https://www.indiawaterportal.org/environment/one-staircase-at-a-time-building-climate-resilience-in-indias-self-built-neighbourhoods https://media.assettype.com/indiawaterportal/2026-06-05/ctcdhldf/11.jpg Located in Mahendra Hills, Hill Top Colony sprawls on the natural slope of the plateau, unlike many of Hyderabad's north-western neighbourhoods, where the terrain has been levelled. https://media.assettype.com/indiawaterportal/2026-06-05/h9r81g8h/12.jpg The last mile home in Hill Top Colony: a steep, broken descent where exposed pipes, loose stone and monsoon runoff turn everyday mobility into negotiation with water, waste and gravity. https://media.assettype.com/indiawaterportal/2026-06-05/2mxzz3h3/6.jpg In Hyderabad’s dense neighbourhoods, the street becomes home, market and workshop at once. https://media.assettype.com/indiawaterportal/2026-06-05/8ucqbvin/7.jpg Hyderabad’s neighbourhoods revealing both everyday ingenuity and infrastructural fragility. https://media.assettype.com/indiawaterportal/2026-06-05/abgvn0hi/10.jpg Children navigate the steep, rubble-strewn lanes of Hill Top Colony, pushing a bicycle uphill beside exposed water pipes where gravity, infrastructure and everyday life converge. https://media.assettype.com/indiawaterportal/2026-06-05/nnhen9nl/9.jpg Small plates between the steps slow the flow of rainwater, guiding it gently into the drainage channel and onward to storage tanks. https://media.assettype.com/indiawaterportal/2026-06-05/0cb1m5vf/5.jpg Transformation in the adjacent lane (before and after) by GHMC https://media.assettype.com/indiawaterportal/2026-06-05/rf4y1uxk/4.jpg Mockup of Project Jalam’s integrated design https://media.assettype.com/indiawaterportal/2026-06-05/17q9m8sa/3.jpg A maze of exposed pipes and narrow lanes on the hillside reflected the everyday water challenges faced by residents of Hill Top Colony. https://media.assettype.com/indiawaterportal/2026-06-05/ah5on8hl/2.jpg Activating a social life along with a sponge city https://media.assettype.com/indiawaterportal/2026-06-05/7mi6fldj/1.jpg Aerial view of Hill Top Colony, where dense, incrementally built homes align along narrow lanes that double as circulation and drainage, revealing the tight grain and sloped urban fabric within which Project Jalam intervened. indiawaterportal en 2026-06-05T16:38:23.364Z One Staircase at a time: Building climate resilience in India's self-built neighbourhoods Hyderabad, Groundwater, Sustainability, Ecology, Environment, Rainfall, Water management, Climate resilience, Hill Top Colony, Groundwater recharge