Hyderabad: Citizens fight to keep lakes alive

Hyderabad: For 70-odd members of Helping Hands Humanity, the last 12 Sundays have been dedicated to cleaning three water bodies, in Saroornagar, Boduppal and Dammaiguda. Each group manages to collect 50 to 80 kg of water hyacinth and garbage from each lake every Sunday.

Members are divided into groups based on their convenience and distance from their place to the lake. They are intimated through social media, on Saturday about the agenda and time for the meet up.

"Blocked nalas are the root cause for death of lakes. People are killing the lakes with garbage and plastic. Government authorities are letting sewage water into lakes without treatment which is killing these lakes," says Prashanth from Helping Hands Humanity.

Saroornagar Lake, Raa Cheruvu in Boduppal and Annarayan Cheruvu in Dammaiguda are being cleaned for several months but the volunteers say they need locals also to participate. Prashanth is not getting the desired response from the locals he expected. He says, "We have a problem with the locals living nearby. They actively complain about their problems but, no one is willing to take up responsibility for the cleanliness of their surroundings and no one comes forward to help."

"We need drainage diversion and lake clean up which is pending for last several years. We are facing mosquito menace. It is high time the lake is cleaned so we took the initiative," says Vijay Shekhar who chips in cleaning the Annarayan Cheruvu.

A problem in cleaning the lakes is the silt which makes it difficult to remove plastic and locals continue to dump garbage which is a concern, aver volunteers.

"Our demand is to fence the entire lake so that there is no dumping and stop the chemical waste released into the lake from nearby companies also to develop the lake surrounding to make it a walk/running track," says Venkat Chary, a techie from Gachibowli who works in cleaning Raa Cheruvu.

The team requested the civic authorities to send trucks to pick up the garbage every week. Rs 5,000 is spent on gloves, masks and other material for the clean-up which the members donate.