THE जल (WATER) SIGNAL

Mumbai’s Ironic Water Submerged Day Zero - An exercise in speculating positive future urban scenarios

The way we build and reside has always been the crux defining our relationships with the people and context around us. It has always been a reflection of the values that society in that day and age believed in. So, the main question arising now is - What ideals does our current attitude towards urban development reflect? Do we expect the city to be a commodity for consumption rather than a place of interface between our dreams and reality? Aren’t we building too much, but developing much little?

It is imperative to raise questions such as - How the existing urban development ideas respond to the climate change crisis, the socio-economic divide, the quality of life, etc. A city is a cohesive sum of the various spaces, places, resources, and opportunities it provides. Thus, in this scenario, there is a dire need to also investigate the water supply and drainage system of a metropolis beyond the lens of human consumption needs. The precarious attitude that water is something that invisibly runs in the city pipelines must be challenged to reinvigorate the importance of using it judiciously. How long will we continue the urban development that ends up exploiting local natural/seasonal resources? Shouldn’t a city be envisioned as a part of the natural ecosystem?

Aerial Image of Mumbai suburb (Source : internet)

Mumbai is known for its coastline, its lakes, and its tanks. However, with each passing year, the news sounds more alarming as to how a city that is surrounded by water – is facing a water crisis. It is surprising that even though in this densely populated city, the richer organized housing societies often share their compound with an adjoining unorganized “slum” settlement – their water system resources are drastically polarized. While one housing society can easily call for tankers to supplement their water “demands”; the poor rely on “jugaad” to fulfil their basic “needs”. Having a 24hr water supply is a social class marker and those who have it proudly show it off. The irony remains that the unorganized housing is literally built alongside the huge water pipelines and yet they hardly have any adequate water supply. But now that the water crisis has slowly started affecting everyone irrespective of where they live, there is a collective intuitive awareness that water is a precious resource.

When one ponders on the state of Mumbai's water supply and drainage system, one cannot forget about the urban monsoon floods and the rising sea levels. Due to rapid urbanization in the past few decades, even though the city bulged immensely to house the swift and continuous influx of people from across the country – it could not successfully integrate its piped water system supply along with its natural water ecosystem. Recent research is alarmingly showing the amount of landmass that will slowly get submerged due to rising sea levels.

Mumbai Local train tracks submerging during monsoon

It is important to speculate in this scenario – Will water supply systems act as an equalizer between different socio-economic sections? The city no longer has the liberty of pursuing rainwater storage just as a precautionary alternate resource. Rather, there needs to be a holistic water system so that the city does not submerge while the taps run dry.

What are the tools which will cohesively form a positive water future?

The art of creating a water resource network must correspond at multiple scales such as: space to an individual, to a group, to the neighbourhood, etc. Unless it integrates both the top-down and bottom-up approaches; what we will keep witnessing is gentrified secluded development. In many Indian cities, there usually exists an organic pattern of democratic development by its inhabitants. The beauty of Indian cities lies in a rich mixture of the local cultural fabric juxtaposed with the modern urban development. However, with rapid urbanisation; there has also been a steady decline in the heterogeneous cultural nature of the urban water system profiles. Mumbai also housed a lot of smaller water bodies with rich cultural fabric surrounding them. However, with the rapid reclamation of land to build more and more – many either dried up or were lost.

What if there was a “Jal Signal” (aka water signal). Like we have a traffic signal and an air quality index signal at road junctions. This water signal could inform the pedestrian in real-time of the level of groundwater, the expected rains and water collection. This water signal would become a tangible reflection of the neighbourhood’s water resources to consciously prompt its residents to use water judiciously. The water signal also becomes a democratic tool when residents feed in their water savings. A positive water signal shall reflect the healthy and liveable nature of the entire neighbourhood.

The water signal further functions on multiple levels. At the city level – the water signal becomes the interface between what the organised water supply sector will provide the neighbourhood. And from the neighbourhood side, it informs the city management of the Water System Efficiency Index of the neighbourhood. This data will further help the civic bodies to plan interventions for the neighbourhood's sustenance. Taking inspiration from the Sponge city initiative, the civic authorities can further seasonally plan where they can plan rapid catchment areas for areas that might get submerged. They can further develop an interface with designers to plan bio-swales, roads to direct flow for stormwater runoffs, etc. At the neighbourhood level – the water signal informs the residents, irrespective of their social standing of the daily water system status. The residents identify the water signal as the pulse of their city’s water supply system. During regular seasonal quarters, the citizen body and civic authorities can have a participatory session in their respective wards on how they could be more responsible towards their local water system. They possibly discuss measures that can be taken to ensure equitable distribution of water resources and the safety of their neighbourhoods from flash floods during monsoons. The Water Signal thus propagates itself as a democratic tool to comprehend the city’s water system. At an individual level – the Water signal shall display the frugal innovations done by the citizens to promote the idea of designing small interventions. During the monsoon, imbibing various strategies of rainwater collection are promoted through the Water Signal. The Water Signal design itself incorporates a small rainwater collection installation.

The Water Signal thus become the interface that amalgamates the top-down and bottom-up parts of the City’s Water System. In future, it becomes an additional part of every day like a traffic signal at most road junctions.