Agara Lake jogging track restored; finishing is yet to happen!

The sewege pipeline underneath a stretch of the Agara Lake jogging track is now restored by the Bangalore Water Supply & Sewerage Board (BWSSB). The track had collapsed recently due to incessant rains for the second time. The first occurrence was in September 2018.

However, the finishing work is yet to be taken up. BWSSB officials told Residents Watch that the levelling of mud, curb stones and pavers is now the job of the Waste Water Management firm.

“Our job got over a few days ago, however, the finishing work did not happen immediately as you need time for the mud to settle down properly, before you can begin the work,” said a BWSSB official. “There is a chance that the track might collapse again if we start the finishing work too early.”

Recently, former chief justice Santosh Hegde, the head of lake development plan had visited Agara Lake and was shocked to hear that the BWSSB’s sewage treatment plant was letting sewage into the stormwater drain abutting the water body. The officials told him that there was no provision to let only treated water enter the drains and the lake. Calling off their bluff, the Agara Lake Protection & Management Society members petitioned the former Lok Ayukta with a list of complaints that had to be redressed by the utility agencies.

Managing water bodies is crucial to ensuring that stormwater drains are free from sewage. Similarly, the groundwater contamination can be minimal if the sewage finds its way into the many STPs across the city. However, the government is finding it difficult to procure land and later run an STP efficiently and at optimum capacity.

That is the reason why the residents don’t want it in their neighbourhoods as past records of BWSSB running a successful STP are too few and far between. To reduce the burden on the BWSSB, the government has mandated that bulk producers of sewage like apartments of certain sizes must have their own STPs in place.