BENGALURU: Sewage was seen entering Lalbagh Lake on Friday morning, according to a regular visitor to the garden.
When K Raju, an official of Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) in charge of the lake, was notified, he said though he hadn’t seen the lake on Friday, a bund had been constructed to prevent sewage water from entering the lake, and so it wasn’t possible.
Earlier in May, as per a report filed by the senior environmental officer, KSPCB, officials found that sewage had flown into the lake both from a manhole and from an open drain near the lake. To rectify the issue, officials of BWSSB and the Horticulture Department increased the size of the bund using mud in order to collect the sewage water and then pumped it back into the manhole using two pumps.
As per Raju’s version, sewage didn’t actually enter the lake, but it was close enough. He said the incident at the time was in fact caused due to a PWD contractor’s negligence. He said, “The contractor had been tasked with desilting a small tank near the lake. After doing so, he put all the silt inside the manhole near the lake. Due to this, the sewage got blocked, and then reversed its direction and went via the SWD towards the lake water. Luckily, it was stopped by the bund.” Raju said he and BWSSB officials had to work on war footing to prevent sewage from entering the lake.