Bengaluru: Recently armed with legislative teeth intended to reverse the deterioration of water bodies, can the Karnataka Lake Conservation and Development Authority (KLCDA) step up and rein in erring civic authorities?
This was the crux of the interaction with officials of the KLCDA, including Chief Executive Officer G. Vidyasagar, hosted by The Hindu as part of our #whatsyourissue campaign.
Priya Ramasubban kicked off proceedings by drawing attention to the illegal dumping of garbage and sewage into Kaikondrahalli lake that is undoing a ‘massive rejuvenation work’. “The inlet (which brings water from Kasavanahalli lake) has been blocked with debris. On the eastern side, a politically well-connected person is letting raw sewage. When we tried to block the drain, the labourers were attacked. Three of them had to be hospitalised,” said Ms. Ramasubban.
Mr. Vidyasagar said a ‘hard-hitting letter’ on the lake had been sent to the BBMP four months ago. “We will inspect the lake on Tuesday. If any violation is found, we will take action,” he said.
Sewage in lakes
A significant number of questions were on sewage entering lakes, which is a persistent problem afflicting our water bodies.
A. Shivananda, who resides near Yele Mallappa Shetty lake, highlighted dumping of sewage into the 490-acre lake by industry while Sourabh S., who was part of the citizen-driven initiative to clear weeds at Hulimavu lake, wanted an end to the dumping of large amounts of chemical by laundry units. Former CRPF inspector Syed Muneer and activist Kiran Kulkarni brought up the continued sewage inflow into Belandur lake.
Shobha Bhat and G. Srinivas pointed out that dumping of garbage and waste are slowly choking Malatahalli and Ullal lakes in west Bengaluru.
Mr. Vidyasagar said KLCDA will keep a vigil on the BWSSB, which had promised to divert and treat 1,450 million litres of sewage by December 2019. Moreover, to ensure that existing STPs function to their capacity, KLCDA will undertake inspections at night when the units are suspected to be non-functional.
Report on Belandur-Agara wetland soon
With the National Green Tribunal asking the erstwhile Lake Development Authority to look at the damage to rajakaluves due to large-scale construction by two builders in the Agara wetlands, Shridhar Pabbishetty from Namma Bengaluru Foundation asked about the status of the report. Mr. Vidyasagar said the technical report had been prepared and would be whetted by researchers from the Indian Institute of Science within 45 days.
A few questions were about transparency of civic authorities, either in marking out Storm Water Drains or making public the Detailed Project Report for development of lakes. KLCDA promised to put the SWD maps online and advise all civic authorities to upload the DPRs for comments.
People Speak
“Consider a city-wide rainwater harvesting system. It takes minimal funds to fix rain gauges at the ward level. This way, we can see the amount of water entering lakes, and then plan desilting, de-weeding activities based on this,” says N.S. Mukunda, Citizen Action Forum (CAF).
“Debris is being dumped in Doddabommasandra lake. Nearly four acres of wetlands has been encroached. The BBMP claims to have prepared a DPR, but citizens are not privy to the details,” says Madhuri Subbarao, Friends of Lakes.
“To encourage the lake warden programme, KLCDA is directly taking applications from citizens. We will also introduce an Interactive Voice Response system soon to address problems currently faced by applicants,” says G. Vidyasagar, Chief Executive Officer, Karnataka Lake Conservation and Development Authority.
