BENGALURU: Following a moderate rainfall last week, around 40 tipper lorry loads of floating material flooded the Bellandur diversion channel. Officials fear that if the rain and inflow of such floating garbage continues, the bund could give way and dirty water and floating materials could enter the lake.
A contractor, who was carrying out the works at the lake, was engaged to remove the garbage from the channel.
Officials demand that trash gates be erected at the diversion canals and the garbage be removed frequently.
Kavitha Krishna, Assistant Executive Engineer, BDA (Lakes), told TNIE that as the work is going on at Bellandur and Varthur lakes, the agency could get the diversion channel cleaned by using the labourers and machinery available and by engaging the same contractor.
“Trash gates should be installed at a few points on the 10-metre-wide diversion channel to save the lake in the long run. Once the lake development project is completed and the contractor leaves, finding men and materials to clean such accumulated trash from the channel will be difficult. If the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB), which operates the sewage treatment plant, takes up the initiative, the pollution of the lake can be avoided,” she said.
The state government and Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) were pulled up by the National Green Tribunal for poor lake maintenance and pollution, and Rs 500 crore escrow was imposed. A separate committee under former Lokayukta Justice Santosh Hegde was set up for monitoring and speeding up of development works at Varthur and Bellandur lakes.
Though the term of the committee ended two years ago, the work is yet to be completed. Recently, Prof TV Ramachandra from IISc, who is a former committee member of Varthur and Bellandur lake rejuvenation, expressed disappointment over the slow work and failure of the revenue department in clearing the buffer zone and encroachments in the lake area.