Hyderabad: Lethargy of officials and irresponsibility of the civic body are posing serious health threats not just to the people living around Kapra lake, but also to birds and animals alike, with the water body turning to be a breeding ground for mosquitoes of various kinds, which serve as vectors of several diseases.
Culex or nuisance mosquitoes are very high in Kapra lake as it is completely filled with water hyacinth causing mosquito menace for the residential colonies around. With the state irrigation department leaving their work halfway, the colonies around the lake are suffering as there are puddles of sewage water around.
To add to this, the sewage water drains to the lake as the pipeline works have not been completed by the irrigation department. These half-done jobs are posing a severe threat and health crisis for residents living around the lake. The lake itself does not retain water as they are not allowing the rainwater to flow into the lake.
G V Naidu, a businessman in the old Kapra municipality area, says, "Rainwater is not flowing in the lake. It is only sewage water with which the lake is filled and that has allowed the water hyacinth to grow profusely. Mosquito menace started from May onwards but no one is attending to the complaints."
The three departments which should take care of such issues – the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) and the irrigation department – seem to be unfeeling though heaps of complaints are mounting. A senior GHMC official in Kapra municipality says, "Fogging operations and larvicide in the lake have been done by the GHMC. But removing water hyacinth is the job of the HMDA and they say that machines are not available. The irrigation department has left the work halfway due to which sewage is flowing to the lake and that is leading to a fight between two departments."
In this bureaucratic tangle, it is the people living in and around Kapra lake who are suffering. Members of different resident welfare associations are following up the issue with the departments but there is hardly any action at the ground level.
Some of the residents are upset that the lake has deteriorated to this condition in the last three years. The promised work by the irrigation department has not been completed.
Vijay Sai, a resident in Netaji Nagar near High Tension Wire Road at Kapra says, "Kapra region has received good rainfall but the lake is not getting filled. With this pace of work, the irrigation department is also depleting our groundwater tables."
Despite repeated calls, officials of HMDA and irrigation department did not respond to this correspondent.
