Hyderabad: Thick white froth covered major parts of the RK Puram lake on Monday. Foam had been forming on the 26-acre lake over the last 10 days, but the situation aggravated after steady showers lashed the city on Sunday.
Fed up with the lack of action, residents have begun complaining to minister K.T. Rama Rao on Twitter. The foam was seen flying to the nearby residential area which has over 300 houses.
“We suspect some industrial sewage was dumped or linked to the drain. We had complained last year that domestic sewage from various colonies are being let out into the lake which has led to a lot of pollution. But such frothing is new,” said Mr B.T. Sreenivas, general secretary of the United Federation of Resident Welfare Associations.
The Secunderabad Cantonment area forms the catchment of the lake and it gets run-off water from the Fox Sagar. Downstream, the water goes to the Safilguda lake from there to the Bandla Cheruvu which then leads to the Musi.
Mr B.V. Subba Rao, environmentalist and lake protection expert said such incidents keep happening as systematic profiling of water bodies was not carried out.
“They must initiate a profile of the catchment area, where it gets its water from, where the water goes, which industries are at its banks. Only then we can address the situation permanently,” said Mr Rao.
He suspects surfactants to be the culprit for the frothing. “The nutrient content in the lakes is high with high nitrates and phosphates. If untre-ated domestic waste with new kind of chemical composition is released into the lake, such problems are expected.”
When contacted, a Pollution Control Board official said he was unaware of the problem.
