Water for Life Voices

Voices from the field: case studies

Leo Saldanha
ESG, Bangalore, India

“We had a wonderful system of lakes for centuries. For the last 50 or 60 years we forgot to maintain them. It reached a stage where the lakes might be privatized; they would have put floating hotels on them.

If we could have urbanization with an organic spin the environment could take care of itself. But the elite-promoted urbanization was negative. The higher up in society people were, the less they saw what was happening on the ground, they were removed from it.

What we needed was to develop without compromising life and health. It was easy to talk with the poor about protecting the lakes – they rely on the commons for the livelihoods and they value them like something sacred. But the middle class lives in gated communities and is used to switching on a tap and finding water, to fixing problems by spending money. They lived in a bubble removed from the reality of what would be lost if the lakes were privatized. They needed to learn what they would be losing.

Despite everything that has happened [with the new legislation] groundwater degradation is far from halted because of the pace of city growth. Growth is preposterous, the sky is the limit. The government needed a leap of imagination to see the value in not just protecting the water sources, but keeping the land as commons.

Protecting the lakes by planting trees not barbed wire, so they’re not just freshwater reservoirs but wetlands, green havens. Now it is law that all lakes must be surveyed and protected with money allocated from the annual budget. Now the government can see how we can create communities invested in rehabilitating the lakes, which brings jobs as well as fresh water, and as a result better health. Now other states are watching us and learning, so these laws are influencing change not just here but Kolkata, Hyderabad.

People have access to the lakes again. They have a hope of some control. It’s significant that the right to access water bodies has been upheld and protected. There is a role for the private sector but it is one of responsibility, not profits. The profits need to flow back in a healthy society. We wanted them to join our efforts, to stop polluting and help clean up.

The government now shuts down unsustainable wells. Rain is captured much better, which means less reliance on groundwater sources, which means we don’t need to drill so deep to create wells. The deeper you drill the more contaminated the water becomes, so this has improved health because farmers can use fresh water to grow crops and water cattle. In addition to this, farmers have become more sensitive to groundwater issues and there is a conservation mindset among the people.

Five years ago people were very cynical, they thought protecting the lakes was a lost cause. Thanks to our protests, and the media, which has been hugely supportive, and our successful legal challenge, they can see the results. Now neighbourhoods are fighting to protect their own water sources.

The court ruling supports a District Lake Protection Committee, overseen by the judiciary. Anyone can approach this body with a plan to protect a lake or a complaint about pollution or encroachment. This regulation system has empowered people. It is a people centred protection body and we have to make it work. Today keeping our lakes clean has become a huge issue state-wide and the courts have been very supportive.”

The initiative ‘Protection of Bangalore Lakes for Posterity’ was awarded with the Category 1 'Best water management practices' Water for Life UN-Water Best Practices Award in 2012.

>> More information about the initiative ‘Protection of Bangalore Lakes for Posterity’

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