After weeks of frothing and foaming, mysterious fires and flooding, the beleaguered Belandur lake seems to have finally spurred civic authorities into action.
In a review meeting on Thursday, B. Ramalinga Reddy, district in-charge Minister, asked the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) to start work on containing the foam “immediately”. The suggested measures include spraying water on the foam.
Among the major decisions taken was to make sewage treatment mandatory for apartments around the lake. Currently, nearly 110 villages in the Belandur-Varthur area are not connected through an underground drainage network.
The Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) has been directed to issue an order making it compulsory for any complex around the lake with more than five dwelling or commercial units to treat their sewage within the premises. As of now, it is mandatory for apartments with more than 50 flats to operate an in-house sewage treatment plant.
The order is expected to be implemented and enforced by the civic body, said T.M. Vijay Bhaskar, BBMP Administrator.
With the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) – which manages the lake – claiming their prerogative extended only to development of lakes and not its maintenance, much of the task was entrusted to the corporation.
“As a temporary measure, we will start spraying the lake with water to ensure the foam settles,” said Mr. Bhaskar.
Apart from this, the corporation will also call tenders “within the week” to desilt storm water drains around the lake, he said. The blocking of a drain for BBMP work had resulted in lake water overflowing around Yemalur on Tuesday.
