Reviving Kashmir’s Lifelines
For a landlocked region with limited natural resources, water is not just a resource. It is survival, livelihood, and identity. Nowhere is this truer than in Kashmir. From the Jhelum that carries our trade and fields, to Dal Lake that defines our skyline, water bodies are the spine of the Valley’s ecology, economy, and culture. In Srinagar, this dependence is even sharper.
The city sits on a network of lakes and wetlands — Dal, Nigeen, Anchar, Brari Nambal, Khushalsar, Gilsar and Echnambal — that once acted as flood buffers, drinking water sources, and tourist magnets.
Today, most of them are choking. Weeds, silt, sewage and encroachment have shrunk them and poisoned them. If we lose these waters, we lose far more than scenery. We lose irrigation, hydropower, biodiversity, and the very character of Kashmir.
It is in this context that a large-scale conservation push for Srinagar’s historic lakes is necessary and critical for their survival. Though, Projects worth hundreds of crores are now underway under the J&K Lake Conservation and Management Authority, with water quality being tracked by the Pollution Control Committee.
The scale of work already done on Dal Lake shows what is possible when there is political will. About 3,108 families have been relocated from within Dal to rehabilitation colonies.
Over the last three years, 6.5 sq km of invasive weeds have been cleared, pushing the open water area back to over 20.3 sq km. Nearly 2 lakh cubic metres of silt have been dredged, 20 navigation channels spanning 10 km have been restored, and shoreline work from NPL Bund to Kral Sangri has begun.
These are not cosmetic steps. More open water means better flow, more oxygen, and less flooding. Pollution control has also picked up pace. Five Sewage Treatment Plants with a combined capacity of 36.73 MLD are now functional around the Dal-Nigeen rim.
A 30 MLD STP at Guptganga, costing Rs 306 crore, is under construction. Sewerage connections have been extended to 600 houseboats in Dal and 148 in Nigeen. Oxidation ponds and bio-digesters are being used to treat inflows. To ensure accountability, an Online Continuous Effluent Monitoring System has been installed at five STPs.
Solid waste is now being collected daily from lake hamlets and houseboats, and aquatic weed is being converted to compost with NAFED. All of this is important. But conservation cannot end at dredging and STPs.
The real test lies in the catchment. Lakes die from the top down. Deforestation, slope cutting, and unplanned construction in the surrounding hills send silt and runoff straight into the water. Without healthy catchments, today’s dredging will be undone by the ongoing monsoon.
The authorities must therefore treat catchment development as part of the core project — plantation drives, fencing of vulnerable zones, and anti-erosion check dams across feeder streams.
Equally urgent is demarcation. Lake boundaries must be fixed once and for all using GPS and satellite imagery, and encroachments removed. Vulnerable stretches need fencing.
The relocation of remaining dwellers to planned sites should be expedited, with proper rehabilitation so that people are not made to pay the price of decades of neglect.
Tourism, agriculture and urban water security all depend on this. A clean Dal and Nigeen are not just postcards. They recharge groundwater, support unique flora and fauna in wetlands like Anchar, and sustain thousands of livelihoods from shikaras to fisheries to hotels.
The message is clear. We cannot conserve lakes in isolation. We need a basin approach — protect the catchment, treat the sewage, remove the weeds, and keep people out of the water body.
Technology and funding are now in place. What is needed is consistency and public ownership. Srinagar’s lakes gave us life for centuries. If we act now, with science, enforcement, and community participation, they can give us life for centuries more.
