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Sumedha Sharma
With the summer approaching and temperatures already rising, Gurugram city is fretting over what has now become a perennial feature: water woes. The millennium city that epitomises world-class infrastructure on various parameters continues to struggle with poor water infrastructure for the last four decades. A city once lush with hundreds of water sources, lakes and recharge zones has been dubbed as a ‘dark zone’ by the Central Ground Water Authority (CGWA).
The NITI Aayog in its recently released Composite Water Management Index predicted that by 2020 Gurugram along with 20 other cities would be left with no groundwater. The city with an alarming decline of 82 per cent in its groundwater table in the last decade and loss of 389 water bodies in the last 60 years, all thanks to a mindless realty boom, faces the danger of an ‘aquacalypse’.
There was a time when Gurugram nestled in the lap of Arravalli hills was home to seasonal lakes, creeks and ponds. The city housed one of the best water management systems of the country: The British had built 118 check dams around natural lakes. It served the area well, until 1950s when private builders set foot here and an age of aqua doom started.
389 water bodies lost in last 60 years
The grim situation forced everybody who mattered to sit and reflect deeply on the looming danger. The report of a special study of the Gurugram administration submitted to the National Green Tribunal (NGT) has highlighted how the city lost as many as 389 water bodies ranging from the size of a few hundred yards to hundreds of acres in the last 60 years.
According to the study, there were 640 water bodies as per the revenue records of 1956 while, according to the latest revenue records, only 251 water bodies exist.
In the past, these water bodies were part of a regular water supply and irrigation system. With over 100 nullahs or drains, the city had a unique natural drainage system. The four major water bodies — Ghata (50 ft deep) Nathupur (30 ft deep), Chakkarpur (12 ft deep) and Jharsa (10 ft deep) — used to store rainwater and recharge groundwater, thereby preventing water-logging. The surplus would flow downstream, from these big water bodies to many smaller ones, through nullahs.
British built check dams
The British had built 118 check dams around these water bodies to control flooding during the monsoons and recharge groundwater. All was well till 1950s when private builders first arrived in Gurugram and the age of doom was launched. The city started losing not just the catchment areas but also water body beds, which remained dry during the summer months, to the greed of the land mafia. While natural lakes such as Ghata disappeared making the way for posh condominiums, and the storm water drains were covered with constructions, the city’s natural drainage and recharge system collapsed. And soon a city that had never reported floods till 1998 faced the worst flash floods and chaos called ‘Gurujam’ in 2016.
Badshahpur drain victim of urban development
The Badshahpur nullah is Gurugram city’s arterial storm water drain, which has been encroached upon in recent years due to urban sprawl, reducing its carrying capacity and compromising the ability of the city to absorb rainfall. Backflow from the drain has been identified as a major cause of water-logging during the monsoons.
Following ‘Gurujam’ of 2016, the Municipal Corporation Gurugram (MCG) and environmentalists identified this particular stretch of the Badshahpur nullah, which runs through densely populated Khandsa village for 600 metres, as the primary cause of the floods. Just 10-metre wide, the drain here is the narrowest in its 28-km trajectory through Gurugram. It is about 30-metre wide in other areas. The carrying capacity of the drain reduces here from 2,200 cusecs to just 700 cusecs due to its narrowness. The National Highway No. 48 and the Hero Honda Chowk remain heavily waterlogged during the monsoons as rainwater flows back to the chowk and has to be pumped out to the other side of the highway. In 2016, The Haryana Government had decided to widen the drain to avoid another deluge-like situation. The Haryana Shahari Vikas Pradhikaran (HSVP) is already on the job to remove encroachments and go ahead with widening the drain.
Recreational hub planned
The Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) plans to spend an estimated Rs 4 crore on concretising the drain and boxing it using reinforced cement concrete (RCC) pipes by July 2019. The MCG too plans a multipurpose recreational hub on the public-private partnership (PPP) mode. It will be a leisure and entertainment space approximately 5-km long and 70-metre wide along the Badshahpur drain.
Sikanderpur drain encroached upon
The Sikanderpur drain originates in the Aravalli range near the G-block of DLF phase-I, passes through the village from under the rapid Metro and the DMRC Metro and ends near the Q block in DLF phase-2. Twenty acres of total 40 acres of the drain land, scattered across four khasras of 352, 372, 473 and 482, have been encroached upon (almost 50 per cent of the total land). While the local administration and the civic authorities are toiling to remove squatters, the GMDA has an ambitious plan to revive and restore the lost lake after freeing its watershed area from encroachments. Still working on the plan, the GMDA faces major challenges not only in the form of squatters, but also getting enough water to fill it, and maintaining its water level throughout the year.
