HYDERABAD: Despite its vibrant hues and ovate leaves, the water hyacinth found covering most of the city’s water bodies these days is one of the most noxious aquatic plants. 

But why is this massive takeover happening?

As the rivers and lakes get contaminated with feces, the government authorities are failing to control the menace of sewage mixing in the lakes. The Telangana State Pollution Control Board (TSPCB) monitors 17 lakes across the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) and Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) limits regularly. According to the water-quality monitoring report of these lakes of December 2018, recently made public by the TSPCB, 11 of these lakes are covered with water hyacinth. 

One major reason behind this is the presence of sewage in the lakes that provide nutrients for these plants to grow, as at many places sewage from households is directly let into water bodies without treatment in a Sewage Treatment Plant (STP). 

The mixing of sewage in the 17 lakes monitored by TSPCB is proved by the presence of fecal coliform. The TSPCB has found fecal coliform to be present in 16 of them, indicating that the lakes are contaminated with human and animal feces. In addition, the TSPCB report also mentions that the odour is “septic” in 14 of the lakes. 

The TSPCB also monitors 14 water bodies located in Industrial Development Areas. While the lakes here are not covered with water hyacinth, TSPCB data shows they are contaminated with high amounts of dissolved solids apart from feces, indicative of contamination of the water bodies by industrial effluents. According to the report, all the IDA lakes have fecal coliform in them.

The concentration of Total Dissolved Salts, which should ideally be 500 ppm, was found to be as high as 900-3,500 ppm. The electrical conductivity of the water in IDAs was found to be between 1,500-4000 millisiemens per centimeter (mS/cm). According to the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), the water in these lakes is not even fit for irrigation, as it falls in the ‘medium’ (750-2,250 mS/cm) and ‘bad’ (2,250-4,000mS/cm) quality category of water for irrigation. High electrical conductivity is a result of the water getting contaminated by salts and heavy metals, that are released in industrial effluents. 

‘Will review condition of lakes’

Responding to a tweet recently, MAUD secretary Arvind Kumar had tweeted, “Will have comprehensive review with @GHMCOnline @CommissionrGHMC & his team coming week on lakes cleaning & rejuvenation & @GHMCOnline shall revert with lakewise action plan including timelines for the lakes being taken up asap @KTRTRS @zcwz_ghmc @ZC_Kukatpally @ZC_Secunderabad..(sic)” Inspecting one such lake filled with water hyacinth, GHMC commissioner M Dana Kishore had said that 20 lakes are set to be rejuvenated and transformed as community spaces, in phase-1 of Urban Lake Rejuvenation under Mission Kakatiya