Bengaluru: Just days after foreign delegates visited the frothing Bellandur Lake and suggested plans to revive both Bellandur and Varthur waterbodies at a cost of hundreds of crores, the BWSSB is quietly working on a simple technology on a trial basis to reduce froth at Varthur Lake.
Surprisingly, the idea has come from Bengaluru Metro Rail Corporation MD Pradeep Singh Kharola, on whose direction BWSSB engineers have started the project near the Varthur Kodi junction since last week.
The 'Siphon Technology', which has been deployed, reduces the speed of sewage water by allowing it to go through a series of inverted, U-shaped tubes.
The technology does not also require mechanical pumps as water flows from a higher level to a lower level. This reduced speed of water flow cuts down frothing, which is mainly due to mixing of sewage and chemical ridden industrial effluents, BWSSB engineers said.
Volunteers of Whitefield Rising said that after the trial project took off, frothing has come down by nearly 70 percent and froth is not spilling onto roads anymore.
Mr Kharola told Deccan Chronicle, “We are trying to reduce frothing at Varthur Lake by using the siphon technology. The project has been taken up on a trial basis and based on its success we will come to a conclusion on how to take it forward."
BWSSB officials are keeping a close watch on the pilot project and once it succeeds, they have plans to replicate it at the infamous Bellandur Lake too.
