‘Before investing find cause of deterioration of lakes’

The experts and writers have opined that there is a fault in decision making by policymakers in investing crores of money on the rejuvenation of lakes without finding out the exact reason for their deterioration.

Releasing the book ‘India’s Water Futures’ in Bengaluru on Friday, the experts discussed the skewed decisions of policymakers about rejuvenating the waterbodies. The book portrays the emergent ideas and pathways leading to solving the problems of water in the country.

A panel discussion was led by Himanshu Upadhyaya, faculty at Azim Premji University, Sharachchandra Lele, noted writer and others, including the editors and the writers of the book.

Referring to the Bellandur Lake, Lele said the government needs to think in various dimensions before investing money on the lake’s rejuvenation. “One lake is rejuvenated by desilting it, beautifying it, and reducing the contamination by bypassing the sewage. And if every lake is rejuvenated this way, where will the residue of the desilt go? And where will the bypassed sewage go? “ he asked.

The experts also said if there is some depletion in water in a particular river at a particular place, the climate change is blamed but that’s not what it is.

“The groundwater contributes to the flow of water in rivers. There is a scientific interlinking between the flow of water in the river and the groundwater. The water in rivers generally deplete due to excessive groundwater pumping and planting more water-dependent trees like eucalyptus. There are many more factors like this,” added another expert.