Telangana wakes up to protect lakes

​Hyderabad:  Thanks to the National Green Tribunal (NGT), which reprimanded the Telangana government for its failure to protect lakes from pollution and extinction, for the government’s swift action to safeguard the lakes under threat in industrial areas and also encroached upon mainly in Greater Hyderabad and other municipalities.   

Following NGT’s strict directions for the restoration of dying lakes issued on October 24 to the state, the government constituted an expert committee with scientists and engineers from both the state and central government agencies.   

Based on the series of complaints lodged by civil society organizations, the NGT pulled up the government and instructed it to take up restoration of all polluted lakes identified in the industrial areas of Patancheru and Bollaram areas in Hyderabad and other parts of the city. 

The NGT also directed the government to conduct a study of antimicrobial resistance in villages within the Manjra river basin up to Nakkavagu in Sangareddy district where drinking water was found polluted.  More than 100 lakes in Greater Hyderabad and surrounding old Ranga Reddy, Nalgonda and Mahbubnagar districts were either polluted by industrial effluents or extinct due to encroachment.

Several social organization knocked the NGT doors requesting to preserve the water bodies which not only help to quench the thirst of city people and also maintain ground water table in the dense populated areas in the city.   

The expert committee comprises scientists and engineers from IIT (Hyderabad), Central Ground Water Authority, National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), state Irrigation and Telangana Pollution Control Board.  The committee has been asked to submit a report in 30 days. The committee would also have to prepare an action taken report (ATR) on the government’s efforts in protecting the lakes and submit the same to the tribunal by April 26 this year.   

State Principal Secretary to Irrigation Vikas Raj said the expert committee will review the remedial plans prepared by the Irrigation department. It will also review the progress of remedial works as per the plan of action for the complete restoration of water bodies.

The official said the committee will also monitor disposal method of contaminated sediments in the water bodies, advising on the further technical inputs about remediation and review the assessment of pre and post remediation works. The final report will be reviewed by the Minor Irrigation wing of the Irrigation department.