HYDERABAD: Thanks to poor monsoon, the quality of water in Hyderabad lakes has gone drastically down and reached a point much worse than it was during the beginning of the season. According to the water quality data of various lakes for the month of July, released by the Telangana State Pollution Control Board (TSPCB) recently, the quality levels have either drastically declined or remained close to the same as during pre-monsoon period.
This data becomes relevant at a time when, in fact, Hyderabad has been reeling under the deficient monsoon rainfall scenario. Of the nine weeks since the commencement of monsoon in the State, Hyderabad received deficient rains for around five weeks till the end of July. According to the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), the monsoon rainfall in the State capital is 16 per cent below the normal as of Thursday.
At a time when the quality of water in Hyderabad lakes was expected to get better due to rains, the scenario was opposite this year, after the rainwater diluted the already contaminated water in Hussain Sagar and a few other lakes like Durgam Cheruvu. When contacted, environmentalist and lake-protection activist BV Subba Rao said, “higher inflow of sewage than rainwater into the lakes is a possible reason behind this deterioration of water quality.”
As per the TSPCB data, the Biochemical Oxygen demand (BOD) value of Hussainsagar lake during the month of July was 32mg/L. Meanwhile, the average BOD value of the lake during the pre-monsoon period, from January to May, was just around 12 mg/L.
The value of dissolved oxygen in the lake has also drastically declined from 6.2mg/L during the month of May to 3.8mg/L in July. An increase in the values of other parameters, including total dissolved solids, chemical oxygen demand and faecal coliform, was also observed during the month of July, as compared to the average values during the pre-monsoon period. Same is the case for various other lakes where the water quality has worsened in July when compared to the pre-monsoon period.