Drone used to clean up Miyapur Lake

• Sprays biochemicals to kill hyacinth, mosquitos

• Manual cleaning is labour-intensive and also time-consuming

• Manual spraying does not reach every part of lake

Miyapur: A custom-made 10 ltr drone was fitted with bio-enzymes comprising neem, citrodora sprays to dry and remove water hyacinths andpyrethrum herbal chemical to eradicate mosquitoes at the Miyapur Lake here on Thursday.

GHMC Zonal Commissioner Harichandana said, "Drone technology is developing rapidly and has a lot of potential to be leveraged in several ways and this is what the GHMC turned to for a highly innovative solution." The services of MARUT, a drone company was taken for the project.

The drone was then flown over the Miyapur Cheruvu lake, a 16-acre water body that was almost completely covered with hyacinth and mosquito infestations. The drone released up to 112 litres of the bio-enzyme spray over the course of just one day.

With manual spraying, it is almost impossible to cover the entire expanse and reach the middle of the lake, leaving the mosquito larva to fester in the centre of the lake. The drone, however, was able to reach every part of the surface area that had to be sprayed, from the edges of the lake right to the middle and therefore it could see through a complete eradication of the mosquito infestation.

Eradication of mosquitos and removalof hyacinths is a labour intensive and time-consuming activity needing manual spraying of right biochemicals over a large expanse of water body. This is a task that is known to require up to 10 people working over a period of 15 days.

Also, manual spraying is risky as the individual has to enter lake bed which is risky. EPTRI is doing water sample study to determine effect.