From Kathmandu to Cairo… Behind the cities’ historic water systems – Nabil Al-Hadi

Getting to know places, societies and civilizations that you knew very little about is one of the benefits that makes me appreciate being a professor at Cairo University, especially because I am teaching a Master’s program that Cairo University is collaborating with a German university, Alexandria University, and the project basically involves revitalizing the historical areas of the city.
Through my teaching in this program for almost a decade, I have tried to connect an interest in history and architecture to the major issues facing our world, especially those dealing with nature, which is one of the reasons that supports the existence of these fields. It is a gateway to connect our study and understanding of history with the realities and challenges we currently face and those we anticipate in the future.
Men and women from all over the country took part in the program, coming to Cairo University to study for a few months during one of the three main semesters, and then writing their master’s thesis in the fourth semester. During those years, I supervised theses of students from China, India, Canada and, of course, Egypt. I was happy that some of them were influenced by what I taught them about nature and natural systems, especially water, whether in the Bordj Rashid area, in the city of Qusayr or in Mit Rahina, through which we put natural resources at the core of our understanding of the continuous connection between the past, present and future.
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This year, one of the students in the program, architect Neeraj Babu from Nepal, presented a paper on restoring water flows in the historic urban area of ​​Kathmandu Valley, an area that faces major challenges due to the construction of a large city. During its expansion in the twentieth century and early this century, the city faced many issues with water quantity and quality as water levels dropped.
The traditional water system in the Kathmandu Valley consists of natural canals, canals built by rulers at different times, pipes and taps. The Royal Canal brought water from the hilltop lakes around the valley to the ponds, which also replenished the groundwater in the valley. These stone taps, called “hiti”, were built low to be able to draw groundwater to provide water to the people. This began between the 4th and 7th centuries AD, and then was improved and expanded between the 13th and 18th centuries.
In the twentieth century and the beginning of this century, urban expansion and the pursuit of modernization led to the introduction of a central water supply system through a network of pipes, as happened in many other countries. Of course, the existing systems were not integrated. The result was a traditional complex water supply system that also formed a large number of places for community members to meet and gather. This also led to the deterioration and non-replenishment of underground water reservoirs.
Urban expansion also disturbs the balance between water flows and the social life of residents, due to the massive extraction of water resources in a non-renewable way and the use of natural open areas. This also leads to the unregulated drilling of wells, as well as the clearing of parts of the forests, which play an important role in renewing the local water cycle through the retention of water in the surface layer by their roots, and the transpiration generated by these trees, known as green water – which mainly contributes to the formation of clouds and then rainfall, which is known as the local water cycle.
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While many efforts have been made in recent years to renew and restore traditional water infrastructure, including the restoration of stone taps known as “hiti,” and active efforts by local communities, these efforts lack a comprehensive ecological vision of water systems that also connects water systems to the environment. That’s why Neeraj’s research seeks to provide an approach that incorporates the challenges faced by his community.
Neeraj Babu concludes his paper by identifying six sites for interventions that involve restoration of water systems, community engagement, and restoration of ecosystems. He proposes a vision for transforming some important sites in this context, such as the river edge. He also suggests restoring and developing some stone tap courtyards, or transforming unused military areas into public areas, restoring them as places for gatherings and celebrations.
He also proposed the development and restoration of degraded natural areas on the forest fringes and the restoration of canals connecting them to the water tanks he proposed.Neeraj Babu not only listened to the observations of me and my colleagues, the German professors, but in formulating his studies and recommendations, he also sought the opinions and suggestions of local experts and water specialists.
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What I find very important about this study is how by focusing on the natural resources of historical areas, especially water, we can contribute not only to protecting them and solving the problems they face, but also to solving the problems of other areas as water is a complex system, one part of which cannot be separated from the rest of the network to which it is connected. Treating historical areas in this way, helps to give them a new lease of life, but also helps to make people understand the reasons and the need to protect them, and invest energy in them, because in the end everyone benefits, not just a bunch of tourists who can afford to come from a far country to stay for a few days, take some photos, and buy some gifts and souvenirs.
I kept thinking about the water facilities in Cairo, like the fountains, the arches, and the floodplains in the courtyards of the mosques, which are far from being wonderful architectural structures that must be preserved, but because they are a testament to how important water was and how our ancestors celebrated this importance and made it part of their daily lives. Each of these facilities tells a very important story, one that links water to physical cleanliness and purity that is needed for the soul, another about water, whether unsweetened or sweetened, being available to everyone, another story about how the city brings water from its source, the river.
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As we face the water challenges of Cairo and other Egyptian cities, it is important to rethink how Cairo supplies water to meet the needs of its inhabitants and the various activities that take place within it, and how this fits into the larger water cycle that begins with the rainfall thousands of kilometers to the south. Perhaps it is important to start restoring our sense of the rhythms of nature, the most obvious manifestation of which is the flooding, even if done in a ritualistic way that coincides with the time of year when it occurs. Perhaps we also need to facilitate access to the Nile and prevent the reappearance of structures, especially in parks and public buildings. There are many other ways we can celebrate in smart and modern ways. From simply teaching about the importance of water to making it part of our daily experience. This constant and beautiful presence of water in our daily lives will greatly influence our perception of the importance of water, and the innovation of the many ways that we can use it better, helping us live better.

Professor of Architecture, Cairo University