Durgam Cheruvu chokes on sewage, will Hyderabad rescue its iconic lake?

Are the dazzling lights of the cable bridge failing to mask the deteriorating health of city’s iconic Durgam Cheruvu? The answer is an unfortunate yes, claim environmentalists and locals who pressed the alarm button after hundreds of fish were found floating on lake’s surface, gasping for air. And some of them were spotted lifeless along its periphery.
When TOI took a walk around the water body it didn’t find the fish — they had to be cleaned by civic staff — but met with several concerned residents who shared how such sights had, sadly, become commonplace.That it was happening because of water pollution, wasn’t tough for any of them to guess.
“I am no expert but one can tell that the water is poisonous,” said Zeeshan Ahmed, a frequent visitor at the park, who uploaded a video showing thousands of dead fish on his social media. “I was appalled to the dead fish scattered around the walkway,” he added.
While civic authorities admit to the crisis, they attribute it solely to flushing of sewage from surrounding homes. “All the eateries are on the outer periphery of the lake; the actual reason is the sewage flowing from the houses that needs to be controlled,” said an official from the Serillingimpally zone of GHMC.
Environmentalists, however, argue that the problem extends beyond that. “There are two Sewage Treatment Plants located at the full tank level of the lake. When it rains, the STPs get inundated with rainwater and mud, disrupting their functionality. The old STP ceased operations long ago, and the new one also failed after the rains,” said an activist working on the issue for a while. According to her, the lack of surveillance around the lakeside has made matters worse.
Incidentally, a recent study, ‘Organic Micropollutants in Durgam Cheruvu Lake’ by Mahindra University and IIT-Hyderabad uncovered the presence of 183 compounds, including pharmaceuticals, herbicides, fungicides, pesticides, hormones, steroids, UV filters, plasticizers, cyanotoxins, and metabolites in the water. The research pointed to the potential harm these pollutants pose to both humans and aquatic life, particularly when combined.
“The rapid urbanisation that took place around the lake, that was once pristine, has left it crying for attention,” said S B Reddy Nakka, another environmentalist.
Times View : Durgam Cheruvu is Hyderabad’s pride. It is, therefore, our collective responsibility to ensure it is in good health. While the authorities concerned must play their part and arrest industrial pollution plaguing the lake, as regular residents we too must ensure that the waste from our homes and industries do not get drained into this water body. Else, it will soon fall off the city’s map.