To save its dying lakes, Bengaluru now has its own lake watch

In order to stop the slow death of the city’s lakes, various citizen and civic groups have come together to form the city’s own lake watch – United Bengaluru.
To save its dying lakes, Bengaluru now has its own lake watch
To save its dying lakes, Bengaluru now has its own lake watch
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A city which once had over 1,000 lakes is now down to a few hundred sewage-ridden and frothy water bodies.

One of the biggest civic issues that has haunted Bengaluru since its gradual expansion is the deteriorating conditon of its lakes.

Some of the oldest and biggest lakes have now been turned into iconic structures in the city. The Kanteerava Stadium which replaced the Sampangi Lake, the Dharmabuddi lake once used to be where the Kempegowda Bus Station now stands in Majestic and the beautiful Challaghatta Lake now houses the KGA Golf Course.

In order to stop the slow death of the city’s lakes, various citizen and civic groups have come together to form the city’s own lake watch – United Bengaluru.

“Everyone talks about lake clean up but one of the root causes for the pollution is untreated sewage which flows into the storm water drains and into the lakes. Bengaluru produces 1,400 tonnes of human waste every day and the BWSSB only has the capacity to treat half of it. The other half flows into the lakes, which has caused its deterioration,” said Architect Naresh V Narasimhan.

The group aims to collect information about the city’s lakes and ensure that government agencies are held responsible for the maintenance of these water bodies.

“The BWSSB is an agency which has no political power. Besides regulating Cauvery water supply, the agency does nothing much. This body, which has no political representation and currently, no chairman, needs to be divided into units for Cauvery water supply, maintenance of sewage and storm water drains and an advisory board to chalk out the problems that need to be fixed immediately. Instead of making it a huge infrastructure project of diverting the sewage pipes from the lakes, it needs to be decentralised and work should be carried out at ward levels,” said AT Ramaswamy of the Anti Land Grabbing Action Committee.

United Bengaluru has set up a website which has listed all the lakes in the city and the concerned officials’ contact details.

“We are mapping the lakes and will list the details of the lakes and also contact numbers of the concerned custodians so that residents can file complaints without having to run around to different offices. These authorities can then be held accountable if complaints are not looked into,” said Sridhar Pabbisetty, CEO of Namma Bengaluru Foundation.

Sandalwood actor, Yash, who was present at the inauguration of United Bengaluru promised to sponsor the clean up of a few lakes in the city.

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