NEW DELHI: Continuing the project of rejuvenation of water bodies in the national capital, the Delhi Jal Board has successfully cleaned the Sanjay Van Lake.“We have successfully cleaned Sanjay Van Lake (holding capacity 129 MGD) and deployed floating rafters to enhance water quality. This will not only beautify but also improve groundwater table,” tweeted Delhi Jal Board Vice-Chairperson Raghav Chadha.
The Sanjay Van Lake, which is also under the ‘city of lakes project’, is one of the five lakes where this concept of floating wetland islands is being implemented, the others being at Rani Khera, Jaffarpur Kalan, Nangloi and Sonia Vihar.
“The DJB is working on its rejuvenation with a combination of wetland and aeration. Though it is under the jurisdiction of the DDA, CM Arvind Kejriwal approved funding from Delhi government budget for its rejuvenation in 2018. Fifty such water bodies will be ready by December 2021,” said a senior DJB official.
“There are three things required wherever the water is polluted --- air, bacteria and surface where bacteria can grow. So, when we are putting floating plants and floating wetlands in the lake, or any flowing water or stream, then three things are happening.
One, plants are actually absorbing nutrients from the waste water and those nutrients are pollutants, basically nitrogen and phosphorus. The surface of the roots act as a hosting place for bacteria to grow. The bacteria need a place to get attached. We are also adding aeration equipment in the lake so that we can maintain high dissolved oxygen levels. So, bacteria will take oxygen and remove ammonia from the water,” explained Ankit Srivastava, Advisor, DJB.
“We had already done it in Rajokri lake and it is also proposed for Bawana lake. Currently, we have already put that in around six lakes. We are waiting for certain permissions to install the aeration system as well,” he noted.