What are the environmental implications of the reclamation of water bodies into urban land use? Explain with examples.

Due to a lack of space in urban areas, water bodies such as ponds, lakes, and wetlands are being reclaimed and transformed into urban land for the construction of buildings, roads, and other structures.

In reclamation the water bodies are filled with soil, rocks etc to raise the level of their bottom or water is pumped out of them. 

Reclamation of water bodies into urban land has serious environmental implications:

• Damage to water Balance as wetlands form the key part of the natural hydrological cycle. For e.g. Bengaluru.
• Loss of biodiversity due to disappearance of wetland flora and fauna
• Reduction in recharge of ground water for e.g. Chennai Water crisis.
• Increasing frequency and intensity of disasters like floods and cyclones as these wetlands act as the absorbers of surplus water during these calamities. e.g. Sri Nagar floods 2014
• Increasing land and water pollution as these reclaimed sites are often converted into dump yards for waste disposal.

As a result, governments and civil society organizations should work together to ensure wetland restoration, which entails restoring a former or degraded wetland's physical, chemical, or biological qualities in order to restore its natural functioning.