduction in fish production. Conflicts

over tenurial rights (owner-worker conflict), toxic

contamination by numerous tannery operations and

decreasing bio-diversity (reduction of 84% in bird species

diversity [8]) are also problems in this ecosystem.

The above problems in the EKW calls for efficient Land

Management, Water Quality and Water Level

Management, Vegetation and Landscape Management,

Aquatic Species Management, Organizational

Development and Management Strategies for

Protection and Enhancing Carbon Sequestering

Capabilities. This requires creating baseline inventory of

the area of EKW and its surroundings, close monitoring

of the changes in the land use and infrastructure in the

region from remote sensing data coupled with fieldobservation, monitoring of water and soil quality,

chemical analysis of the vegetables and fish produced in

the area, assessing constantly the emerging threats to

the ecosystem, and initiating actions to address any

undesirable changes to the ecosystem.

Presently, any proposed development in the EKW has to

seek prior permission of the East Kolkata Wetland

Management Authority (EKWMA) as the overall



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management and monitoring responsibility lies within it.

Hence intense and effective co-ordination between the

EKWMA and the other responsible management

authorities namely, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation,

the Irrigation and Waterways Department, West Bengal

Pollution Control Board, the Department of Fisheries of

Government of West Bengal, Fisheries Co-operatives

and Associations is called for. Besides, active

participation of the Non-governmental organizations

and citizens are also required for efficient management

of the EKW.

Fig. 7: Eastward expansion of Kolkata Source: Roy, 2000 [10]

2) At the Metropolitan level: Due to the absence and

failure in implementation of an ecologically sensitive

perspective plan by the authorities, the urban sprawl is

continuing towards the east and the south of Kolkata

threatening the fragile ecosystem on the periphery of

the city. The growth of the city of Kolkata is illustrated in

Fig.6 andFig.7

Many existing as well as new growth centers have been

identified in the vicinity of EKW in Vision-2025, published

by Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority

Fig. 8 : Future Spatial Structure of KMA showing

hierarchy of Centers Vision 2025 [13]

Fig. 9: Future Spatial Structure of KMA showing Industrial Growth

Source: Centers, Source: Vision 2025 [13]


Fig. 6 : Urban sprawl, new settlements

and the fragile ecosystem,

Source: Roy 2000 [10]


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(KMDA) as shown in Fig.8 and Fig.9. But Vision 2025, if

implemented, the growth centers within KMA which are

expected to accommodate a huge population (21.068

million by 2025) and provide employment opportunities

(6236526 by 2025) [13], it is likely that the EKW may be

under severe stress once again.

The course of development of Kolkata clearly indicates

the lack of understanding about the inevitable link

between the supporting ecosystems and the pattern of

metropolitan development. Metropolitan planning had

been devoid of sufficient biophysical inputs. Since

development of the metropolis does not mean

expansion of urban limit ignoring the ecology, hence

wetland management should be considered as a critical

ecological imperative for any urban development

programme in the KMA.

3) Wetland Protection Laws: All wetlands in India are

indirectly protected by an array of laws namely Water

(Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act- 1974,Environmental (Protection) Act-1986 etc. The latest is

the Draft Wetlands (Conservation and Management)

Rules, 2008 (WCMR) drafted by the Ministry of

Environment and Forests (nodal agency for the Ramsar

Convention) and is a part of a legally enforceable

regulatory mechanism for the identified wetlands.

However, The East Kolkata Wetlands (Conservation and

Management) Act, 2006 is primarily applicable in case of

any dispute arising in the EKW. It was enacted by the

Government of West Bengal and came into force in

November16th, 2005 following the declaration of the

EKW as a Ramsar site. Subsequent to this the East KolkataWetlands Management Authority was formed.

In spite of a plethora of laws for urban wetland

protection, their existence and proper functioning are

always threatened. Here, it is not the lack of legislation

but it is the weak implementation of rules, standards and

procedures. . For example discharge of effluents by

tanneries is a glaring example of lack of enforcement.

