Restoring historic waterways

A new effort by the local authorities in the city of Kochi, India, supported by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), is now underway to restore the city’s waterways, which are seen as crucial to helping the city adapt to the changing climate, according to a UNEP press release. The project is part of UNEP’s Generation Restoration Cities initiative to advance nature-based solutions to urgent environmental challenges in urban areas around the world.

In Kochi, a major port in the state of Kerala on India’s western coast and known as the “Queen of the Arabian Sea,” as per the UNEP press release, a dense network of rivers, creeks and canals was once the lifeline of the city. The waterways were a transport route for people and goods, provided water for daily use, and drained monsoon stormwaters into the sea. But many have been neglected in recent decades amid rapid urbanization, some unplanned. Buildings and bridges have encroached on the waterways, obstructing the flow.

Untreated waste has polluted the increasingly stagnant waters. And invasive plants and mosquitos have replaced once-abundant fish and birds. Climate change is only adding to the problems: sea-level rise, extreme rainfall events and tidal surges have increased the risk of major flooding in the city, which is home to about 600,000 people.

To kickstart the restoration drive, UNEP and the Kochi Municipal Corporation have zoomed in on the Thevara-Perandoor Canal, or TP Canal, which runs for about 10 kilometres through the city’s central business district and several densely populated residential areas. For years, experts and officials have discussed how to revive the TP Canal. A report by the municipality’s Centre for Heritage, Environment and Development (CHED), for instance, recommended reconnecting the canal and its ecosystem to other waterways, restoring its banks to increase biodiversity, and ramping up investments in sewage and waste management. Authorities regularly dredge the canals to reduce the flooding that hits low-lying districts every year during the monsoon season. The more ambitious solutions have not materialized, in part – according to planners of the new UNEP-backed project – because of a lack of public and political support. The new project seeks to overcome this barrier by helping residents and officials understand that the canal network is vital to tackling climate change. Rejuvenating the canals will help channel excess water, including from more intense monsoons, away from the city. Planting trees alongside the canals would also create green corridors that can help dissipate extreme heat, which experts say will become more frequent due to climate change.

The press release adds that to jog people’s memories of what the canal system once was, a photo competition was held last year on 5 June – World Environment Day. Meanwhile, nearly 400 school students took part in drawing and essay-writing competitions to envision how the canal could be rejuvenated. As well, the public have perused dozens of historical and current photographs of the canal at an exhibition in a downtown park.

The CHED, which is implementing the project, has also consulted experts, including hydrologists and urban planners, and gathered residents and councillors to discuss a way forward. The project also leverages insights from UNEP’s new innovative spatial planning tool, designed to help cities expand nature-based solutions by integrating environmental and population data, and other trends.

Kochi is not the only city working to revive its waterways. In the Bangladeshi city of Sirajganj, UNEP is supporting the restoring of the Katkhali Canal and its surroundings to create a ‘green corridor’ to provide recreational space and wildlife habitat while reducing urban heat. In Kisumu, Kenya, the attempt is to restore the Auji River. In Kochi, the long-term hope is to restore not only the TP Canal but also the city’s other waterways.

The UNEP Generation Restoration project focuses on scaling up urban ecosystem restoration. Running from 2023 to 2025, UNEP is working with 24 cities to address key political, technical, and financial challenges. The project has two key components: advocating for public and private investment in ecosystem restoration and job creation through nature-based solutions and empowering city stakeholders globally to replicate and scale restoration initiatives. This initiative is a contribution to the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration and the Global Biodiversity Framework.