BENGALURU: The National Green Tribunal (NGT) order to clean up Bellandur Lake in a month’s time has come as a relief to residents in the surrounding areas. But with civic authorities unsure about their role and no action plan, it is unlikely that the lake will be cleaned within one month.
Over 250 residential apartment complexes dot the catchment areas. Most of the sewage treatment plants (STPs) are not working to full capacity and the lake water is filled with flammable toxic materials, presenting quite a daunting task.
Experts feel that although it is a challenging task to clean a lake that receives 400-500 MLD of water every day, proper coordination between the various civic agencies may actually result in some positive outcomes.
At present, BWSSB maintains it has already diverted pipelines and it is the duty of BDA and BBMP to clean the lake and ensure apartments and industries do not discharge sewage into the lake. On its part, BDA says sewage is the lookout of BWSSB and they will be limited to restoring the lake alone, which will be started in 3-4 days. On its part, BBMP is yet to have a review meeting on the NGT order and come up with an action plan.
BWSSB Engineer-in-Chief Kemparamaiah said, “The present sewage inlets are not from our systems. The sewage in the lake is from apartments and industries and also from the 110 villages that were added to BBMP, where we do not have a sewage network. They are letting their sewage directly into the lake. However, a DPR is ready and there is a proposal to connect these villages with our network.”
On the other hand Ramakrishna S M, Chief Engineer (waste water management) pointed out, “We will try to do as much as we can in one month. All these measures take time. The unsewered pockets are the major problem areas. Currently, we have two STPs in Komaghatta and Challaghatta Valley that are sending treated water to Bellandur lake. From the upstream STP, we are treating 248 MLD and downstream, we are treating 50 MLD.
“We are constructing three more STPs which will take care of most of the sewage water. We will have a 90 MLD capacity STP at Ammanikere (upstream of Varthur lake) by July, a 60 MLD STP at K&C Valley by December and another 150 MLD capacity STP in the valley region in the next three years,” he said.
BDA Engineer-Member P N Nayak said they will clean the lake based on the recommendations made in the expert committee report. “Tenders have been called. We will implement the action plan by this week,” he said.
The unpreparedness of BBMP to tackle the problem was reflected in Mayor Padmavathi’s statement when she said, “We will zero down on the activities after the review meeting.”
Environmentalist A N Yellappa Reddy, who was part of the expert committee, suggested de-weeding should be possible in a month if sincere efforts are made.
“But we will have to come up with some sort of mechanism to dispose it. Also, we can ensure that treated water gets into the lake. All they have to do is clear some encroachments and design a wetland at entry points of the inlets so that water gets treated naturally. But these require coordination between authorities,” he said.