The Rs 16 crore revival project faces newer challenges, albeit small

By ZAHID H JAVALI

The revival of the 98-acre Agara Lake is almost complete. Barring some landscaping and fencing work, the lake is fully revived at a cost of Rs 16.1 crore. Take that to mean, no sewage is going to enter the lake and pollute the water. All the waste from the storm water drains that enter the lake will be purified through a four-stage decontamination process. In addition, if it rains heavily and there is a sewage overflow from the drains, the gate will remain shut, to avoid its intake.

The lake’s pending work is supposed to end within a month and the contractor is to maintain it till the end of this year. After that, the Karnataka Lake Conservation and Development Authority has to decide on the next course of action. “90% of the work is complete,” says B Suresh, the secretary of Agara Lake Protection & Management Society. “It was supposed to be over by March this year. All the spillover works are getting done now.”

But there are newer challenges. The government has ordered the shutdown of KLCDA and all lakes will now be looked after by the Minor Irrigations Department. “A formal tender was to be called towards the lake maintenance, but now since the Lake Development Authority is no more in existence, we don’t know what will happen. This is our biggest worry.”

For now, the LDA has asked the society to maintain the lake, but the monthly costs of Rs 5-6 lakh are high and not feasible. “We have found a couple of NGOs who might take it up, but they are not in a position to sign any agreement until the elections happen and there is clarity on the subject.”

In addition, the past has come to haunt Agara Lake. Way back in May 2007, Agara Lake was handed over to a private company for a 15-year-lease in a public-private partnership. The residents went to court in 2008 with the help of Environment Support Group’s Public Interest Litigation and got the agreement quashed in 2009. This led to the handing over of the lake back to the Lake Development Authority. But the private party went to court saying they got the contract first and went in for an arbitration. Last year, the government lost the case. So the lake now needs to be handed back to the private company for its upkeep and maintenance for the next 15 years. “Now, the LDA wa trying to get a stay in High Court, but it was shutdown before that,” says Suresh. “We will fight it tooth and nail and we may even file a PIL after gathering all the records and consulting the legal experts.”

For the next six months, the lake’s maintenance will not be a problem. And by then, a new government will be sworn in and there will be more clarity on how and when the Minor Irrigation Department will take over the lakes. Until then, we have to thank the core team of the Agara Lake Protection Society for doing their bit in getting the lake to this stage: Yellappa Reddy, Jayakrishnan, Retd Air Marshall Rajkumar, Brig (retd) RS Murthy, Kavitha Reddy, Muniswamy Reddy, Ramakrishna Reddy and Munivenkatappa.

By 2020 March, a sewage treatment plant that can process 45 million litres per day will be ready. “The lake will have to depend on rain water for this and the next year,” says Suresh. “Once the STP is ready, we will get treated water for the lake.” Unlike some residents expressing their misgivings about the plant, Suresh says this is a more advanced secondary treatment plant where sludge formation will be a lot less. “Even now, there is smell in the lake at the flyover and Sarjapur Road junctions. But after the STP happens, the smell will be a bit less than now. The Rs 70 crore plant will be on a ten-year maintenance plan.”

BWSSB’s long-pending separate sewage pipeline is almost ready and that is good news for the lake too. “They will divert the sewage to the underground pipeline. By this, 70-80% of sewage in stormwater drains will get diverted to the pipeline,” says Suresh.

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