Novel attempt to revive lake in Hyderabad

That Hyderabad is home to hundreds, if not thousands of lakes, is evident in the names of various places in and around the city. There are several places in the city whose names end with the word ‘kunta’, meaning lake/tank, implying that the locality was based on the water body it was located near.

Over the years, scores of lakes have disappeared to encroachment, pollution, sewage and more. While there have been extensive efforts by the government to preserve and rejuvenate several of these lakes, people of Hyderabad have played their role in it and have attempted to do the same.

One such person who is attempting lake rejuvenation is Vijay Kanda, a chemical engineer by profession, who also runs a city-based water and sewage management company. By employing a chemical technology called ‘cownomics’, based on Ayurvedic principles, Vijay is currently attempting to rejuvenate Kudikunta lake in Kondapur, as a part of their pilot project in the city. “Lakes and ponds have algae, hyacinth buildup, in addition to having sewage dumped into them and the problem of mosquito larvae, accumulation of sludge and more.

This experimental process, which has been tried and tested in seven different places in North India, is being used for the first time here in Hyderabad,” explains Vijay, who has been involved in water treatment for over two decades. According to him, this is a method that does not require capital-intensive equipment like sewage treatment plants, dredging devices, floating islands, etc, in addition to eliminating the heavy operating costs for labour, electricity and fuel that are incurred with those conventional methods.

Costing less than 1 per cent of those practises, this one just involves treating the water body with their product every day for a certain time period and it also doesn’t leave residue that requires money to be transported for disposal elsewhere.

“This technology digests the organic matter and it also works even while sewage is being dumped into the lake as it digests that too. We have taken it up as a challenge to rejuvenate this lake without stopping the pumping of sewage into the lake. We started the Kudikunta project in November 2020 and are expected to finish it in a few days,” claims Vijay.

Cow-product based mixture used

It is a Delhi-based company that aims to solve ecological problems by utilising their proprietary ayurvedic composition. According to Vijay, the process used in this method of lake rejuvenation comprises diluting the concentrated cow-product based mixture in a small tank built next to the lake and the diluted mixture is then introduced into the lake on a daily basis.

Regular dosing is done for a period of time depending on the size of the lake and according to him the lake is cleared of algal blooms, weeds, mosquitoes, etc, in this time period.

SOURCE

Taxonomy

• Lake Management