Mumbai: Dedicated research station to monitor Powai lake health

Powai lake, whose water quality has been a major concern, now has a dedicated research station that will not only periodically test its water but also monitor its health intensively. Apart from this, it will also facilitate in helping determine the pollution levels of other water bodies across India.

The research station, named after late Dr MS Kodarkar, who worked for lake conservation, is the brainchild of Maharashtra State Angling Association (MSAA). It was inaugurated on June 5, which is observed as World Environment Day. This also is a first of its kind joint collaboration between MSAA that has the lease of Powai lake, All India Game Fishing Association (AIGFA) Naushad Ali Sarovar Samvardhini (NASS) and Indian Association of Aquatic Biologists (IAAB).

"MSAA has been working towards conservation of Powai lake, and to ensure that we can keep this lake in good health we decided to have a dedicated research station that is located in our office premises," shared MSAA secretary Ali Hussaini.

Stating that this lab was a gift from the angling community to the scientific community as part of the 'Angling for Environment' initiative by AIGFA, Hussaini explained that this association will now encourage and educate anglers to learn to carry out water sampling through videos as well as camps that will be held in various states.

Secretary of NASS Dr Pramod Salaskar, who will be heading the research station and the lab shared that till date he used to collect samples from Powai lake and test it at his home, but with this dedicated lab the work would be even more detailed as several more instruments can be procured.

"We are also open to any angler from any part of India sending us water samples from lakes or ponds and we will test it for free and the data and analysis will be put in a database server that can be accessed from anywhere. This will also highlight the threat to the water body and grade it on basis of least polluted to extremely polluted," Salaskar said adding that this data can also be used by scientists, students or researchers as well as NGOs who are working on water pollution issues.

Meanwhile, even as the research station was inaugurated by former chief secretary Johny Joseph, it has already received the first water sample from outside Mumbai. "Anglers have sent water samples from a pond in Kolkata where a large number of fishes have died. We will soon analyse that sample and send them a report. We are also planning a fresh water sampling of Powai lake as high algal bloom has been seen recently," added Salaskar.