BHUBANESWAR: Water and Power Consultancy Services Limited (WAPCOS), a consultancy organisation and PSU under the Ministry of Water Resources, has suggested several measures for rejuvenation and conservation of Bindusagar lake and its five periphery tanks in the State Capital.
It has proposed de-watering of the lake, removal of sedimentation layers from the tank bed, provision of fresh water inflow from nearby Daya river and other water bodies and release of some selected fish varieties which would eat the overgrowing aquatic weeds.
The Central organisation has proposed separate tanks (kunds) near it so that offerings like flowers and garlands would be thrown in it, clearing of floating debris regularly from these ‘kunds’ and placing of aerators to maintain the dissolved oxygen level.
While the suggestion of water supply from Daya river has been propped from near Lingipur with a two million litres per day (MLD) plant at Samantarapur, fish species like Tilapia and Grass Carp could be released into the water body with the technical help from Central Institute of Freshwater Aquaculture so that growth of weeds would remain controlled.
Similarly, proposal has also been given for management of water with the other five tanks, except the Ganga Jamuna tank, which needs no intervention as the stream is very active and produces good quality of water throughout the year.
The consultancy presented its draft proposal before stakeholders at a meeting held at Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) here on Friday. It also organised a meet on the banks of the lake which was attended by Mayor Ananta Narayan Jena, Bhubaneswar MP Prasanna Kumar Patsani, local corporators, priests and servitors from various temples and residents of Old Town area.
During discussion with stakeholders, WAPCOS experts raised their concern over carefree disposal of offerings such as flowers and garlands. They requested the stakeholders to create awareness so that communities residing nearby would refrain from polluting Bindusagar.
They also discussed issues like lack of sewerage and storm water network, shrinking of marshy land around the historic water body and pollution of natural drainage channel with household waste water disposal.
While the expert body on water management took up Bindusagar as the central source for revival of a water ecosystem, it selected five other water bodies for the project which are Devipadahara, Kotitirtha, Godipokhari, Ganga Jamuna and Godavari Kund.
Built around 8th Century, Bindusagar is located in an area of about 8.9 hectares.