By Desaraju Surya
Hyderabad: Before its transformation into the so-called high-tech city, thanks to the information technology boom, Hyderabad was famously known as the city of pearls and also the city of lakes. When someone talks about Hyderabad's lake system, the first one that strikes the mind is the Hussain Sagar lake, though there were over 532 water bodies in and around the state capital. These lakes, apart from serving as drinking water sources, also effectively helped in rain water harvesting in the semi-arid zone for irrigation. Rapid urbanisation over the past few decades has made the lakes redundant for irrigation. Unbridled discharge of domestic and industrial effluents and sewerage has turned the lakes into cesspools of filth. As demand for land increased with the spurt in population growth, lakes got encroached indiscriminately. Areas adjacent to the lakes were also converted into housing layouts resulting in encroachment of parts of water spread area. Dumping of solid wastes, immersion of idols and landfill activity are also threatening the lakes' existence. All this has also caused widespread ecological degeneration. Now, most of the once-famous lakes in and around the city are in a state of eutrophication. The bacteria and pathogens released into the lake water by discharge of sewage are contaminating the ground water causing water-borne diseases besides encouraging mosquito growth. Thus, lakhs of people living around these water bodies are vastly affected by several maladies. The Hyderabad Urban Development Authority has notified 169 lakes spread over 3000 hectares, of which 87 are moderate to highly polluted. Of these 87, 11 are classified under category-1 that reached eutrophication while others are classified under category-2 -- which too may reach the dangerous stage if neglected. Consider the Ramakrishnapuram (Mukkidi) cheruvu in Malkajgiri municipality, which has a water spread area of 13.7 hectares now. The lakebed is encroached and two inlets carry domestic sewage into the lake leading to heavy pollution. Without the encroachments, the lake's waterspread area should have been 18.66 ha. This lake once used to be an irrigation source but urbanisation has led to development of middle-class housing colonies, altering the land use pattern. The Sudulavani Kunta lake in Kukatpally is another example where encroachments have eaten into the water spread area significantly, resulting in excessive pollution of the water body. From the actual waterspread area of 5.9 hectares, the lake area has now shrunk to 4.9 ha with encroachments on all sides except the northern side where a weir stands. "As Hyderabad is expanding on all sides at a brisk pace, lakes in the erstwhile surrounding municipalities, that are now part of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation, have been falling prey to unchecked encroachments. New residential layouts are being developed in areas like Kapra, Serlingampally, RajendraNagar and Kukatpally. This is threatening the existence of water bodies," a top Hyderabad UrbanDevelopment Authority official pointed out. All these years, various government agencies have tried to pass on the blame and wash their hands off even as environmentalists raised alarm over the degeneration of lakes and the adverse impact on the city ecological system. After the flash floods in August 2000, the then government spoke of restoring the waterbodies but that promise remained unfulfilled. Even the present government did not show much interest in the lake restoration work as realtors succeeded in thwarting all efforts of the administration to check illegal layouts and encroachment of water bodies. One reason that the authorities concerned repeatedly cited for not taking up the lake restoration projects was "dearth of funds." But now, with the Government of India generously funding infrastructure projects in urban local bodies, particularly the million-plus cities under the Jawaharlal Nehru NationalUrban Renewal Mission, the state government woke up to do at least something to save the system. The Huda has now completed a survey and prepared a detailed project report for "restoration and rejuvenation" of 11 lakes in the first phase at a total cost of Rs 71.45 crore. Once the Central Sanctioning and Monitoring Committee of JNNURM clears the project and pumps in funds, these lakes are expected to regain good shape, at least to some extent.
Hyderabad: Before its transformation into the so-called high-tech city, thanks to the information technology boom, Hyderabad was famously known as the city of pearls and also the city of lakes. When someone talks about Hyderabad's lake system, the first one that strikes the mind is the Hussain Sagar lake, though there were over 532 water bodies in and around the state capital. These lakes, apart from serving as drinking water sources, also effectively helped in rain water harvesting in the semi-arid zone for irrigation. Rapid urbanisation over the past few decades has made the lakes redundant for irrigation. Unbridled discharge of domestic and industrial effluents and sewerage has turned the lakes into cesspools of filth. As demand for land increased with the spurt in population growth, lakes got encroached indiscriminately. Areas adjacent to the lakes were also converted into housing layouts resulting in encroachment of parts of water spread area. Dumping of solid wastes, immersion of idols and landfill activity are also threatening the lakes' existence. All this has also caused widespread ecological degeneration. Now, most of the once-famous lakes in and around the city are in a state of eutrophication. The bacteria and pathogens released into the lake water by discharge of sewage are contaminating the ground water causing water-borne diseases besides encouraging mosquito growth. Thus, lakhs of people living around these water bodies are vastly affected by several maladies. The Hyderabad Urban Development Authority has notified 169 lakes spread over 3000 hectares, of which 87 are moderate to highly polluted. Of these 87, 11 are classified under category-1 that reached eutrophication while others are classified under category-2 -- which too may reach the dangerous stage if neglected. Consider the Ramakrishnapuram (Mukkidi) cheruvu in Malkajgiri municipality, which has a water spread area of 13.7 hectares now. The lakebed is encroached and two inlets carry domestic sewage into the lake leading to heavy pollution. Without the encroachments, the lake's waterspread area should have been 18.66 ha. This lake once used to be an irrigation source but urbanisation has led to development of middle-class housing colonies, altering the land use pattern. The Sudulavani Kunta lake in Kukatpally is another example where encroachments have eaten into the water spread area significantly, resulting in excessive pollution of the water body. From the actual waterspread area of 5.9 hectares, the lake area has now shrunk to 4.9 ha with encroachments on all sides except the northern side where a weir stands. "As Hyderabad is expanding on all sides at a brisk pace, lakes in the erstwhile surrounding municipalities, that are now part of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation, have been falling prey to unchecked encroachments. New residential layouts are being developed in areas like Kapra, Serlingampally, RajendraNagar and Kukatpally. This is threatening the existence of water bodies," a top Hyderabad UrbanDevelopment Authority official pointed out. All these years, various government agencies have tried to pass on the blame and wash their hands off even as environmentalists raised alarm over the degeneration of lakes and the adverse impact on the city ecological system. After the flash floods in August 2000, the then government spoke of restoring the waterbodies but that promise remained unfulfilled. Even the present government did not show much interest in the lake restoration work as realtors succeeded in thwarting all efforts of the administration to check illegal layouts and encroachment of water bodies. One reason that the authorities concerned repeatedly cited for not taking up the lake restoration projects was "dearth of funds." But now, with the Government of India generously funding infrastructure projects in urban local bodies, particularly the million-plus cities under the Jawaharlal Nehru NationalUrban Renewal Mission, the state government woke up to do at least something to save the system. The Huda has now completed a survey and prepared a detailed project report for "restoration and rejuvenation" of 11 lakes in the first phase at a total cost of Rs 71.45 crore. Once the Central Sanctioning and Monitoring Committee of JNNURM clears the project and pumps in funds, these lakes are expected to regain good shape, at least to some extent.
1 comment:
hi,
I got your blog link from Syed Akbar garu. Nice to see your blog. Site caption is too good.. oka chinna suggestion, color combos konchem ibbandi gaa vundi... design maarchochu kadaa...
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