Gurgaon

What was once a sprawling waterbody will now be a concrete jungle. Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) is developing a lake in Ghata village — on the foothills of the Aravalis in Gurgaon — as Sector 58. Construction activity has already started. Builders have started work on a portion of the lake bed that gets water every monsoon.

According to locals, barring a few acres, landowners have sold the entire lake bed to private developers. While scanty rainfall in the past 5-6 years is mainly responsible for the drying up of the natural waterbody, locals say farmhouses built on the hills have also blocked the passage of rainwater from the catchment areas to the lake.

Balwant, now in his 70s, has fond memories of the time when the waterbody attracted young swimmers. “In our youth we used to swim in this lake. It was beautiful round the year. The villagers never faced water scarcity. I don’t like this dry lake. People who own land on its bed might support residential development — they have got good money by selling off their properties to private developers,” the native of Ghata said.

This seasonal lake has also been documented in the Gazette of India (1883). It stays filled with water from the monsoon season till Dussehra around October — when the sluice gates are opened for cultivation on the bed. Locals alleged that Haryana government’s temptation to add to its revenue by giving licences to private developers is ruining this natural source of water. ‘”We don’t know how Gurgaon, with all its skyscrapers, will survive if all water bodies around the city are ruined for residential and commercial development? After every monsoon the lake helps improve the groundwater level in this region,” said Jaswant Singh of the state irrigation department, which looks after the bund (dam) around the waterbody.

The shallow tubewells have started drying up. Locals complain the water table is depleting further. Vandana Mennon, an urban architect, who has been visiting the lake for the past 15-16 years, says farmers used to water their wheat crop with the help of these shallow tubewells. “Even today, groundwater is available at 20ft in villages near the lake. This is unheard of in the region. Had the state government taken measures to protect and revitalize the water body, it would not have dried up,” said Mennon.

The caretaker of the dam, built in 1890s, Jaswant Singh, says the last time the lake was completely filled with rainwater was in 2003. “The water was about 10feet deep. I remember in 1972 and 1977 some portions of the dam had even got washed away,” he recalls.

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