Mumbai To Chennai – Cry to save water bodies

On June 19, 2019, dubbed “Day Zero,” Chennai’s 11.2 million residents were left without drinking water, says WWF’s Living Planet 2024 Report: A System at Risk. The report highlights Chennai’s water crisis caused by the loss of 85% of the area’s wetlands due to rapid urbanization. As a result, the vital services these ecosystems provide – including water retention, groundwater recharge and flood regulation – have been radically diminished, leaving Chennai residents vulnerable to both droughts and floods exacerbated by climate change.

When a severe drought hit the region, it caused the city’s major reservoirs to dry up and groundwater levels to drop in 2019. Without wetlands to retain and recharge water supplies, the city of 11.2 million people was left vulnerable and was forced to carry water to meet basic needs such as drinking, cooking and bathing.

Ironically, the loss of the region’s wetland ecosystems also exposed its residents to flooding due to extreme rainfall in 2015 and 2023. Although the amount of rainfall in 2015 was excessive, it was not unprecedented: damage to the city was compounded by the destruction of species-rich wetlands and natural drainage systems that used to protect people from the worst effects of both drought and flooding.

Lack of proper drainage systems in Mumbai and Chennai

Recognizing their importance to the people of Chennai, the government is now restoring the wetlands and the services they provide. This is certainly a glimmer of hope, but city flooding is still a recurring problem as wetlands, urban water-absorbing sponges, have diminished and cannot be restored amid concrete jungles. Improved drainage and retention ponds, as planned in Mumbai, could provide the answer.

But my question is what has stopped the so-called urban planners in Chennai or Mumbai, or any major city, from designing a proper storm water drainage system? These are all highly qualified officers and it is hard to believe that they have no knowledge of El-Nino and climate change. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have planned our cities the way they did without learning any lessons from the past.

We cried out against the burial of wetlands in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), even as the powers that be are terribly neglecting the water bodies. Today, we can be lucky to have an uninterrupted supply of drinking water in South Mumbai and parts of Navi Mumbai. But the way MMR is exploding with concrete jungles, we fail to understand where we will get our water from in the future!

Fellow activist Jyoti Nadkarni from Kharghar in Navi Mumbai says her housing society had to get tanker water for the 40^th time during the current monsoon (yes, despite the monsoon!). And this node will see several buildings of over 50 storeys – 18 by a single developer. Where is the water, she asks angrily.

Destruction of wetlands in Andhra Pradesh

In another geography, Andhra Pradesh, we found amazing attempts to destroy the vast Kolleru wetland that we visited recently. Although Kolleru is India’s largest freshwater lake, a Ramsar site of international importance, it is shocking to see the wetland being attacked with a large-scale, uncontrolled incursion.

Located between the deltas of the Krishna and Godavari rivers. The Kolleru serves as a natural food balancing reservoir between the two rivers. The lake is directly fed by the seasonal rivers Budameru and Tammileru and is connected to the Krishna and Godavari systems through 67 drains and canals. It is a major fish reservoir with an average production of 7,000 tons per year, the state tourism website says.

However, the islands and villages around Kolleru remain poor and many government schemes have not found their way into the area.

The Google Earth map shows a shocking picture of the wetland with a series of lumps blocking the free flow of water. These dams are apparently built for fish ponds. Media reports suggest that on the orders of the Supreme Court, the state government launched Operation Kolleru to clear the encroachments as islands in the wetland reeled from floods. It’s probably time for Operation Kolleru-2.

Save the Kolleru Wetland

Kolleru also has tremendous potential to become a major tourist destination if proper infrastructure is developed. This may be the Bharatpur of the South. We found the narrow access road to the busy Kolleti Kota pilgrimage center badly damaged. Obviously, Pradhan Mantri Grameen Sadak Yojana is unheard of in the area.

The road is dotted with billboards and arches of politicians wishing people a happy Dussehra, but the journey is far from a happy one. For a wetland of global importance, the infrastructure surrounding the destination of several migratory and local bird species raises many questions.

We have written to the Union Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MOEFCC), which in turn has asked the AP wetlands division to look into the matter. I sincerely hope they will as the state government is headed by a progressive CM, Nara Chandra Babu Naidu.

Wetlands are a vast topic and discussions will have to continue until we secure the water bodies. Isn’t it a cruel dichotomy that while we search for water on the Moon and Mars, we continue to destroy the essential elements that sustain life on Earth?

(The author is a media veteran, environmentalist and director of the NatConnect Foundation)