How ancient engineering helped address Delhi's perennial water shortage

Arab News

02-07-2025

NEW DELHI: Just minutes from New Delhi's commercial hub, Ugrasen ki Baoli is an engineering marvel worth a detour from the usual tourist path, as it bears witness to unique medieval water storage solutions that could still hold relevance today.
A baoli, or a stepwell, is a storage system that once helped the Indian capital address its perennial water shortage.
With a series of steps leading down to the water level, these structures allowed people to reach the water even when its levels changed with the seasons.
Usually built in the hot and arid areas like the northern state of Rajasthan and the western state of Gujarat, they used to be common in the Delhi region too.
'Since Delhi was also semi-arid, there was a large number of these built to provide water to people in small and large villages and settlements,' Sohail Hashmi, oral historian of Delhi and conservationist, told Arab News.
'They were dug especially in areas where the water level was rather low … You dug a well and next to the well, you built a tank, and when both structures were ready, you connected the well through a channel to the stepwell, and the water from the well filled up the stepwell.'
Located about a 5-minute walk from Connaught Place, the New Delhi stepwell is approximately 60 meters long and 15 meters wide, descending 108 steps — or about 15 meters below ground.
The baoli made water available throughout the year, and people could use it not only to draw drinking water but also to wash and bathe in the tank.
'It was a relief because the water was flowing from the well and the water from the well was always clean. So even if the water in the tank got dirty because people washed their clothes, you could still draw water from the well for drinking,' Hashmi said.
'Over time, these places also became places for social gathering, especially during the summer months … You had a large water body with arches and rooms and spaces, so people could come there and escape the summer heat.'
According to local legend, Ugrasen ki Baoli was commissioned by King Agrasen, the legendary ancestor of the prosperous Agrawal community, who, thousands of years ago, ruled over Agroha, an ancient trading city near present-day Delhi.
But historians estimate it was built around the 15th century, in the Delhi Sultanate period, which marked numerous cultural and architectural developments in the city.
'Architecturally, if you look at it, it is built with rubble, and the rubble is held together with a plaster of limestone and crushed bricks … These are techniques that were introduced into India in the late 12th and early 13th century,' Hashmi said.'It belongs to the late Sultanate period, so I would roughly place it in the 15th century.' Delhi once had 20 stepwells similar to Ugrasen ki Baoli, but none have survived the test of time. Efforts to revive them may no longer be effective, as the city's groundwater levels have dropped significantly.
Groundwater at deeper levels is often not potable due to natural contamination — high levels of minerals like arsenic, fluoride, or heavy metals, and salinity, which in arid regions turns deep groundwater brackish.
There is still potential for the stepwells to conserve water and help address Delhi's water problems, although it would take some time.
'At best, what can be done is that in the monsoon (season), you can divert rainwater into these stepwells, so they replenish the subsoil water,' Hashmi said.
'If this is done over decades, maybe the subsoil water level would improve and then much of this water could become potable, but before you do that, building (new) stepwells doesn't make sense now.'