The Hindu : Other States / Jammu & Kashmir News : Mufti for improving Dal Lake's health

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, May 20, 2004

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Other States - Jammu & Kashmir

Mufti for improving Dal Lake's health

SRINAGAR, MAY 19. Calling the world famous Dal Lake an icon of Kashmir tourism, the Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, today emphasized on removing encroachment from the lake and improving its health by adopting modern scientific measures.

``The lake is an icon of Kashmir tourism whose health was equally of great importance to the ecological balance of the Himalayan province,'' Mr. Sayeed said and underscored the importance of cleaning the lake and restoring it to earlier status.

He called for mandatory installation of floating septic tanks by houseboat owners living on the lake to check flow of harmful domestic waste into it.

Chairing a high level meeting convened to review the works of lake including the sewerage treatment plant, Mr. Sayeed expressed concern over the encroachment on the water body and asked the concerned authorities to take effective and urgent measures to remove these.

While rehabilitation and the resettlement of the people living on the lake should be speeded up, no further encroachment must take place under any circumstances, the Chief Minister said.

He was briefed about the conservation and rehabilitation measures currently underway. He was told that 1197 kanals of watery land including floating gardens had been removed besides 479 unauthorized constructions from the lake.

As much as 18.46 lakh cubic meter land mass was dredged out of the lake retrieving about 0.8 sq km of Dal area. The catchment area treatment was completed in 99 sq km critical area while the additional scope of the catchment management was being taken over, Mr Sayeed was informed.

He was also told that the settling basin on Telbal nallah had helped arrest of 80,000 tons of inflowing silt and sediment to the lake. The nallah Amir Khan, an outflow channel of the lake had been improved to enhance its carrying capacity from 150 cusecs to 1330 cusecs. The dredging had shown 40 per cent increase in transparency of water and 30 per cent reduction in nutrient build up.

Chairman of Lakes and Waterways Development Authority (LAWDA), Tanvir Jahan, informed the Chief Minister that they had formulated details of project report for conservation of Aanchar and Manasbal lakes and the Jhelum river.

An amount of Rs.112 crores had been spent on conservation of Dal Lake including Rs.21 crore on rehabilitation of lake-dwellers, Mr. Jehan added.

PTI

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Mufti for improving Dal Lake's health