Violation of rules can only be identified by proper

surveillance and monitoring procedures which require

immediate attention by the authority. Another major

issue is the lack of access to environmental information

on EKW resulting in inadequate public awareness about

the ecosystem. Absence of political will for supporting

the objectives of preservation of EKW and proper

enforcement of the legislation is a major impediment.

D. Future Strategies

The following strategies that may be included in the

metropolitan planning process for the sustainability of

the EKW and other wetlands too are: replication of the

successful model of EKW through appropriate scale

adaptation in different urban projects within and at the

edge of old and new growth centers through Integrated

Wetland System [9], popularizing emerging sanitation

concepts (already introduced in Maharashtra, Gujarat

etc.) like ECOSAN, a waterless, dehydration/

evaporation system providing a safe non-polluting and

cost-effective solution to the sanitation problem,encouraging community-based wetland management

following the success story of a Mudialy Fisherman's Co-

operative Society (MFCS) at an urban wetland in Kolkata,

and initiating carbon sequestration studies for assessing

the potentiality of carbon sequestration of wetlands.

Conclusions

All UWW should be considered as extremely important

water management infrastructure and hence they

should be embedded in the early planning process and

policies of cities. This will be possible only when

ecological planning becomes a tool for metropolitan

planning. Hence inclusion of wetland management

strategies, their implementation at local and

metropolitan level as well as enforcement of legislation

should be recognized as crucial for sustainability of

wetlands and be integrated with the policy making

process. However, it is imperative that exploration and

implementation of all future strategies mentioned

earlier be carried out with the active participation of

stakeholders at all levels for proper management of

these threatened wetlands.

Acknowledgement

We wish to acknowledge All India Council of TechnicalEducation and the officials of the Institute of Wetland

Management and Ecological Design, Kolkata for their

support in completing this paper.

References

[1] 2010 Water Shortage: Grim Future for Indian Cities [Online]

A v a i l a b l e : h t t p : / / b u s i n e s s . r e d i f f . c o m / s l i d e -

show/2010/jun/04/slide-show-1-world-environment-day-2010-

water-shortage-grim-future-for-indian-cities.htm

[2] Dept. of Urban Development, Govt. of Delhi, City

Development Plan Delhi, JnNURM, Report, Ch8, p6, 2006.

[3] T h e U r b a n Wa t e r S ce n a r i o [O n l i n e ] Av a i l ab l e :

http://www.rainwaterharvesting.org/crisis/Urbanwater-scenario.htm

[4] C. Lewis, Conserving Water one Building at a time, The Times of

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Indian Conference on Research for Sustainability, United Nations

University, Bonn, 2009, p135-140

[6] J. Kusler , Climate Change in Wetland Areas Part 11: Carbon Cycle

Implications, Acclimations, Newsletter of the US national

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8 Urban Water-Bodies and Wetlands: Management Needs and Challenges in Indian Cities


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and Change, July-August 1999

[7] Dayanand B. Panse, Ecological Sanitation A need of today!

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[8] R.C Smardon, Sustaining the World's Wetlands: Setting Policy and

Resolving Conflicts, Springer Science + Business Media LLC, 2009

[9] Calcutta Metropolitan Water Supply Sanitation Authority(CMWSA), Sustaining Calcutta, Present Status Report of the

Urban People's Environment, Rep. 141-150, 1996

[10] S. Roy, Ecological Sustainability and Metropolitan Development-

the Calcutta Experience, in Proc. of Waste Recycling and

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[11] K.Taylor. (2008) Planning to Preserve the East Kolkata Wetlands

Planning and Management Recommendations 2008. [Online]

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[12] N. Kundu, M. Pal, and S. Saha, East Kolkata Wetlands: A Resource

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2007, the 12th World Lake Conference, 2007, p 868-881.

[13] Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA), Vision-

2025, Rep. Ch II 11, 15, 18-22, 2005


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