Telangana: 5 lakes fall prey to toxic foam

Hyderabad: Five lakes fell prey to toxic foam after the rains on Friday. They are: Parkhi Cheruvu in west, Nalla Cheruvu in east, Quthubullapur and Hasmatpet in north and Imbrahim Cheruvu in south.

The new entrant in the league is Hasmatpet Lake near Anjaeiya colony in Bowenpally. The Hasmatpet Lake directly flows to the Hussainsagar Lake.

The situation got aggravated after the rains, taking the foam formation up to 10 feet high. “We shut our shops as the foam flew everywhere,” said Ms Andalu, a resident.

Locals say that the GHMC has been ignoring their pleas to clean the lake. The civic body cleared water hyacinths on Saturday due to Ganesh Chaturthi, but left the froth intact, said Lakshmi Rao, another resident.

Two lakes have severe sewage issues. Nalla Cheruvu and Hasmatpet have seen untreated sewage water flowing in. Pig farms located at Hasmatpet also dump wastes into the lake.

While the authorities have been focusing on the lakes with residential areas, places like Quthubullapur nala and Ibrahim Cheruvu have been facing problems.

"The authorities need to have a coordinated effort otherwise all the lakes would be affected," said Dr Subba Rao, an expert, who worked on restoring the Bellandur Lake.