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Hussainsagar dewatering unlikely
Dewatering of Hussainsagar Lake appears to be unlikely as international experts feel that it can be cleaned and made free from pollution without emptying it. A delegation from Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT), which visited the city in the first week of May and inspected the lake to get first hand information about the extent of pollution is also said to have advised against emptying the lake.
Our stand vindicated, say city environmentalists
Hyderabad: Dewatering of Hussainsagar Lake appears to be unlikely as international experts feel that it can be cleaned and made free from pollution without emptying it. A delegation from Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT), which visited the city in the first week of May and inspected the lake to get first hand information about the extent of pollution is also said to have advised against emptying the lake.
The Austrian team is learnt to have proposed cleaning water besides removing silt and slurry in the lake bed, in two phases, without dewatering it. According to them, the concrete steps taken by Telangana government to completely divert Kukatpally and other nalas, which were discharging toxic industrial chemicals and sewage into the lake all these years will be a big help to revive the lake. The job on hand, now, is to transform the 'lake of muck' into a fresh water lake, and this could be achieved in a phased manner.
AIT team is learnt to have communicated this in their preliminary report sent to Telangana government. The international experts expressed their interest to do a DPR (Detailed Project Report) on how to go about the challenging task and estimated the time that is required, budget and other modalities. For this, the charge quoted by them was nearly one-lakh euros, (Rs 70 lakh). The team will begin the job after receiving the nod from Telangana government.
This proposal has come as a big breather to environmentalists and water experts, who even took to legal means to stop the government from dewatering the lake. They argued that human, animal and plant life, in downstream areas, would be put to great risk if chemical effluents filled water was released without proper precautions.
Noted environmentalist Prof Purushotham Reddy, when told about Austrian experts report, replied that their stand has been vindicated. Environmentalists and various NGOs objected to the dewatering move since the government did not undertake any impact assessment study before finalising the decision. In the name of cleaning Hussain Sagar, they were thinking of releasing water into Musi, which was already highly polluted and hence everyone objected to it, he added.
Hussain Sagar has about 45 lakh cubic metres of silt (one metre depth) while the Full Tank Level is nearly 513 feet, against which 512 feet water (0.8 tmcft) is stored in the lake. Officials estimated that dewatering, at the rate of 400 cusecs per day, would have taken around one and half months for the completion of the task.
However, there would be no such cumbersome tasks in the future, if government went by the word of AIT experts, who have the rich experience of transforming the highly polluted Danube River into a clean lake.
By:Mahesh Avadhutha
