Stinking Hussainsagar puts off visitors

For the last two days, those driving along Tank Bund or Necklace Road or coming to spend an evening along the shores of Hussainsagar have been subjected to stinking smell from the water.

The Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA), which was alerted of this odour, has decided to collect water samples from the lake for analysis to check the cause.

The problem of the nauseating smell is more evident during the summer months, but the phenomenon now has come as a surprise, particularly when the authorities have taken up a series of measures to clean the lake.

The high inflows due to rains in the last month was suspected to be one of the cause, but strong doubts were also raised on industrial effluents surreptitiously finding their way into the water body.

“We will be immediately collecting samples from not only the lake, but also from confluence points of different inlets to find the cause of this smell,” HMDA Member Secretary Sunil Kumar Gupta said. The Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board (APPCB) which also regularly monitors the lake, was being alerted about the problem, an official said.

JICA assistance

“The PCB collects samples on regular basis and we are informing them about the odour problem. There is a possibility of industries of Jeedimetla or Kukatpally discharging effluents and that has to be verified,” he said.

The HMDA has taken up cleaning of the lake under Hussainsagar Catchment Area Improvement Project with financial assistance from Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and as part of it has been setting up a series of Interception & Diversion (I&D) structures, dredging of the sediments and installation of high jet fountains for aeration.