Empty Hussainsagar plans are a washout

Hyderabad: With just a month left for summer, the Telangana State government, which had boasted of cleaning the Hussainsagar, is silent on the matter. The HDMA, which maintains the lake, has not drafted any plans yet which means that the “lake emptying” process has been put off.

There is also no word on the proposed Vinayaksagar. This means that Ganesh idol immersions will continue to be held at Hussainsagar this year.

Pradeep Chandra, the MD of the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority, said, “Currently, the priority is to divert the sewerage waste entering from the Kukatpally nala, which is one of the main sources of pollution.

Dredging activity is on and has been completed for the Picket, Banjara and Balkapur nalas, while Kukatpally, which brings along chemical effluents, needs to be treated.

Only when all the nalas are diverted, sewerage water will stop entering the lake, which is one of the alternatives to the clean-up process.”

Experts state that emptying the lake cannot be done in the stipulated time frame as the discharge will take several months since the outlets are designed to withstand only a certain outflow. The first step should be to block all the nalas, big and small.

Environmentalist S. Jeevanand Reddy said, “Firstly, there should be control on the waste water flowing into the lake not just from the four important nalas, but also from the small drains that flow unchecked from the slum areas directly into the lake.”

Hussainsagar currently has three sewerage treatment plants and every day, 50 million litres per day of treated water is released from these STPs. However, only 35 MLD enters the lake in order to maintain the lake balance while the remaining 15 MLD is sold to other agencies like the Railways and the Buddha Pournima Project.

Experts say that the two outlets, at Marriott hotel and BPP office, Tank Bund should be reconstructed to withstand the millions of litres of water that will be flushed out of the tank while emptying it.