Can Urban Local Ponds Help Tackle Domestic Water Scarcity and Build Resilience? with Reference to South Asian Cities and City Regions

Abstract

For decades to come, cost-effective and environmentally appropriate water systems will be a priority for managing water scarcity and building resilience in the rapidly expanding cities and city regions of South Asia. This study initiates a research into urban local ponds and the potential of linking them with water systems and build resilience. A framework of questions guided the research with reference to ponds and prevalent water systems in South Asian cities and city regions. The wider issues of water stress in South Asian cities and the general limitations of prevalent water supply systems were studied through the lens of a literature review. The paper then draws upon observations in three South Asian cities. The research showed that despite policy support for local rainwater capture, groundwater is over-exploited and urban local ponds (and tanks) have not been integrated with urban water provision schemes, particularly in recent decades. It was concluded that local urban ponds can facilitate resilient water-supply provision by making them an integral part of the urban waterscape. This paper highlights a multitude of benefits that ponds can potentially bring to urban resilience, in particular affordable and accessible water provision with low environmental footprint, managing climate shocks or stresses, biodiversity restoration in urban areas as well as potentially generating new skills and livelihoods for communities. The overall suggestion is that local urban ponds should be networked into the water provision for cities and their wider region, thereby linking to wider arrangements for urban and regional governance and resilience.

The utterly unforeseen livelihood shock:COVID‐19 and street vendor coping mechanisms in Hanoi, Chiang Mai and Luang Prabang

“…First, the impacts of economic and political crises on urban livelihoods can be substantial, with such instability often contributing to a loss of income and rising food insecurity among other difficulties (Kimani-Murage et al, 2014;Edeoghon & Ordia, 2018;Lwanga-Ntale & Owino, 2020). Second, natural disasters and extreme climate events can increase urban vulnerability by, for example, damaging the infrastructure on which livelihoods are dependent (Dalu & Shackleton, 2018;Nop & Thornton, 2019), exacerbating health hazards (Romero-Lankao et al, 2016;Pandey et al, 2018), interrupting food production and supply chains (Akampumuza & Matsuda, 2017;McQuaid et al, 2018), and generating water shortages (Kalra, 2020). Health-related shocks in urban locales, including chronic and acute illness, can also lead to income losses and livelihood insecurity (Pryer et al, 2005;Weyer et al, 2016).…”