Only clean, treated water for Byramangala Lake from Vrushabhavathi: Minister

Only clean and treated water from Vrushabhavathi River will be released into Byramangala Lake in the coming days, Environment and Ecology Minister C P Yogeeshwara has said.

He, however, maintained that his department is neither permitted nor does it support the controversial Byramangala diversion project undertaken by the Minor Irrigation Department.

Months after the High Court of Karnataka stayed the project, Yogeeshwara visited the 1,000-acre lake on Thursday and declared that only treated water would be let into it.

He affirmed that there is no question of changing the course of Vrushabhavathi River, which some people fear would happen once the project is implemented.

Byramangala Lake, located about 40 km west of Bengaluru, gets most of its water from Vrushabhavathi, which was once a river but has now become a dirty drain.

“The lake is fed mainly by Vrushabhavathi and we are doing everything to clean the river. Only untreated water will be diverted so that the treated and rainwater flowing into the lake remains unpolluted,” Yogeeshwara said, adding that the matter is currently pending before the high court. The minister also assured that only the polluted water from the lake has been diverted for the dredging and deweeding of the lakebed.

In addition, officials have accepted the suggestion put forth by the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) to form wetlands every five kilometres to naturally treat the Vrushabhavathi water until it reaches Arkavathi.

Last year, Deputy Chief Minister Dr C N Ashwath Narayan had directed the BWSSB to use advanced technology to treat the Vrushabhavathi water before releasing it into Byramangala Lake. The Environment and Ecology Department has proposed upgrading the sewage treatment plants located along the Vrushabhavathi Valley at a cost of Rs 1,500 crore for the tertiary treatment of the river’s water.

Every year, 5-6 TMC of untreated water drains into the lake through Vrushabhavathi. Farmers in 19 villages of the Ramanagara district adjoining Byramangala Lake, including Ittamodu, Ramanahalli, Godahalli and Byramangala, use sewage water for agriculture. The lake is not only infested with water weeds but is also rich in nitrates due to high amounts of untreated sewage content.

STP at Jnanabharathi

The state government will set up a tertiary sewage treatment plant on the Jnanabharati campus of Bangalore University through a special order, Environment and Ecology Minister C P Yogeeshwara said, sidestepping the syndicate’s decision.

The university syndicate had earlier rejected the BWSSB’s demand for 10-12 acres of land for setting up the STP. “The syndicate is said to have cited the foul smell from the plant for not giving the land. But with latest technology, STPs would be as clean as any other place and certainly better than the stench present in the polluted river. We will issue an order as the STP is in the interests of the people of Bengaluru,” Yogeeshwara said.