BENGALURU: After facing the heat from the National Green Tribunal for slip-shod work on rejuvenation of the Bellandur lake, the civic authorities seem to have finally hit upon an idea to solve the persistent problem of frothing at the lake. The 917-acre water body will now be emptied and dried up completely for desilting before rejuvenation works are taken up to return the lake to its past glory.
The NGT-constituted committee has agreed to the proposal. This will be the first time that such a large water body will be completely dried up for desilting before refilling.
The lake had caught global attention for all the wrong reasons — frothing and fire on the water body, found to have been caused due to extreme pollution due to industrial effluents seeping into the lake. Earlier, the plan of the state government agencies was to dry the lake in water-tight compartments and take up desilting works. But now the plan has changed.
The government has set 2020 as the deadline to desilt the lake and to be kept ready in time for the monsoon showers. But the exercise of completely drying up the lake will now take long as the heads of departments concerned have changed.
The state government changed Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) Commissioner and Urban Development Department (UDD) Additional chief secretary. The custody of the lake is also being changed. The government is also yet to decide whether BDA or BBMP will take up the desilting exercise.
“We do not know if BDA or BBMP will desilt the lake, but the idea of dividing the lake into 6-8 parts and desilting it, has been dropped,” s BDA official said.
‘Dewatering of lake has already begun’
“It will now be completely dried up. Work on de-watering the lake has already started with the help of sluice gates,” said a BDA official. The government also dropped the idea of handing over the lake to the Army’s MEG & Centre for rejuvenation and restoration. It had also dropped the idea of using wet dredging technology under which the lake is desilted without drying it up.
“Wet dredging was dropped because the government feared losing control of the lake. It has already lost control on some part of Ulsoor lake, which is well maintained by MEG & Centre even today while the part which is under BBMP is in a shambles,” said a NGT Committee member.
“We had dried up a part of the lake on a trial basis a month ago, but then locals started complaining of borewells drying up and water problems. After this, the idea was dropped and approval of NGT was sought,” a BDA official said.
CHAOS FOR LOCALS
With work in progress to dewater the lake, the locals have started complaining of mosquito menace. They complain of increase in cases of dengue. The NGT has directed the health department to take all precautionary measures.
HOW IT WILL BE DONE
* Dewatering the lake by diverting water to Varthur Lake and South Pinakini river
* Constructing temporary drain and temporary STP to ensure flow of water is not disturbed
* Desilting the lake
* Setting up Sewage Treatment Plant to ensure treated water enters the lake after desilting, to refill it