Foaming of Bengaluru lake matter of serious concern: CSE

Taking note of the recent foaming of lake Varthur in Bengaluru, a green body on Sunday warned that such a phenomenon was a "serious" threat to the country's wetlands including those in Delhi-NCR, and called for increased community participation for its management.

Varthur lake, considered one of the biggest water bodies in the city, has been filled with a pile of froth after recent rains mixed with untreated sewage were let out into it. In a statement, Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) said that the foam is the result of having high content of ammonia and phosphate and very low dissolved oxygen in the lake water, caused by untreated sewage flowing into it.

"The city's as well as urban India's wetlands were under serious threat," Sushmita Sengupta, deputy programme manager with CSE's water team, said. "Delhi-NCR and many other cities across the country face similar foaming in their rivers and other wetlands on a regular basis," she added.

As per a CSE research, untreated sewage and industrial waste from much of Bengaluru city flows into Varthur lake, leaving it extremely polluted. The green body said that even though the environment ministry has issued rules for conservation and management of wetlands under the provisions of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 and the Wetlands (Management and Conservation) Rules, 2010, the discharge is "not" being monitored across water bodies throughout the country.

"There is a plethora of acts and policies which indirectly talk about the protection and conservation of wetlands. But these wetland protection rules do not have teeth. Moreover, the wetland which is protected is identified by the state government. "If a wetland is overlooked by the state government, there is no mechanism except going to court," Sengupta said.

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