Hyderabad: A tragedy of our times is that Hyderabad is competing with Bengaluru to get its own Bellandur Lake. For the sixth time in a row this year itself, Pariki Lake at Dharani Nagar in Kukatpally has been spewing foam.
Solutions by the civic body and pollution control board are primarily to regulate the foam and are merely an eyewash. Pariki Lake is no different from the Bellandur situation, although on a smaller scale.
Bengaluru-based researcher pointed out that frothing in Bengaluru can be contained with watermelon, banana and citrus peels. Mr. A. Pavan, second-year Aeronautical Engineering student at MVJ College of Engineering, said, “If the water has high phosphate content, then even the Hyderabad lakes are bound to froth. Based on the content of the phosphates,the amount of peel to be used can be judged”.
Environmental experts who have observed the Pariki lake largely attribute the foaming to bacterial agents and not detergents or phosphates. Lake protection and water management expert BV Subba Rao said, “Pariki is a smaller version of Bellandur with differences. Pariki is upstream, development work is not high density, there is one more lake and then the industrial area. The lake also shows a lot of ecological difference as the hyacinth is suppressed by another species. We have proved the presence of filamental bacteria in this. The frothing occurs only at the outlet point when it touches the ground."
“While everybody is blaming industrial effluents, in case of Bellandur lake, domestic sewerage was also responsible. I am trying to design a large scale peel filtration for lake. I have been working on the chemical part of the foaming and not the biological. If the presence of bacteria is determined, there is a need to find out the source of it”, Mr.Pavan added.
He said that the phosphates in Bellandur were killing the good bacteria. Experts had pointed out several times, the need to do root cause analysis instead of just providing temporary solutions.
Instead of investing in the research and scientific approach, the priorities seem to be different for authorities. “Whether at Pariki or Bellandur, people are not looking into the root cause of the foaming. When we take samples, only ecoli are analysed, there is need to analyse microbials. Even without rains, if the flow is good, frothing still takes place.”
A resident Mahender Reddy said, “Every time it rains, the area foams. It is the sixth or seventh time that frothing has happened. Not one concrete measure has been taken so far. Officials just put the anti-foaming agent and leave.”
