More than 50 days into the clean-up operations initiated by the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA), Hussainsagar lake shows little improvement in water quality.
Commuters on the Tankbund and Necklace Road can still vouch by the stench that is emanating from the murky waters of the lake, more so in the evening.
The stink has been a sore point for HMDA for over eight months, with much criticism being heaped on it for the inefficiency in maintaining water quality.
Responding to this, the urban development body had, in April this year, roped in NACOF, a public sector unit based in Bengaluru for cleaning up the lake. The agency, that had quoted ₹1.6 crore for the six-month drive, was chosen through global tenders.
Bioremediation methods such as Effective Micro-organisms, and Bokashi balls were said to be employed for treating the lake and restoring water quality. However, close to two months into the operations, officials from HMDA say that the results are not quite satisfactory.
“At this stage, we can just say that the results of the clean up operations have not been satisfactory. As the first step towards taking action, we have issued notices to the agency,” said a highly placed official.
The agency is reportedly blaming the recent rains bringing in more sludge and industrial effluents into the lake as the cause of failed operations.
Similar clean-up effort taken up as a pilot in 2016 had improved the water quality considerably, say officials. However, deterioration has set in again with the water board taking up repairs and renovation of its sewerage main trunk line on the NTR Marg, necessitating diversion of sewage water from two nalas straight into the Hussainsagar.
A total of 150 million litres of sewage (MLD) has been entering the lake every day from Banjara and Balkapur nalas since October last, which has turned the lake back to the veritable cesspool it had been.