Parking lots made on Nathupur drain
Rainwater from the Golf Course Road and Sectors 27, 28, 43, 45 and 46 used to flow into the 10-km Nathupur drain. However, ironically most of the catchment area and the drain bed have been converted into parking lots for posh condominiums and multinationals in DLF Phase-3 and buzzing commercial areas of DLF Cyber City. Though facing as much risk as the Badshahpur drain, it is yet to climb up the priority chart of revivalists, as its disappearance has gifted the city its very own IT hub. The NGT has instructed the GMDA to remove encroachments around the drain.
Sewage flowing into drains
At least 80 million litres of untreated sewage flows directly into the storm water drains in Gurugram city every day. This startling fact was brought to the fore following an internal study by GMDA engineers late last year. The team of engineers has, so far, identified 50 spots in Sikanderpur, Palam Vihar, New Palam Vihar, Udyog Vihar, Sukhrali, Atul Katariya Chowk, Dharapur, Sarai Alawardi, and Bhimgarh Kheri are some of the areas where untreated sewage is being dumped into storm water drains.
Groundwater table depleting drastically
At present, groundwater extraction in the city is at 308 per cent, far outstripping neighbouring Faridabad (75 per cent), Palwal (80 per cent) and Mewat (85 per cent). Though the local administration has succeeded in dealing with illegal boring, considering ever increasing demand of water even it has been rendered helpless. One of the major factors that has led to the depletion of groundwater table is a lack of optimum recharge even after good monsoons, as most of our natural water bodies and recharge zones have been lost to mindless concretisation.
Toxic chamber
As various national and international pollution studies have dubbed the National Capital Region (NCR) as a living toxic chamber, the MCG has come up with a unique idea of ringing the alarm bells. The civic body collects plastic waste from across the city and has erected a toxic chamber to make people ‘feel the waste’. The toxic chamber is a functional space that allows people to experience, observe, feel and visualise the earth’s future as a consequence of tonnes of plastic waste generated mindlessly. It was erected as part of the recently concluded Maha Swacchta Marathon (168-hour cleanliness drive) that made to the Asia Book of Records and the India Book of Records.
Revival and habitat eco-restoration project
The GMDA has launched a projcet to revive the Sikanderpur Ghosi water body.
Sikanderpur Ghosi village in Gurugram district is located on the border adjoining the NCT Delhi on the southern side of the Gurugram-Mehrauli road. It is now completely urbanised and comes under the MCG jurisdiction. The topography of the area is typical of the Aravalli ranges underlying hard rocks, wherein a deep gorge passes through the middle. The gorge is nestled between the Nathupur bundh in the north and the Chakkarpur-Wazirabad bundh towards the south.
The Survey of India Map (1976) depicts three major streams flowing from Aravalli hills in the east down towards the western direction. The geography of the area indicates that the gorge was continuous with the water channel that used to carry the runoff from Aravalli hills to the Najafgarh lake. A large pond in the ‘Bhur’ foothills naturally formed at the convergence point of the three streams constitutes an important water body in the area.
A remnant of the water body still exists despite complete urbanisation of the surroundings, severe degradation of the Aravalli watershed and major hydrological re-engineering works due to the network of roads that have come up.
Remedial plans
Water bodies lost
Attempt to revive lost water bodies mere eyewash
The authorities have in a planned manner wiped out the water bodies of Gurugram and what they are doing in the name of reviving them is mere eyewash. First, they give away land by changing its use, allow builders/ developers to do constructions on it, concretise it themselves (in violation of the NGT orders of 2016) and then try to create artificial water bodies in an already overexploited Gurugram. The Ghata lake and the Kost and Badshahpur nullahs are the classic examples of that. The GMDA has now proposed the creation of a new storm water drain as an alternative to the encroached upon Badshahpur drain, by bifurcating it, where as the focus should be on the revival of the original drain by clearing it and its floodplains of encroachments and concret. They have conceritised and boxed in 19 km of the drain in spite of the NGT orders. Where does their scientific approach disappear then? Most probably it is clouded by their hidden agendas. Similarly, the authorities have again plotted 350 acres of the Ghata lake into Sectors 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, and 64. — Vaishali Rana Chandra, environmentalist
Water infrastructure revival efforts
A lot has been lost but still a lot can be saved. We are undertaking a study to ascertain the number of the existing water bodies and their condition to assess their revival chances and take requisite steps. Gurugram in the past has been a site of a commendable water management network and we wish to revive the lost creeks and the lost glory as well. The entire civil society needs to be part of the initiative. We are not just required to revive the water infrastructure but also to maintain it. From recycling the waste generally dumped into them to reviving the lost ingenious flora and fauna, we need to take conservation at not just a single authority level but also at the community and city levels to gain what we have lost. — MD Sinha, Additional CEO, GMDA
Missing natural water channels
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