Bear the stink, no one ready to clean Hussainsagar

Hyderabad: While the Hussainsagar has a glittering aesthetic visual effect with dancing musical fountains recently installed for the country's first Formula E Grand Prix event, the stink emanating from the lake continues to be unbearable. Officials say tourists and locals will have to put up with.

Attempts to take up the lake's sewerage treatment appear to have failed, as no one has responded to the bids invited by the HMDA to expand the capacity of the three sewerage treatment plants (STPs) at the lake. The HMDA has proposed to expand their capacity to treat additional sewage flows into the lake, mainly from Kukatpally, Picket, and Balkapur nalas.

Bids have been invited since October of last year, but no agency has expressed interest in taking up the project, resulting in an environment ideal for foul-smelling algae and bacteria to enter the water and forcing residents in the surrounding neighbourhoods to live with the terrible odour.

The authorities are now planning to begin remediation methods, which was halted since it was not producing the expected results.

Authorities have invited global tenders for Rs 10 crore, but only local players have responded. Bioremediation is a method of treating contaminants including water, soil, and subterranean material by modifying environmental conditions to stimulate the development of microorganisms and breakdown the target pollutants.

Officials have now chosen to utilise the remediation technique, in which the water will be tested using external chemicals for neutralisation, which might also stop the odour and improve the water quality of the lake.

In 2019, HMDA had entrusted the bioremediation technique to Matrix Environment Inc. for a six-month term after inviting global tenders. Matrix Environment reportedly began the project in March 2020, and worked through August when the agreement expired and it did not produce the intended results.

According to a senior HMDA official, the municipal authority is exploring remediation to raise the lake's water quality because no one has turned up to take up the STPs project.

Hussainsagar, he claims, will continue to release a terrible odour if the problem is not resolved right away, especially during the summer. The official claimed that the existing STPs cannot reduce odour or enhance water quality with the steady inflows from upstream areas.