Utkarshi Arya

UI4001

The urban fabric of Bhuj is dotted with over fifty big and small lakes, which serve the dual purpose of holding water throughout the year and act as urban sponges during extreme conditions of floods and incessant rainfall. These lakes are also known to be the natural feeder to another seventy odd dug wells located all over the city. It is these urban lakes along with the dug well which together comprises of what we know as the natural water system of Bhuj. Back in time, before the introduction of centralized water supply system in late 1960s, these water bodies and wells were a prominent and reliable source of potable water for the city. But off late, due to unchecked encroachment around the lake fringes, lack of rainfall and rampant solid waste dumping, these water bodies which once used to be social nodes of the city have today started getting disappear at an alarming rate-severely impacting the city’s original trait of self-sufficiency in meeting its water demands.