Timarpur Lake in northern Delhi had been known for decades as a place for petty crime and the foul smell of sewage. It’s now getting ready to welcome visitors with a new amphitheater, children’s play area and fountains dotting the landscape.



The restoration is one of the first of hundreds that Delhi plans to secure its water supply and become less reliant on neighboring states. The local government’s ‘City of Lakes’ project seeks to develop about 600 water bodies that will act as natural reservoirs to store excess rainfall as well as recycled water. The landlocked metropolis, which encompasses capital New Delhi, once boasted more than 1,000 water bodies, but rapid urbanization has created a city more frequently associated with polluted air and deadly roads.



The loss of freshwater ponds and lakes has left Delhi with a water deficit of 300 million gallons a day — almost a quarter of what the city needs and enough to fill more than 450 Olympic-size swimming pools. But the task to bring back those lakes isn’t a simple one. Many require an adjacent water treatment facility, and it’s taken five years for the project to get off the ground because of budgetary constraints, the pandemic and bureaucracy across government departments. So far, fewer than 50 lakes have been restored.



"Some of these water bodies are in pretty bad health and will need investment," said Madhu Verma, chief economist at WRI India, which helps governments and businesses find economically and environmentally sound solutions. However, investors and planners still need to be educated about the benefits and cost effectiveness of such infrastructure, she said.



Delhi’s water problem — both too much and not enough — became strikingly evident during the most recent monsoon season, when the worst flooding in decades crippled parts of the city and shut three water treatment facilities when floodwater entered the machines, temporarily cutting water supply by 25%.



On a national level, India is also in need of more clean water to serve a rapidly growing population. It’s the world’s biggest extractor of groundwater, accounting for almost a quarter of the total extracted globally. It’s home to 16% of the world’s people but has only 4% of earth’s freshwater resources.



Results of completed projects show some success with an increase of as much as six meters in groundwater levels, according to the Delhi government. But reviving the lakes — and in some cases, developing artificial ones — is challenging. The city only gets rain about 15 days a year during monsoon season, but lakes need a perennial source of water, said Ankit Srivastava, an engineer who advised the Delhi Jal Board, the agency responsible for supplying potable water to the city.



“We are connecting every lake with a water source so that it doesn’t dry up,” he said, sitting in a makeshift container office at Timarpur Lake. He estimates the cost for the total City of Lakes project at about 10 billion rupees ($122 million).



Delhi produces 500 millions of gallons of recycled water a day, most of which is currently being wasted. This water will be pumped into the lakes and then undergo further treatment in reverse osmosis plants at some sites before being supplied to households.



Another aim of the project is to provide a buffer against floods, but some experts are skeptical. The recent flooding due to a raging Yamuna river happened because of urbanization in low-lying areas where there is no drainage, said Manu Bhatnagar, who heads the Natural Heritage Division at Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage, or INTACH, a non-government organization.



“It’s a good idea conceptually but there are limitations,” said Bhatnagar, an urban and environmental planner. “Delhi lakes can’t act as buffer for flood because most are tiny and are in locations where they don’t capture floodwater.”



Many lakes shrunk or became dumping grounds as they were encroached upon for construction in pursuit of economic growth. The restorations should, however, improve the quality of life for Delhi residents and draw birds and plants that are beneficial for lake ecosystems.



At Timarpur Lake, a team of about 50 laborers is trying to wrap up the work at the sewage treatment plant that will supply recycled water to the lake. The huge iron gate of the site which reads in Hindi “Work in Progress. Accident Prone Area” is scheduled to open to the public this year.