Hyderabad: Environmentalists are crying foul over GHMC’s move to beautify 20 lakes in the city, terming the Rs 400-crore beautification programme as a money minting exercise by civic officials and contractors.
They alleged the civic body was still following conventional methods which have not yet yielded desired results. They suggested better scientific solutions for a cheaper rate.
They noted that the beautification will have a far greater effect if the nalas and the lakes are treated through the bio-remediation and bio-technical methods, which are cost-effective by up to 60 per cent. Bio-remediation involves organisms to remove pollutants from a contaminated site.
“GHMC have been wasting money for beautification of lakes by using unscientific methods. The contaminated water can be treated naturally and the treated water can be put into other uses,” B.V. Subba Rao, a retired scientist and an environmental specialist, said.
“The unscientific methods followed earlier have yielded negative results at Safilguda, Saroorna-gar, Langer Houz and Durgam Cheruvu,” he pointed out.
The Pune Municipal Corporation has been practising these methods for the last two decades, he noted. Quoting Hasma-thpet lake, he said that most of the encroachments in the city were made by influential political leaders. “I don’t know which the deprived will pay Rs 1.5 lakh to regularise his land and the government is using the deprived to justify its incompetency,” he said.
Lubna Sarwath, co-convener of Save Our Urban Lakes (SOUL), said that the corporation has been spending huge money to beautify city lakes. “Why the list of the lakes was not in the public domain? Why is the GHMC keeping the lake development and beautification under secrecy?” she asked.
She said that the beautification will only benefit contractors and GHMC officials and suggested several scientific methods, which are cheaper.
