Residents demand STP at Doddanekkundi Lake

Fed up with the flow of sewage into the Doddanekundi Lake in Mahadevapura Assembly limits of East Bengaluru, residents have decided pressure civic bodies to install an STP and divert sewage from the lake, besides checking encroachments on the buffer zone.

They have recently formed the ‘Doddanekundi Lake Welfare Association’ and have written to the Doddanekundi corporator seeking support to rejuvenate the stinking lake.

“We will conduct clean-up drives every Sunday from the coming weeks. We will weed the lake by roping in vendors. We will repair the park along the lake bund and create a place for community meetings without harming the natural vegetation. We will do this with the support of the corporator who has agreed to it. When citizens act, civic bodies should automatically support,” said Madhulika Kumar, a resident of Gururaja Layout in Doddanekundi.

The residents are demanding that the corporator take measures to install STPs at three lake inlets or at least divert the sewage away from the lake. “But the corporator says the BBMP has not released funds for it. It is too expensive a project for the residents to crowd-fund,” said Akshaya, another resident.

In 2015, the BBMP undertook a Rs 10-crore project to rejuvenate the lake that falls under two wards: Mahadevapura and Vignana Nagar. The renovation project included dredging, building bunds and fencing the lake to prevent encroachment. But the residents claim that the project saw some work such as de-silting and building of bunds and fences and the money allocated was never spent on treating sewage or diverting it away from the lake.

“According to the NGT directive, the buffer zone around the lake should be developed as a green belt. However, it has been encroached by private bodies in some places,” said a lake activist and a resident of Vignana Nagar.

“We requested the BDA to install STPs or divert the sewage away from the lake, but they are not paying any heed to it. They have left the work incomplete and so the residents have come together to restore the lake. We will extend complete support and also pressure higher authorities to release funds for it,” said Shwetha H R, the corporator.