Hyderabad: The Buddha Purnima Wing of the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority has claimed that the water quality of the Hussainsagar has improved as the dissolved oxygen level has increased to 2.40 mg per litre from zero this time last year.
The quality of water has improved near the mouth of the picket and Balkapur Nala and the Buddha statue; a 65 per cent increase in transparency and decrease in foul smell. Experts, meanwhile, say that the dissolved oxygen (DO) level varies in every season. Only if the DO level has been constant for months together, then it can be claimed that there has been an improvement.
A water quality test carried out by the HMDA showed that the DO was 2.40 mg per litre in May 2014, 0.50 mg per litre in April, 0.90 mg per litre in March, 1.10 mg per litre in February and 1.20 mg per litre in January 2014.
The HMDA has claimed that owing to the diversion of nalas, dredging and treating of inflows, the lake’s transparency has increased along with the water quality.
The Hussainsagar cleaning programme was flagged off at a cost of Rs 370 crore with the Japan International Cooperation Agency loaning Rs 310 crore and the remaining coming from the state government. The project was supposed to be implemented in 2012. However it was extended by a year.
Meanwhile professor C. Srinivasulu, a zoologist in Osmania University, said, “It is premature to say that the lake water quality has improved; the records of the Pollution Control Board clearly state that when it rains the DO content increases. During peak summer, it is less than 1 mg per litre and as the rains start, the DO goes up to 2-3.6 mg per litre. Increase in DO is a natural phenomena that happens in any lake. The DO varies seasonally as well with the inflow of rainwater and organic material being dumped in to the lake. Such fluctuations are natural in any lake eco-system.”
“An increase in DO in one month would not indicate an improvement in water quality,” he said.
