HYDERABAD: When the city was reveling in Christmas celebrations, one of city’s major identities, Banjara Lake, adjoining the Taj hotel here, was allegedly being dumped with debris.
Alert and conscious local lake champions who questioned the dump, they said, were informed that the civic body is laying a walking track inside the lake.
Banjara Lake is among one of the most endangered lakes to the expanding commercialisation of the locality. Save our Urban Lakes (SOUL), an NGO which works on water bodies, claimed that they have information that `95 lakh was sanctioned for ‘walking track’, ‘lighting’ and ‘plantation work’ under beautification and development programme of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation.
Lake activists see red over dumping of debris in the lake. SOUL members claimed that the walking track could not be laid inside the full-tank limit (FTL) of the lake.
“There is a huge disconnect between what the lake needs to survive and what the GHMC thinks the lake needs. There is a sewage water treatment plant at the lake that is dysfunctional, the natural replenishing power of the lake has been choked by the construction of an interception and diversion structure,” stated Lubna Sarwath of SOUL. She further claimed: “The GHMC official has agreed that the dumping of debris into the lake for creating a walking track is illegal and that they will remove the debris.”
Sekhar Reddy, superintending engineer, GHMC, when contacted said: “We are doing this to protect the lake, we will also be fencing the lake so as to avoid further encroachment. The walking path will provide a place for people to walk and enjoy the lake. We are in no way destroying the lake,” he added.
On the other hand, Sathyanarain, executive engineer of Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board(HMWSSB) said that it was not possible to create a walking track on or around the lake as its a very small lake.
“It is not feasible. On one side there are private houses and on the other there is the hotel.
It is best to leave the lake in its natural way and ensure that whatever sewage comes from
upstream it has to be diverted,” said
The GHMC official said the lake needs local cleaning and opening of fresh inflows. “He assured that the land dumped on Dec 25 night would be promptly dredged, and he would immediately attend to the matter and revert,” claimed Lubna.