HYDERABAD: Activists in the city are demanding that Pollution Control Board and lake engineering officials check for poisonous gasses and toxic gaseous emissions from the Hussainsagar near the inflow and outflow channels at Lower Tank Bund. The lake was found to be spewing toxic froth from various points like the weir, the sluice gate and near the GHMC head office, where the second outflow channel is situated.
In a letter to the officials, activist Lubna Sarwath has said that the lake has become very polluted. “Please test it for chemicals, heavy metals, pharma pollution, microplastics, human pathogens, apart from the standard parameters used for testing pollutants of water bodies,” Lubna said in her letter. She identified five spots to check the lake, where it was flowing through human habitation and endangering lives with poisonous gases.
She noted that the smell emanating from the lake is hazardous to all the employees working in the vicinity. “On August 19, we visited North Tanks Division office at Buddha Bhawan. For the couple of hours that we were in the office, we could not withstand the toxic air and smell. We wondered how NTD staff were working in such a place,” Lubna said in the letter.