Bengaluru lakes: Time to nail Pollution Control Board’s failures

The city’s lakes are dying, the city is withering under air pollution, more than half the city’s people have fallen prey to water-borne diseases and respiratory ailments, some of them chronic.  What exactly has the Pollution Control Board done so far to save our lakes, our air, our city? MP Rajeev Chandrashekar has filed a petition to hold the PCB criminally responsible for the state of our lakes. We have tried a Lake Development Authority, adoption of lakes by corporates, and a dozen other ineffective measures, but the lakes continue to die. Petitions like Chandrashekar’s may be our last hope to hold government agencies responsible for their failures, say Shwetha Satyanarayan and Sangeeta Bora.

Not often do we hear cases of an eight-year-old girl being washed away in an open drain or a lake catching fire. And certainly not often do we ever see a government agency being booked for the lapses. In a first-of-its-kind Public Interest Litigation (PIL), Namma Bengaluru Foundation founder and MP, Rajeev Chandrashekar has filed a petition to make the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) criminally responsible for failing to develop and maintain the lakes in Bengaluru.

While many activists have tried to make the erring officials responsible, the system is not conducive to making an agency accountable for its faults. However, it’s a perfectly welcome move, observes Vijayan Menon, who actively fought the Agara lake encroachments in the National Green Tribunal.

“The KSPCB has a lot of proponent and influential powers and its powers don’t end at making policies and monitoring government agencies. Let’s say it’s just a regulatory body. This means that the KSPCB has powers to give sanctions and clearances to private builders and factories, and also has the powers to cancel the clearances. But so far, the board has not done anything of the sort thus exposing its inadequacies,” he said.

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Mr Menon noted that if a case was filed against an agency or officials, there would be some pressure built on the erring agency and this would lead to better changes. “If the court passes a judgment in the favor of the petition, it would make a head start in the right direction for the agency to act,” Mr Menon said.

Moving court could bring about an interesting outcome, hopes Dr.Kshitij Urs, member, People’s Campaign for Right to Water. He said, “The petition is strategically driven and let’s hope that the court will mandate the KSPCB to co-ordinate with other agencies for the development of lakes in the city.” He makes a startling revelation that some of the KSPCB officials are in tandem with factories and builders who are violating the norms.

“Since the KSPCB is a regulatory body very often it doesn’t have to work along with the BDA or the BBMP. If the KSPCB officials are supposed to inspect irregularities like illegal release of effluent into lakes in an area, the factory staff is tipped off and the officials find no violations. As a result, most of the violations go unnoticed,” he added.    

He cites that most recent illegal burning of garbage has increased in the city but the KSPCB has done nothing in its capacity to prevent such cases. “There will be a positive outcome if the KSPCB is made to act seriously after this case and if they have to work along with other government agencies,” Mr Urs said.

De-silting, treatment of waste water, need of the hour: Experts

Once known for its beautiful lakes, Bengaluru today is making news in the international media for fire in its lakes due to excessive toxic chemical accumulation in the lakes. Experts say the most polluted lakes in the city are:  Bellandur Lake, Varthur Lake, Arekere Lake, Rampura Lake and Kalkere Lake. The government has clearly failed in maintaining the ecological habitat of these lakes as sewage has been continuously dumped into these lakes while the authorities were just mute spectators.

These lakes receive all the surface runoff, waste water and sewage from the neighbouring areas. The pollution levels had increased beyond the lakes’ assimilative capacity. This has led to nutrient enrichment and profuse growth of macrophytes and algae,  which leads to reduced oxygen levels and threatens the aquatic life. Sustained inflow of untreated sewage (due to BWSSB) and effluents (from industries) has contaminated the lakes as the inflow of pollutants has surpassed the lakes’ assimilative capacity.

Urban Expert R.K. Mishra says, “Most of the lakes in the city are now ponds filled with sewage. In fact, we should stop calling them lakes. There is no other way out for the authorities, but to divert the sewage from the lakes. In principle, the BWSSB has accepted that it is their responsibility to clean up the lakes and he should take it up on a priority basis.”

Sanjeev V. Dyamannavar, of Praja RAAG says, “During JAIKA scheme BWSSB had done a survey as to the quantity of water that goes to every locality and sewage released. They have a clear idea, based on that they should build Sewage Treatment Plants (STP). We need investments; the city has grown so has its requirements.”

Experts unanimously believe, in order to change the present situation of the lakes, the authorities have to do the following: First, de-silting needs to be done as removal of accumulated silt will help in the storage of rain water and also recharging of ground water resources in the vicinity. Then treatment of waste water through constructed wetlands and algael ponds. This has to be done through re-establishing interconnectivity among lakes. Other steps: Ban on alterations in the topography and maintaining 30 m buffer around the lake.

What the petition states

MP Rajeev Chandrasekhar and Namma Bengaluru Foundation have (NBF) have filed applications in the Karnataka High Court to implead the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSCPB) and amend a petition previously filed in October 2014. The application states that KSPCB has shown consistent negligence in respect of their statutory duties and in regulating the discharge of effluents from industries to such an extent that the water bodies and the air in Bengaluru have become highly polluted, endangering the health and lives of Bengalureans.

The petitioners seek that the KSPCB be held accountable and criminally responsible for failing to protect the lakes in the city including the Bellandur Lake and proceedings are being initiated against the erring officers. Other prayers in the application seek directions to respondents to ensure the upkeep of all water bodies in the state and ensure that no construction activities are carried out in or around the lakebeds in Karnataka.

Civic bodies have been pulled up by courts

Various city based organisations have approached the High Court to file public interest litigations over protection of lakes and related matters time and again. Based on the merits of these cases, the courts have cracked the whip against civic bodies and authorities concerned over no steps being taken in the matter.

Recently in one such case, it had directed the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) to furnish more details pertaining to steps taken to prevent sewerage water entering into the lakes. BWSSB was told to furnish steps taken further in the wake of earlier high court orders along with direction to the BBMP and Lake Development Authority  ((LDA) to co-ordinate with BWSSB in this regard.

BWSSB had submitted that in most of the 110 villages, recently included in BBMP limits, do not have sanitary facilities and this has led to pollution. It was also pointed out that indiscriminate drilling of bore wells in these places is leading to ground water exploitation and degradation of the lakes. The matter stands adjourned. It may be recalled that a Division Bench of the Karnataka High Court had directed various functionaries of the Karnataka Government and local governments to ensure that District Lake Protection Committees and State Level Apex (Appellate) Lake Protection Committee were set up immediately so that public at large would be able to seek appropriate remedies to stop the widespread encroachment, pollution and destruction of lakes in Karnataka.

In another case, so as to rejuvenate and restoration of Agara and Bellandur lakes, the court had directed Lake Development Authority (LDA) to hold a meeting with various civic agencies such as BBMP, BWSSB, BDA, KIADB and two private firms to discuss and formulate methodologies on the matter. BWSSB was told to take steps towards stopping sewerage from entering the storm water drains that flow from HSR layout to Agara Lake.

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