Flood and froth, Bengaluru drowns in apathy

Bengaluru: The IT capital's recurring nightmare of its lakes and waterbodies frothing, spewing toxic foam, returned to haunt residents on Tuesday as streets turned into lakes and lakes overflowed, flooding major parts of the city for the second consecutive day.  With parts of the city receiving upto 20.6 cm of rain so far in September alone, nine lakes have overflowed over the last couple of days, inundating several areas while the frothing Bellandur Lake has begun to spout even more foam, engulfing the roads around it, much to the dismay of the locals. 
Some experts are raising questions on whether fresh new construction work that blocks two canals, one to Yemlur that could have allowed the water to flow out have been blocked, but this could not be independently confirmed. 

Ms Sonali Singh, a resident of Bellandur and a member of Bellandur Rising regrets that although the lake is "crying for help", the government is not taking the problem seriously enough.  "Jokes have been made about the lake nationally, likening its froth to snow and so on. But this is a serious matter and the government is only trying to hoodwink people by the measures it has taken so far to deal with it," she said, echoing other residents in the area.  Although a few months ago, Deputy Chief Minister, G. Parameshwar, who is also Bengaluru Development Minister, had on a visit to the lake promised to revive it,  nothing much has changed, point out the local residents. And despite the Rs 50 crore allotted for its rejuvenation in the state budget, only a trial run of its sluice gate had taken place, nothing more, they note. 

"The solution is to treat the sewage. The government has ignored the recommendations of experts, who have looked into Bellandur's pollution," Ms Singh said, regretfully.  The people of Bellandur said they have been waiting to meet the Deputy CM for the past couple of months to air their problems, but haven't been able to set up a meeting. While the sewage treatment plant for the lake, expected to be ready by 2020, after the Kolar fiasco, the farming community and many Bengalureans are not sure it will achieve the purpose either.