Published: August 29, 2013 00:00 IST | Updated: August 29, 2013 05:32 IST
Declare water bodies in urban areas as assets, says Ministry
Smriti Kak Ramachandran
Urges States to take urgent steps to identify, restore and preserve them
The Hauz Khas Lake is an ‘asset’ for South Delhi residents.Photo: Rajeev Bhatt
The Union Urban Development Ministry has advised States to identify lakes and ponds in urban areas and notify
them in municipal land records as “assets”. The suggestion comes in the wake of the alarming rate of disappearance
of lakes and water bodies from the urban areas and the increasing threat of an impending water crisis.
The Ministry has urged all States to take urgent steps to identify, restore and preserve the water bodies, offering a
slew of suggestions to do so. In a compilation on the conservation and restoration of water bodies in urban areas, the Ministry has asked the States to expand the definition of water bodies to include stormwater drains, baolis (step
wells), trenches around old forts as well as water storages constructed in and around religious structures.
“The shoreline of the water bodies should be properly fenced to protect it from encroachment. A well-planned
awareness campaign should be conducted in the localities to highlight the benefits to be gained from them,” the Ministry has put forth. To remove encroachments, it has suggested consultation with the affected people.
Confronting the issue of land encroachment that often leads to disrupting the flow of recharge water to the water
bodies, the Ministry has suggested a comprehensive review of the catchment areas and regular maintenance work. To
prevent the recurrence of instances where water bodies were choked by turning them into dumping grounds for waste
and debris as was seen in cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Haryana and Hyderabad among others, the Ministry wants the
land around the lake and at a certain distance from the shore-perimeters to be declared as eco-sensitive areas.
It has also instructed the urban local bodies to monitor the water quality of these lakes and other water bodies and set
up State-level advisory committee to suggest appropriate steps for conservation and protection.
“The urban water bodies should be designated as a separate land use classification that is legally tenable. It should be
done in parallel with the protected areas as defined under the Environment Protection Act and the Forest Protection
Act to prevent their encroachment and destruction,” the Ministry has put forth.
It has also suggested a comprehensive water front development, preferably at vacant government land to create an
aquatic body that conforms to the social and cultural sanctity of the area.
States have been asked to seek alternative source of funds for lakes and have been asked to tweak the existing publicprivate partnership models to ensure greater transparency
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