Integrating the local community in the urban planning process and decentralising power to manage infrastructure are key to sustaining an ecosystem, said Rajeev Kathpalia, architect and environmental planner. He was in the city on Thursday to speak at the three-day Chennai Water Forum hosted by Goethe Institut, Max Mueller Bhavan, at Kalakshetra Foundation.
On the sidelines of the Forum, Mr. Kathpalia of the Ahmedabad-based Vastu Shilpa Consultants, who won competitions to design IIM- Udaipur and Nalanda University, said “We have to take responsibility and pride in protecting ecology. The local community need to have a role in the development of infrastructure be it a park or maintaining a water body.”
In his presentation on ‘Topography, Urban Ecologies and Water’, Mr. Kathpalia elaborated on the project designs in IIM-Udaipur and Nalanda University wherein reservoirs and waterbodies were created to co-exist with the infrastructure. Smrithi Van Earthquake memorial, Gujarat, is another example where reservoirs are being created to capture water and sustain plantation.
Earlier, at the inauguration of the Chennai Water Forum, N. Ram, chairman, Kasturi and Sons Ltd., said there were many examples from across the world such as in England, Germany and South Korea wherein dead rivers had been revived. With the right resources, involvement of people, execution on scientific and democratic lines and support of arts and culture, river restoration can be done successfully, he added.
Lauding the efforts of Goethe Institut, Mr. Ram said water was a sensitive subject and must be the centre of discussions. Such fora, which bring in people from various organisations and walks of life, were a constructive attempt to involve critical thinking. “We must not romanticise the past. We must learn from the past rather than extol it uncritically,” he said.
Achim Fabig, Consul General, Consulate of the Federal Republic of Germany, and Priyadarshini Govind, Director of Kalakshetra Foundation, also spoke.
With over 50 speakers scheduled to take part in presentations, panel discussions and workshops, the Forum will examine issues such as flood management, water politics, riverfront development and art and water. While Petra Dobner, professor of political science, Martin Luther University, Germany, elaborated on the priorities while dealing with water crises, experts like S. Janakarajan of Madras Institute of Development Studies moderated interactive workshops on the challenges of flood management and journalist P. Sainath on how water use reflected the socio-economic hierarchies.
