Nature Based Solutions

Human civilization has undergone significant economic development in the past two centuries.

Nature-Based Solutions are innovative actions that protect, sustainably manage, and restore natural and modified ecosystems to address societal challenges effectively and adaptively. They generate multiple benefits for both people and nature by leveraging the inherent strengths of healthy ecosystems. NBS tackle critical global issues such as climate change, disaster risk reduction, food and water security, biodiversity loss, and human health, while underpinning sustainable economic development.

Why Nature-Based Solutions Matter

Traditional infrastructure often focuses on engineered, single-purpose solutions. In contrast, NBS are inherently multifunctional. For example, modern urban flood management incorporates bioretention areas, parks, and wetlands that not only reduce flooding but also lower urban temperatures, improve air quality, provide recreational spaces, and create habitats for wildlife.

Similarly, coastal resilience projects complement hard structures like seawalls with living ecosystems—such as marshes, wetlands, and coral reefs—that protect shorelines, prevent erosion, and support biodiversity.

These multifunctional benefits make NBS an essential component in mainstream investment projects across urban development, disaster risk management, natural resource management, transport, and water management.

Water Challenges in the Global South

Countries like India face profound water challenges. With 18% of the world’s population but only 4% of its freshwater resources, India is highly water-stressed. Key issues include water scarcity, limited access to safe drinking water, widespread water pollution, and inadequate sanitation services.

Climate change, resource overconsumption, poor waste management, air pollution, and biodiversity loss further exacerbate these problems—threatening human health, development, and livelihoods.

Nature-Based Solutions for Water and Sanitation

To secure water and sanitation for all, innovative, systemic approaches are needed. NBS offer a holistic lens to address these challenges, delivering clean water and sanitation without compromising air quality, biodiversity, or human well-being.

Advantages of NBS over Conventional Solutions:

  • Natural & Renewable Processes: Utilize abundant natural elements, reducing carbon emissions and energy consumption through low-resource, renewable processes.
  • Financial Sustainability: Lower lifecycle costs and minimal operation and maintenance expenses.
  • Operational Simplicity: Passive, robust technologies requiring low supervision, adaptable to fluctuating conditions.
  • Ecosystem and Biodiversity Benefits: Enhance biodiversity and ecosystem services such as fishing and pollination.
  • Soil Health and Food Security: Promote closed-loop systems that improve soil quality through residue recycling.
  • Scalability: Applicable across rural and urban settings, with high relevance in the Global South.
CDD India’s Approach to Nature-Based Solutions

At CDD India, we actively innovate, demonstrate, and disseminate decentralized nature-based solutions to meet basic water and sanitation needs, prioritizing gender inclusion and marginalized communities. Our work spans multiple states in India and other countries in the Global South, where we integrate NBS with engineered and hybrid solutions tailored to local contexts.

Key aspects of our approach include:

  • Decentralization: Solving problems close to the source through localized collection, treatment, and reuse of wastewater, minimizing resource use and carbon footprint.
  • Community Participation: Ensuring sustained operation by involving communities and government stakeholders from design through maintenance and exit.
  • Hybridization: Combining nature-based elements with complementary technologies to optimize performance within space and resource constraints.
  • Capacity Building: Empowering practitioners and governments to scale NBS through knowledge transfer and training.

Programmatic Principles Guiding CDD India

  1. Sustainability First: Guided by the principle, “what cannot be maintained should not be built”, we design solutions that endure by integrating community needs, gender equity, and local context.
  2. Decentralized Solutions: Emphasize treatment and reuse as close to the source as possible—whether at households, clusters, or institutions—to enhance water efficiency and reduce environmental impact.
  3. Gender and Social Inclusion: Prioritize inclusive access and participation, ensuring marginalized voices are integral to the solution.
  4. Focus on Operation & Maintenance: Design easy-to-operate systems that communities can sustainably manage, promoting long-term resilience.

Nature-Based Solutions for Water

  • Decentralized treatment and reuse to minimize waste.
  • Use of constructed wetlands for tertiary treatment, enhancing biodiversity.
  • Employing natural elements to improve climate resilience in urban areas.
  • Designing systems that are easy to maintain and long-lasting.

Nature-Based Solutions for Sanitation

  • Safely manage sanitation to protect groundwater and public health.
  • Deploy decentralized wastewater treatment systems, including faecal sludge treatment plants (FSTPs).
  • Achieve economic efficiency through low power consumption and resource use.
  • Convert residues into nutrient-rich manure, enhancing soil and food security.
  • Facilitate community ownership through simple, participatory operation and maintenance.

CDD India is committed to harnessing the power of nature in solving critical water and sanitation challenges, building healthier communities, and restoring ecosystems for a sustainable future.

Key Flagship Projects : 

 

    • Arvind Eye Hospital
    • Devanhaali FSTP
    • Suvidha
    • Stan Chart
    • Bangalore Floods
    • Allepy
    • Devanhalli Solid Waste Management