The Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA), which has taken up a series of measures towards restoring the lost glory of Hussainsagar lake, has now decided to take up bio-remediation of lake.
Under the Hussainsagar Lake and Catchment Improvement Project taken up with financial assistance from Japan International Cooperation Agency, the HMDA intends to go for in situ bio-remediation process using engineered microbial cultures that can be added to the polluted lake water for its improvement. This is expected to help arrest the algal blooms and foul smell emissions and improve the overall water quality.
The HMDA has extended global invitation for proposals to design, procure and implement engineered bio-remediation that will ensure results in the form of improved water and sediment quality while reducing algal blooms and increasing the dissolved oxygen content of the water body. While the project period is one year during which the water quality has to be brought to certain standards, the same has to be maintained for further three years of operation and maintenance by the successful bidder.
Hussainsagar, the man-made lake set up in the year 1562, provided drinking water to the city till early 1930s. However, it has over the years been polluted to levels that has been described as ‘unfit for use in any human activity'. The present HMDA project has taken up a number of activities for the lake that include diversion of sewage inflows, sewerage treatment plants and nala improvement in catchment which are long term measures and will take time to show results about water quality of the lake.
