Typical social dilemmas in urban lake governance in India case of Thaltej Lakes in Ahmedabad

The paper exemplifies the typical social dilemma among urban communities
in maintaining the commons located in their locality. The paper presents the findings of a survey of the people living around Thaltej lakes asking them about the lakes and their relationship with the lakes. The hundred fifty years old Thaltej lakes, now remaining three in numbers, are located in the Thaltej Gram Panchayat of the city of Ahmedabad. The set of five small traditional rainwater harvesting ponds have reduced by number and size, besides turning into wastewater sinks that are a source of health hazards in the area. The lakes are surrounded by nearly fourteen hundred informal settlements that are slowly encroaching upon the lake area. Two hundred strategically selected households from both informal and formal settlements around the lakes were surveyed in 2018. The survey questionnaire aimed to capture the perception of the people through individual’s preference towards the lake management. The questionnaire included qualitative as well as quantitative aspects of willingness to accept the deteriorating lakes vis-à-vis willingness to contribute as civil participation towards their betterment. From the survey, we find that though the people are trapped in the typical prisoner’s dilemma situation of doing/not doing something for the lake, they are watching and waiting for some initiative where they may contribute directly or indirectly towards the lake. This social dilemma pattern in perception and participation of the urban community in the commons management is typically concerning in the Indian cities. We realize that we need to find how we can avert the prisoner’s dilemma situation to make urban lake governance more participatory. In other words, how can we make the urban
community take the responsibility of the urban lakes and thereby shift the lake management by the government towards a collective lake governance.