Bengaluru: G”I’m unable to get a water tanker to my house/apartment. Please help.” This has become a common message in WhatsApp and email groups across Bengaluru in recent summers. With rising temperatures and lakes drying up in the city, IIIT Bangalore, along with Electronics City Industrial Township Authority (ELCIA), is launching a campaign to protect and revive lakes in Bengaluru.
Planting trees near Mantapa Lake in Jigani
Also, a few agencies have been working towards saving the city’s dying lakes. One of the prominent non-profit organisations is United Way Bengaluru, which has been working in the city since 2008. Its flagship programme is ‘Wake The Lake’, which has till now rejuvenated over 20 lakes.
UWB general manager David Anthonappa told Deccan Chronicle, “We are collaboratively working with the civic bodies, corporates and citizens. We are strongly backed by the state government.”
He said, “When we started in 2008, we were shocked that Bengaluru’s lakes had either disappeared or were in a bad shape. City’s degeneration was stark as reports from the British era stated that Bengaluru had over 900 lakes. But now we had only a few left and that too in a bad condition. That was when we decided to start ‘Wake The Lake’, which was launched with works on Kaudenahalli and Uttarahalli lakes. Now, we have reached 20-plus water bodies across the city. Our team has the complete knowledge of the current state of lakes, ecosphere of the water bodies and the causes and the best remedies for improving each and every lake.”
The United Way Bengaluru has evaluated and analysed the progress of lakes with the help of impact scorecard. Kaudenahalli, Uttarahalli, Devasandra and Kempabudhi lakes are a few water bodies which have had the highest impact score, ranging from 75-86%.
UWB has cleaned the lakes, built amenities, like hygienic toilets, children’s play area and walk paths, and engaged the local communities through various activities and events. It has also enhanced the water quality of the lakes by using new and affordable technologies. The most interesting aspect of it all is to identify, sow and grow plants that help in maintaining the cleanliness and quality of the water in these lakes.
UWB aims to make lasting and effective changes within the city and rural areas by bringing all communities together.
Mr Anthonappa said, “It’s great to see that our team has reached 20-plus success stories, because our journey was not easy. While adopting a lake, our major challenges were illegal dumping of garbage on the banks of the lake and burning of weeds and dry grass ,which were not under our control. But still, our team managed to get handsome results, right from cleaning and engaging local communities to creating awareness about the lakes. UWB has different programmes to help society. We are happy that corporates, community leaders and the government are all coming together to do their bit with us.”
Apart from ‘Wake the Lake’, UWB also focuses on providing quality education, affordable healthcare, sustainable livelihoods, empowering women and education scholarships, which are supported by a number of volunteers.
