HYDERABAD: Hussainsagar’s future seems bleaker, as the scale of Durga puja festivities keep getting bigger in Hyderabad. On Wednesday, around 2,500 idols of the goddess from across the city were brought for immersion in Hussainsagar, according to Bhagyanagar Durga Matha Utsav Samithi. Officials of the Samithi told Express that the number of idols increased by around 500 when compared to last year.
It was not surprising that on Thursday morning the condition of Hussainsagar water was much worse than the adjacent Lake View Park which holds treated sewage water. The lake’s water had a strong stench, was covered with a green layer, had patches of aquatic vegetation floating over it in patches and mounds of remnant waste accumulated over its shores.
When contacted, officials of the Telangana State Pollution Control Board (TSPCB) informed that the lake’s water quality was not monitored before, during and after the Durga puja festivities, like it was done in the case of Ganesh festival, as the scale of Durga puja festivities is much smaller. “As it rained on Thursday and it is expected that rains will continue further, the water quality of the lake might improve,” he said.
City-based environmentalist BV Subba Rao said that the greening of the lake could be due to algal bloom, triggered by decomposing organic waste in the lake, like flowers and leaves thrown in the lake by devotees after immersing the idols. He said that the decomposition of the organic waste also knocks down the levels of dissolved oxygen in the lake, rendering it lifeless for any organism to survive.
“It is not just immersion of idols in the lake and organic waste thrown there but Hussainsagar receives water from more than 25 lakes in the upstream, where the idols would be immersed and waste thrown in. Hussainsagar has a catchment area of around 270 sq.km,” Rao said.