Stench of Nalla Cheruvu Lake in Uppal puts off visitors

Hyderabad: Nalla Cheruvu Lake in Uppal has become a cause for concern with no appropriate sewerage treatment plant (STP). The effluents from the houses around the catchment area flow into the lake emitting a foul stink.

With soaring temperatures, the foul stink in the lake has been rising and becoming a breeding ground for mosquitoes particularly in the evening, causing inconvenience to the people visiting temples and markets around the lake.

While addressing the issue, Anala Reddy, Corporator for Uppal ward said, “Though the pipelines for the sewerage treatment were laid in year 2000, construction of STP around the lake had been confined to the papers and sewerage effluents continue to be released into the lake”.

Besides sewerage treatment, the lake does not have boundaries demarcated or any safety regulation signs. The lake also faces heavy garbage dumping from the temples and road side fruit stalls in the area.
Officials from the Lake Protection Committee, GHMC, said there are 93 out of 417 lakes with similar issues identified within Outer Ring Road (ORR). Efforts are on to start the work around Nalla Cheruvu after the maintenance budgets are released for that area.

Sewerage Treatment Plants constructed around few lakes including, Hussain Sagar Lake, failed to treat the contaminated water. According to Lubhna, Member of Save Our Urban Lakes (SOUL), a major reason is because most of the lakes in the city lack catchment area research dedicated to study the water channels through which these lakes are fed.

“How can we solve the issue of our lakes if we do not study where it feeds from? Catchment area for different lakes decide what the water of that particular lake contains hence allowing us to understand how to treat that particular water body. None of the lakes have gone through catchment area research and until these researches are done, all the efforts will be in vain”, she said.

By: Sasidhar Kocharlakota