The Ornamental Lake, one of the landmarks of the hill station of Yercaud, got a further facelift when the members of the Yercaud Youth Welfare Association and (YYWA) along with college students renovated and whitewashed its walls recently.
The YYWA has been involved in the project of beautification of Ornamental Lake since March this year and the project is nearing completion. They have undertaken the beautification project raising funds on their own.
The YYWA members got permission from the district administration for launching the cleaning project in different phases. About 30 member of the association along with 20 local youths initially removed the water hyacinth from the water body and later cleaned the lake. The project included deepening the lake, strengthening the bunds.
The volunteers also planted more than 700 saplings of various plant varieties including poovarasu, vembu, teak, sandal, manthaarai, magizham and vilvam. They also raised buffalo and korai grass on the bunds to prevent erosion during the rainy season.
A total of three filter points were set up to prevent the flow of garbage and other plastic wastes along with the rain water.
According to M. Devaprakash, projector director of the YYWA, the walls posed a damaged look. The volunteers and college students repaired the walls and later whitewashed the same for three days.
Mr. Devaprakash said that his association has planned to set up reverse osmosis plant at the lake site. Besides, fencing the lake, a walkers track will also be laid, he added.
