Rameez Rashid Bhat
Across Kashmir, a new trend is becoming increasingly common. Natural streams, springs, and traditional water channels are being lined with concrete embankments in the name of development. While these structures may appear neat and modern, we must ask a simple question: Are we improving our water bodies, or slowly destroying them?
For centuries, Kashmir’s streams flowed through natural banks covered with soil, grasses, shrubs, and trees. These living bunds absorbed rainwater, recharged groundwater, filtered pollutants, reduced erosion naturally, and provided habitat for birds, fish, insects, and other wildlife. Today, many of these living systems are being replaced by lifeless concrete walls.
Concrete embankments disconnect streams from the surrounding soil, reduce groundwater recharge, increase water velocity, and degrade aquatic habitats. Around the world, river restoration experts are increasingly promoting nature-based solutions such as vegetated banks and bio-engineered embankments instead of excessive concrete because they better protect both ecosystems and communities.
This does not mean that concrete should never be used. In places where there is an immediate threat to bridges, roads, or densely populated areas, engineered structures may be necessary. However, making every stream and water channel a concrete drain is neither environmentally sound nor sustainable.
Development should work with nature, not against it. Before converting another natural stream into a concrete channel, planners should carefully assess whether a living bund can achieve the same objective while preserving the ecological health of the watercourse.
Kashmir’s streams are more than channels carrying water—they are living ecosystems and lifelines for future generations. The true measure of development is not how much concrete we pour, but how wisely we protect the natural systems that sustain us.
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