BDA plans to install trash barrier to keep hyacinth off Bellandur lake

BENGALURU: The Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) is planning to install a trash barrier at Bellandur Lake which would collect the hyacinth at one point and make it easier to remove.On Wednesday, BDA commissioner Rakesh Singh held an interaction with residents around Bellandur Lake regarding short-term and long-term rejuvenation measures for the lake. Officials from Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB), Bangalore Water Supply & Sewerage Board (BWSSB) and experts were present.

Singh confirmed that the long term measure of installing a sewage treatment plant would be accomplished only by 2020.As per Sonali Singh, one of the residents who attended the meeting, a short-term solution suggested was to experiment with a floating trash barrier.  Such a device, successfully used in Cooum river at Chennai, collects the hyacinth and other solid matter in the lake at one place, so that their removal becomes easier.

"Removal of hyacinth will become easier and it will keep all the hyacinth in one place so that the rest of the lake can breathe," she said.DC Sekhar, the director of Alphamers, the firm which would implement the technology, said the decision was not yet confirmed.

Sonali said operating the installed sluice gates in such a way that they also drain out the water at the bottom was suggested."Wetlands were supposed to be developed by the KLCDA (Karnataka Lake Conservation & Development Authority). But as it is no longer the custodian of the lake, we asked the BDA commissioner if the BDA could take over it," she said.

RESIDENTS COMPLAIN OF SMELL FROM LAKE

Residents submitted a written complaint to KSPCB chairman Lakshman over foul smell affecting apartments near the lake, especially between 2 am and 4 am. “It has become very pungent now, and causes kids to wake up. We suspect somebody releases untreated sewage or chemicals into the lake in the cover of darkness at that time,” Sonali said.