Sewage is submerging crores in Dorekere

For 28.5-acre Dorekere in Padmanabhanagar, revival seems to be a receding dream.

Residents say things have only gone from bad to worse. Realising this, the BBMP invited the water resources group at the faculty of civil engineering, UVCE, to provide them expertise to clean up the lake. The group is finding this a challenge, just like others who have been involved in the project since 2009.

“Sewage from the neighbouring layouts flows upstream into the lake. This has to be stopped. There is no point in spending money and effort on rejuvenating the lake if polluted water continues to flow into it,” says Dr M Inayatullah, who is providing inputs for the project.

Although a sewage treatment plant (STP) was set up to tackle the problem, its capacity is just 1mld (million lires per day). The quantity of sewage that flows in is 10 mld.

“Water is treated only at the tertiary level. There is more sewage flowing in than the plant can handle. Also, the inlets are not working properly,” he says.

Cleaning up the lake instead of channelling the sewage elsewhere will mean flushing money down the drain, he says.

The completed STP is going through trial runs. It will soon be ready to treat 1mld of water. The remaining 9mld would have to be diverted elsewhere from the lake, a Palike engineer said.

But why was not a bigger plant built so that more water could be treated? Why didn’t the officials assess how much sewage needs to be treated before building the Rs2.15 crore plant? 

Residents have been asking these questions, hoping someone will pay heed.

“The lake cannot handle more than 1mld. More houses are coming up and there is no proper drainage system to channel the flow in one direction,” he says.

Letters were sent to the water board, MLAs and ministers regarding this but there has been no response. At the same time, there is growing pressure to complete the desilting work.

While more ambitious projects were completed in a shorter time and with lesser funds, Dorekere has swallowed up money. There are no signs of improvement. The fence and walking track show there has been activity, but this has not meant much for the lake.

“Rains are impeding work” has been the oft-repeated excuse. Desilting work is suffering after rains came down hard and softened the lake bed, making it difficult for trucks to move around or equipment to be lowered, says the engineer.

“You know what happens when it rains. It is not possible to work fast in such conditions. But we will do it in the next three months. There is just half a metre of silt to be removed,” he said.

The entire project was to cost `1.8 crore. But two years after the announcement of the project, the bills must have already gone beyond that figure, say residents. Those handling the project are not keen on completing it, they add.

“The silt remains. The workers merely scratch the surface and leave. Work is shown as done only on paper,” says Dhananjay RT, one of the members of the Bharat Housing Co-operative society.

Dr Inayatullah is convinced that work on providing drainage to surrounding areas has to be taken up to accomplish the rejuvenation of the lake.

Along with engineering work, there is need to make people aware of what is going on and how they too can contribute.

“There has to be rules to see that sewage and debris are not dumped in the lake. People have to be educated,” he says.