Oil balls experiment at Langer Houz lake
- The Langar Houz lake is spread over more than 20 acres and almost entire lake is filled with hyacinth.
- The lake is surrounded by residential areas. Earlier lake turned into the garbage point with tons of garbage in it
- GHMC removed the hyacinth with special equipment known as 'Hyacinth removing machines
- Volunteers comprising IT employees, students, lawyers, medicos and the aged cleaned the Lake in July.
- Every Saturday they conduct cleaning drive from 8am to 10 am at the lake
Karwan: With the objective of controlling the mosquito menace near Golconda and surrounding areas of HUDA Park at Langer Houz, the GHMC's Entomology wing has decided to try 'oil balls' on an experimental basis following their successful use in Serilingampally about two months back.
According to officials, they released 2,500 oil balls in the Langer Houz pond. The balls dissolve within 5 minutes and put an end to all the breeding activities. The process of making them involves gunny bags. The bags are first cut into pieces and filled with sawdust and prepared in the shape of a ball. Then they are soaked in Mosquito Larvae Seedle Oil (MLO) for 24 hours.
These balls are then taken out from MLO solution and released in lakes and ponds. MLO solution which is absorbed by oil balls will create a thin layer on water. This will kill larvae and reduce the growth of mosquitoes. It is an effective process to control the mosquitoes, as this liquid chemical designed to be applied directly into water to control breeding of mosquitoes. As this process became successful, GHMC has decided to implement in high extent.
On Saturday, Karwan MLA Kausar Mohiuddin along with GHMC Zonal Commissioner Musharraf Faruqui, officials from Entomologist wing released the balls as an experiment for the first time in the pond, to control the mosquitoes. Around 400 GHMC workers took part in this process.
The Langar Houz lake which is spread over more than 20 acers and almost entire lake was filled with hyacinth. The lake is surrounded by residential areas. Earlier lake was turned into the garbage point with tons of garbage in it and the hyacinth which covers the entire lake.
Recently, GHMC removed the hyacinth with special equipment known as 'Hyacinth removing machines', which cleared the weed which was growing in menacing proportions for several years. It may be mentioned here that, volunteers comprising IT employees, students, lawyers, medicos and the aged cleaned the Langer Houz Lake in the month of July. The lake is filled with garbage, sewage water and water hyacinth. Every Saturday they conduct cleaning drive from 8am to 10 am at the lake.
According to Madhulika Choudhary of Dhruvansh, an NGO, about huge quantities of sewage water enters the lake every day. The GHMC has spent crores of rupees and several projects were taken by the GHMC for the beautification of lakes in Karwan, but still there is no progress. On contrary lakes still are seen as breeding of mosquitoes. "Now, GHMC has come up with a new experiment to control and destroy breeding activities within 5 minutes. Hope this experiment can provide some relief to the residents from the mosquitoes", said Mohammed Faheem, a resident.