Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)

Bengaluru, Feb 18: Normally people use water to douse fire. But the city has witnessed incidents even in the past which went on to prove that lakes can be set afire, thanks to sinful acts of the greedy and unscrupulous people who choose to dump effluents and garbage into lakes to save cost of scientific disposal.

On Thursday February 17, Bellandur lake went up in flames, covering the entire area in the vicinity with thick cloud of smoke. It reminded one of a similar phenomenon witnessed on August 12, 2016. Many had termed that incident as man-made. The current incident went to prove that water can turn toxic and poisonous if unbridled release of waste into it is continued over a period of time. Biomethane build up at the lake caught fire, it is gathered.

Bellandur lake has not been cleaned during the last four decades by the local administration. Factories and apartments lining the tank have been liberally pouring waste into this lake. As a result, silt to a depth of 40 feet has got accumulated in it. The water of the lake is so much polluted that even touching it might give rise to skin-related ailments. Due to the filth that got stored and decomposed here for long, highly combustible biomethane gas got produced, and the lake caught fire, experts said. Scientists say that it takes seven years for waste to get decomposed and biomethane to get produced.

About 40 percent of the waste from the city is getting into Bellandur lake, the largest in the city. The lake has acquired the dimensions of a volcano that might explode suddenly one day, experts have warned. Environmentalist, A S Mallappa Reddy, has warned that unless the lake is cleaned up immediately, a catastrophe that might be many times more devastating than that the Thursday incident, might occur anytime now. Biomethane gets produced here because of accumulation of human excreta and such other things which produce this gas, he added.

The fire which was witnessed at the lake was doused with the concerted efforts of the fire department. But the situation might go out of hand next time. At present, an estimated Rs 800 crore would be required to clean up this mess we have created. Any delay will only see the cost going up and also the danger posed by the lank getting up more grave.

Civic bodies pass buck

Bengaluru, Feb 18 (DHNS): A day after a fire raged for four hours at Bengaluru’s largest water body, civic agencies began pointing fingers at one another.

A thick cloud of smoke rose from the 920-acre Bellandur lake as illegally dumped garbage erupted in flames on Thursday.

On Friday, legislators and officials of the Bangalore Development Authority, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike and Karnataka State Pollution Control Board visited the spot.

BDA officials blamed the BBMP for not stopping garbage dumping.

“The BDA is the custodian of the lake, but it is the BBMP’s job to protect it from garbage dumping,” said Veersingh Nayak, BDA executive engineer, east zone.

He said combustible chemicals had mixed with the garbage and sparked the conflagration. “This would not have happened had the BBMP taken action against those dumping garbage,” he contended.

BBMP officials in turn blamed the BDA. “How are we responsible when they are the custodians? If they could build a boundary wall with a mesh, there would be no dumping. They have no funds to take care of any of the city’s lakes,” a municipal official said.

Civic incompetence

The pollution control authorities are slamming the BDA, BBMP and BWSSB for the pathetic condition of the lake.

Lakshman, KSPCB chairman, said he had issued notices to all three agencies.

“We have also told them to implement the expert committee report on the rejuvenation of the Bellandur lake,” he said.

Officials of the Karnataka Lake Conservation and Development Authority also visited the lake. G Vidyasagar, its chief executive officer, said his organisation was ready to take care of the lake once its boundaries were fixed. The tahsildar has written 13 letters since 2013 to the BBMP and BDA to mark out the boundaries. But nothing has happened, he said.