Naduni Kasthuri Arachchillage: A self-reflection on water usage in our cities...Think Beyond the Block
We often frame WATER and RESILIENCE as perpetual challenges, yet they are, in truth, the very essence of life’s vitality and a blessing that nourishes our existence. This illustrates urban landscapes where water features are central to community life and biodiversity, transforming challenges into opportunities that enrich the very fabric of our cities. This proposal is a progressive debate on sustainable urban development in a world where land use planning is so often an exercise of piecemeal solutions, "Moving Towards Holistic Water Sensitive Design: Think Beyond the Block" is that clarion call for a more integrated approach to stormwater management. The notion is to take a lead from the front-that; stormwater management is a technical challenge but a foundational pillar of sustainable urban livelihoods. This underscores the inadequacies of a piecemeal strategy, advocating for a holistic perspective on stormwater management that addresses the interconnected nature of urban water systems—integrating stormwater management from individual blocks to watersheds, promoting urban resilience, and emphasizing city-wide coordination to avoid the common pitfall of shifting water problems downstream, thereby, influencing planners, architects, and communities to reimagine sustainable urban ecosystem, whereby water-a core component in the urbanity-smoothes into wholesome, lively, and resilient spaces.