Environmental Management and Policy Research Institute (EMPRI) suggested a 15-point programme as a conservation strategy to protect the lakes in Bangalore.
The programme, includes preparation of an inventory of all the water bodies and a Unique Identification Numbers (UID) using ISO 3166-1 coding system for the water bodies in Bangalore.
One of the major findings of the study was the lack of a water body database which is crucial for any action to be taken towards conservation. Realising this, EMPRI has prepared a project proposal on ‘Inventorisation of Water Bodies in Bangalore Metropolitan Region’.
As per the MoU signed between the government and Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, Centre for infrastructure and Sustainable Transport and Urban Planning, IISc released `50 lakh to EMPRI for the project: ‘Assessment Derived Conservation Strategies for Major Lakes of Karnataka’. Bangalore was selected as a pilot study and Centre for Lake Conservation, was set up.
According to a copy of the report accessed by Express, EMPRI will enact a Special Act for protection, conservation, maintenance of water bodies and ensure enforcement, and will asked the government to establish a special court to deal with the cases related to lakes.
EMPRI director general R M N Sahai said that they will submit a report to chief secretary S V Ranganath, BDA and other urban bodies in a day or two.